IMAX stock looks to be rising. The premium theater format has had a big year of special releases on the format, especially with Sinners being filmed with IMAX cameras and Ryan Coogler wanting to get as much as possible out of his picture. In fact, Sinners would accumulate so much word of mouth about the format that it saw a re-release in IMAX theaters earlier this summer after it completed its first run. Other films that capitalized on the format this year included Superman, Thunderbolts*, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and F1.
Deadline reports that the company had seen profits spike and revenue grow last quarter as the company beat Wall Street predictions with global box office up 19% year-on-year and its highest-grossing domestic quarter ever at $143 million. The format, which has 400 screens across the country, delivered about 10% of the domestic opening on seven consecutive IMAX formatted movies this summer, with a 20% share for Sinners, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and F1: The Movie. CEO Rich Gelfond said 10% “used to be the high end of what we delivered on major tentpole releases. Now that’s just business as usual.”
To celebrate, Gelfond says F1 will be re-released on the format on August 8.
Our Chris Bumbray gushed about the movie on the premium screen and couldn’t recommend it enough. He said, “I’d say yes—because like Top Gun: Maverick, they went all out to make F1 as realistic as possible. The movie was conceived, shot, and executed with direct involvement from the F1 world. They used Formula 2 cars modified to look like F1 cars, and races were shot at real F1 events—Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa, and Monza—during off-hours and race weekends. Real F1 drivers were also involved, helping ground the movie in authenticity.
There’s no fake CG driving. The only CGI used was to tweak weather, add virtual extras, or pull off seamless camera transitions. Every bump, gear shift, and G-force twitch is visible in the actors’ or stunt drivers’ bodies—not faked with green screen. And that’s something you need to experience on an IMAX screen.
That said, the movie wasn’t shot on IMAX 65mm film like a Christopher Nolan movie—or parts of Sinners. Instead, it was shot with IMAX-certified digital cameras and custom racing rigs. That’s important because this isn’t one of those movies that gets an IMAX release but doesn’t look much different than it would on a standard screen.”
Plot: Twenty-nine years after winning his first Tour Championship, retired golfer Happy Gilmore returns to the sport to pay for his daughter Vienna’s ballet school.
Review: When Happy Gilmore hit theaters in 1996, I was a dumb high schooler who had loved the idiocy of Adam Sandler’s Billy Madison and hoped for more of the sophomoric shenanigans that film delivered. Reteaming with Billy Madison co-writer Tim Herlihy, Happy Gilmore was a hilariously stupid sports movie with Sandler’s trademark yelling and bizarre jokes wrapped in an underdog tale. Naming his production company after his first two hit films, Adam Sandler has gone on to make dozens of similar movies interspersed with acclaimed movies like Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems. After three decades, Sandler and Herlihy have returned to give audiences the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2, which replicates the heartfelt stupidity of the original movie along with as many cameos as possible from Hollywood and the world of professional golf. While Happy Gilmore 2 is not as good as the first movie, it has its heart in the right place and will please fans who grew up with the original.
Happy Gilmore 2 finds Adam Sandler’s rage-fueled hockey player-turned-golfer a broke alcoholic with five kids after the untimely death of his wife, Virginia (Julie Bowen). Recapping the last three decades using de-aging technology, the film finds Happy struggling to figure out how to send his youngest child, Vienna (Sunny Sandler), to a ballet school in Paris. With the support of former golfer John Daly, Happy rejoins the professional circuit to make some money. Offered a chance to join a competing golf league run by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie) and trying to recover through a support group run by Hal (Ben Stiller), Happy has to find his happy place once again as he competes with much younger professional golfers and the return of Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald).
For the first half of Happy Gilmore 2, I was expecting this movie to be a retread of the first as Happy tries to figure out how to harness his unique skills to win golf tournaments while being impeded by a nemesis on the green. Sandler, as he has done for the last decade, incorporates his wife and daughters into the movie while surrounding himself with his acting friends to turn the production from a job into a paid vacation. Thankfully, Happy Gilmore 2 does not feel like an exercise in cashing a check like many of Sandler’s Netflix projects have. It does assemble a massive cast of actors from prior Happy Madison productions, including Steve Buscemi, Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, Jon Lovitz, Robert Smigel, Nick Swardson, and Tim Herlihy as well as big names like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny, Scott Mescudi, Eric Andre, Haley Joel Osment, Margaret Qualley, and Eminem as well as dozens of professional golfers and athletes from other sports. There is not a single scene in the entire movie that does not boast a recognizable face having a blast playing a silly role.
There are so many jokes in Happy Gilmore 2 that are either references to the first film or actual footage from the 1996 movie that pad the almost two-hour running time of the sequel that it occasionally feels unnecessary. By the time the story takes a turn halfway through, Happy Gilmore 2 shifts from a legacy continuation of the first movie into something completely bonkers. It is worth watching to see the twist that takes Happy Gilmore 2 in a direction I never saw coming, but it works when you think about the ridiculous nature of this story to begin with. I appreciate the effort that went into making Happy Gilmore 2 its own movie, but that comes at the cost of trying to cram in fan service on top of the twist in the plot. Overall, it works because Adam Sandler does not try to play the older version of Happy Gilmore as the same guy he was in the first movie, while still letting his rage come out to play.
Directed by Murder Mystery helmer Kyle Newachek, Happy Gilmore 2 put the clearly substantial budget provided by Netflix into landing the copious cameos that also include Post Malone, Reggie Bush, Ken Jennings, Dan Patrick, and golfers Keegan Bradley, Bryson DeChambeau, John Daly, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Charley Hull, Brooks Koepka, Nelly Korda, Nancy Lopez, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Jack Nicklaus, Corey Pavin, Xander Schauffele, Paige Spiranac, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and Lee Trevino. Of everyone in the cast, the standouts are Benny Safdie, who portrays the great villain Frank Manatee, and Bad Bunny, who may be the funniest member of this cast. Eminem and Marcello Hernandez had me laughing as much as John Daly and golfer Will Zalatoris, who digs into a joke that connects to the original movie. There are also some nice nods to departed actors from the first movie, including Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, Joe Flaherty, and Frances Bay.
Happy Gilmore 2 works far better than many legacy sequels we have seen over the years, but does not distinguish itself from Adam Sandler’s output since shifting from the big screen to Netflix. At times, this sequel feels like it could have been funnier had it been a bit more profane and riskier than what we got, but it is still a fun return to a character that fans have enjoyed for thirty years. Seeing characters reprised by the same actors years later can sometimes be bittersweet, but Sandler, McDonald, and Bowen are good at not playing their characters as if no time has passed. Happy Gilmore 2 will make fans of the first movie smile and does not besmirch the legacy of Happy Gilmore. Golf fans will have a lot of fun seeing their favorites act silly while comedy fans will get some good laughs, but it will never be as good as the first.
Several films screening at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival explore the idea that teen girls are not alright, including The Serpent’s Skin, Foreigner, and Lucid.
Read on for my capsule reviews of all three films.
The Serpent’s Skin
Scripted by Alice Maio Mackay and co-writer Benjamin Pahl Robinson, The Serpent’s Skin follows trans girl Anna (Alexander McVicker) as she moves to the big city. There she meets weird, but decent Danny (Jordan Dulieu) and goth tattoo artist Gen (Avalon Fast), sleeping with and befriending both as a dark, serpentine power begins attacking people. Think The Craft meets Scanners.
Mackay’s bold colour scheme, elliptical editing, and counter culture attitude are all present in The Serpent’s Skin, but the narrative moves at a more deliberate pace than her previous films, which allows the characters time to breathe between set pieces.
Featuring genuine chemistry between McVicker and Fast, the return of The People’s JokerVera Drew as editor, and good special effects make-up by Dom Keeley, The Serpent’s Skin is another solid entry in Mackay’s rapidly expanding filmography.
Lucid
Directors Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall expand their short of the same name, which features Caitlin Acken Taylor as Mia, an artist struggling to find her voice. After taking too much of an experimental drug, Mia begins to remember repressed memories that may hold the key to her artistic block. The only issue? She doesn’t realize that there may have been a reason why she clamped down on the past in the first place.
The punk film was shot on 35 and 16mm film and feels bold, experimental and refreshing. It’s a big swing kind of film that features plenty of hallucinatory imagery, albeit occasionally at the expense of its storytelling. It’s a quintessential example of a “throw things at the wall to see what sticks” kind of film.
Still, Lucid feels daring for what it is attempting to do and the film is never boring. Taylor, in particular, delivers a raw and vulnerable performance as the character who undergoes a journey that even she may not fully be prepared for. Lucid undoubtedly qualifies as a woman on the verge film.
Foreigner
Ava Maria Safai‘s debut feature finds Iranian teenager Yasamin (Rose Deghan) struggling to adapt to life in Canada. She’s been working on her English by parroting soaps, but her father Ali (Ashkan Nejati) and grandmother (Maryam Sadeghi) don’t understand the social pressure she feels to fit in.
Almost immediately Yasi is taken under the wing of predatory “Queen Bee” Rachel (Chloë MacLeod) and her doppelganger followers, but their micro-aggressions suggest a nefarious intent. Are they truly interested in what makes Yasi different or is this merely an attempt to indoctrinate her and force Yasi to conform to the dominant (read: blonde) culture?
Foreigner traffics in familiar tropes when it comes to both its YA and immigrant components, but the film’s depiction of racism and peer pressure is surprisingly subdued. There’s also a culturally specific demonic entity in the mix, but Safai’s screenplay is disappointingly uninterested in exploring both the mythology and the bullying. The movie infers that both the supernatural elements and the high school politics are equally dangerous, but the film is reticent to fully interrogate that argument.
The result is a mildly defanged film, complete with ambiguous ending that feels like a cop-out. Foreigner has promise, but the film needed to push it further.
School’s out, the sun is shining, and there’s no better way to make this summer break legendary than by upgrading your home theater. Right now, you can grab the 65″ Fire TV Omni QLED Series 4K for just $449.99 (regularly $719.99). That’s a massive 38% savings to power your backyard movie marathons, blockbuster binge sessions, […]
Days of Our Lives may have been renewed for two more seasons, but we know one handsome troublemaker who won’t be around to see them. The Peacock soap’s Friday, July 25 episode marked Peyton Meyer’s departure as necklace thief-slash-heartbreaker Doug Williams III. Doug’s final episode began with a well-deserved tongue-lashing from Gabi, who criticized his […]
Universal Products & Experiences and Vixen by Micheline Pitt are have announced a new capsule collection celebrating for Bride of Frankenstein. The release marks the latest addition to Vixen’s official Universal Monsters line, following the success of the Creature from the Black Lagoon collection last summer.
“Few characters in horror history are as visually iconic, or emotionally complex as Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride,” said Micheline Pitt, CEO and Designer of Vixen by Micheline Pitt. “As a lifelong Universal Monsters fan, it was an absolute dream to reimagine these legends through a modern, feminine lens while honoring the legacy of their unforgettable designs.”
The new capsule collection features inspired fashion pieces and prints that blend cinematic horror with contemporary craftsmanship. Highlights include:
A fully sculpted Frankenstein Monster Crossbody Bag created after the iconic Monster
Printed vintagemovie poster sweatshirts and totes using original historic theatrical release artwork from the Universal archives
Vintage souvenir-style knit tops featuring both BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEINand Frankenstein Monster drawn by Micheline Pitt
And the crown jewel of the collection: a replica-inspired BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN Bandage Wiggle and Swing Dresses and matching Bolero Jacket, designed as a modern tribute to the Bride’s on screen costume, and silhouette
“This collaboration brings to life the timeless allure of Universal Monsters with fashion that is both nostalgic and wearable,” said Pitt. “From bold graphics to sculptural silhouettes, this collection captures the haunting romance, tragedy, and beauty that defines The Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster.”
After scaring up a franchise record $257 million at the worldwide box office, Final Destination Bloodlinesis heading to streaming next week!
Final Destination Bloodlines will make its global streaming debut exclusively on HBO Max on August 1. The film will debut on HBO linear on August 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
That means that all six Final Destination films will be available to stream on HBO Max.
In Bloodlines, “Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefani heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle – her grandmother, Iris – and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.”
The film is directed by Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky. The screenplay is by Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor, and the story is by Jon Watts and Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor. It is based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick.
Final Destination Bloodlines stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Rya Kihlstedt, Brec Bassinger, and Tony Todd.
HBO Max is making the streaming premiere an event with a Final Destination movie marathon featuring all films from the franchise on HBO Linear, ahead of the Final Destination Bloodlines premiere on August 2. The start times for each film are:
12:10 p.m. ET: FINAL DESTINATION (2000) 1:50 p.m. ET: FINAL DESTINATION 2 (2003) 3:24 p.m. ET: FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006) 5:00 p.m. ET: THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) 6:25 p.m. ET: FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011) 8:00 p.m. ET: FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES (2025)
Final Destination Bloodlines is also currently the second highest grossing horror movie released here in 2025, with its worldwide total only bested by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which is also streaming now on HBO Max.
We’ve got questions, and you’ve (maybe) got answers! With another week of TV gone by, we’re lobbing queries left and right about Tracker, Dick Wolf show turnover, Trump vs. The View and more! 1 | Assuming Abby McEnany and Eric Graise’s Tracker exits are a result of budget cuts and they don’t add new series regulars to […]
LEGO and “Stranger Things” originally joined forces years back for an epic Upside Down set, and the two iconic brands are coming together once again later this year.
While we wait for “Stranger Things 5,” the final season of the hit Netflix series, LEGO has announced a “Stranger Things” BrickHeadz set featuring four of the show’s characters.
LEGO is bringing together Mike, Lucas, Will and Dustin in BrickHeadz form for one last adventure. The exclusive set is available for pre-order now and will ship October 1.
This LEGO BrickHeadz four-pack set features the four best friends wearing their distinctive outfits from “Stranger Things” Season 1. They’re each set on sturdy baseplates.
The set features 542 pieces. Check out an in-box image below.
The first four episodes of “Stranger Things 5” will premiere November 26, followed by the next three episodes on December 25, and then the series finale on December 31.
Ka is a wheel and The Losers’ Club are once again walking through Stephen King’s The Stand as part of their event series, The Summer of the Stand. In anticipation of the short story collection It’s the End of the World as We Know It, the Losers are re-reading King’s magnum opus with three Twinner book episodes featuring a new ka-tet of Losers.
Today’s episode finds the gang revisiting Book II: On the Border, an intimate portrait of grief and rebirth that’s nestled between two bombastic bookends. What begins with a scattered handful of traumatized survivors ends with two functioning governments. What a concept. Frannie contemplates motherhood in a shattered world, Glen puts long-held ideals into practice, Nadine struggles to embrace her dark destiny, and Harold must decide who he wants to be in this brave new world. King explores both gender and bureaucracy as survivors try not to fall back into old patterns.
Join Losers Jenn Adams, Dan Pfleegor, Rachel Reeves, and Julia Marchese as they head to Boulder, Colorado to found the fledgling Free Zone society, all while their adversary calls his own followers to Las Vegas, Nevada for a much more brutal autocratic world. Why are the meeting notes so polarizing? Does Glen possess a new kind of magic? Who is Trashcan Man ultimately serving and how much of a choice does Nadine really have? They’ll talk about meeting notes, spies, predestination and more as they wade through the middle of King’s nightmarish new world.
Stream below and stay tuned for the final episode on Book III in August. What’s more, the Losers have been running additional content in The Barrens, including a new commentary for Mick Garris’ 1994 miniseries and side episodes in both Dark Tower Detour and Jenn’s Character Corner. We’ll also have interviews with talent and scholars for the new collection.
The cast of Resident Alien is taking to social media to react to Thursday’s news of the sci-fi comedy’s cancellation after four seasons. “It was a hell of a fun playground to play in,” series lead Alan Tudyk posted on Threads. “Laughter through the tears:))).” Corey Reynolds (who plays Sheriff Mike Thompson) also posted on […]
There are some incredible developments happening with the Elden Ring adaptation. Not only will it be made by writer/director Alex Garland, who recently released Civil War, Warfare and reunited with Danny Boyle for 28 Years Later, but he will be doing it with A24. The indie studio is expanding as it dabbles in bigger-budget movies, like Civil War. Elden Ring is a popular video game property with an opportunity for a franchise, so this film is expected to be the most expensive film that A24 will produce to date. The price tag may also have played a factor in why the studio went to Garland with the project.
The Insneider reporter, Jeff Sneider, is now saying that Garland is possibly going to reunite with his Civil War star Cailee Spaeny to sign on to Elden Ring. Spaeny and Garland have collaborated a couple of times on the FX series Devs, as well as A24’s Civil War, which grossed $127 million worldwide. Spaeny’s star rose even more when she starred in Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, which grossed $350 million worldwide. Spaeny is also expected to return in a follow-up for that film. It was recently reported that Kit Connor, who appeared in Garland’s Warfare, will be starring in Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is an open-world action RPG where you play as a Tarnished warrior seeking to restore the shattered Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord by defeating mighty demigods in a dark, mysterious fantasy world. George R. R. Martin, creator of the fantasy-novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, provided worldbuilding for the game.
Peter Rice will produce the Elden Ring movie alongside Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich from DNA, as well as George R. R. Martin and Vince Gerardis.
Garland and A24 had also previously worked together on Ex Machina, Men, Civil War, and Warfare, so it makes sense that he would be the filmmaker they’re entrusting with the Elden Ring adaptation. Not too long ago, Garland said that he was “going to take a break from directing for the foreseeable future,” but that break has never happened.
In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. Last year, they proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise, which is going by the title Evil Dead Burn. In recent months, we’ve been seeing casting announcements: Dune: Part Two‘s Souheila Yacoub, a Swiss former rhythmic gymnast who won the Miss Suisse Romande beauty pageant before getting her acting career started, landed the lead role and has been joined in the cast by Hunter Doohan (Your Honor), Luciane Buchanan (The Night Agent), and Tandi Wright (Pearl). Filming began earlier this week, Buchanan was able to attend a Chief of War event, where the folks from Collider caught up with her. When the subject of the new Evil Dead came up, Buchanan teased that the script is unlike any of the other films in the franchise.
Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema will be giving the film a theatrical release on July 24, 2026.
New Line Cinema and Sony Pictures are co-financing the film, which Vaniček is directing from a screenplay he wrote with Florent Bernard. Sony will distribute internationally, with Canal Plus distributing in the UK and Metropolitan distributing in France. Details on the story Vaniček will be telling in Evil Dead Burn have not been revealed, but he has said that he has complete creative control on his Evil Dead movie, and intends to give it a French twist.
Franchise creator Sam Raimi is producing the film alongside Rob Tapert, while Romel Adam, Jose Canas, Lee Cronin, and Bruce Campbell serve as executive producers. A while back, Bruce Campbell told AV Club, “It’s all about the books now. It has nothing to do with (franchise hero Ash) or any particular character. In Army of Darkness, we first saw three books. So we know there are three out there, and none of them are any good. It’s about: where does that darn book wind up, who gets it, and what happens? But the universe is the same. It’s about innocent people with no special skills having to fight for their very lives. … I think the stories will progress a little more now. We’re going to try and do them more like every two or three years rather than every 10 years. It’s also the first time Sam is working with his brother Ivan to create an overall Bible that will give future writers and directors an idea of where this thing should go next to potentially tie in some of these stories. So I think it’s going to get a little more tied in as the years go by. But because it’s all about the books. It could be a book in the past, a book in the future. It’s yet to be determined.“
Buchanan told Collider, “I’ve watched all the other Evil Deads, I made my way through them, and when I read the script, it’s unlike any of the Evil Deads. I guess the director has his own spin on it, and I was very excited. I really enjoyed the script. The actors are incredible, but I’ll leave it there.“
Sam Raimi made his feature directorial debut with the original The Evil Dead, which introduced Campbell as iconic hero Ash Williams. Ash returned for Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, with Raimi directing the films and the first episode of the show. After seeing a short film directed by Fede Alvarez, the Evil Dead rights holders gave him the chance to make his feature directorial debut with the Ash-less 2013 Evil Dead. Then Lee Cronin was hired to make the Ash-less Evil Dead Rise based on the strength of his own feature debut, the 2019 film The Hole in the Ground. So Sébastien Vaniček being hired to make the next Evil Dead movie right after entering the feature world with Vermin / Infested is very on brand for this franchise.
Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn isn’t the only Evil Dead movie in development. Two months after he was hired to make his movie, the rights holders also hired Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct his own Evil Dead flick. We haven’t heard any more about that one. An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works.
Are you looking forward to Evil Dead Burn, and are you glad to hear that Vaniček is doing something that’s unlike any other Evil Dead? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Director Renny Harlin shot an entire trilogy of Strangers movies at the same time, and while there was a point when it looked like Lionsgate might be releasing all three of the movies within 2024, that idea was clearly pushed aside. The Strangers: Chapter 1 (read our review HERE) reached theatres back in May of 2024, and The Strangers: Chapter 2 won’t be reaching theatres until September 26, 2025. A teaser trailer for Chapter 2 dropped online eight months ago, with the full trailer (embedded above) following a couple of weeks ago. This film was promoted with a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con this Thursday – and details from that panel, which included the screening of multiple clips, have now made their way online, thanks to Deadline. One cool quote: Harlin said that while the first movie was a “home invasion” story, this one is “a town invasion” story.
Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) has the lead role in this trilogy and is joined in the cast of the films by Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), Rachel Shenton (All Creatures Great and Small), Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy), and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Strangers: Chapter 1 centers on Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expanding the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels. Now, we’re on to the next chapter.
The new Strangers trilogy was filmed in Slovakia. Courtney Solomon produced them with Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Charlie Dombeck, and Alastair Birlingham. Andrei Boncea, Dorothy Canton, and Roy Lee serve as executive producers. Rafaella Biscayn, Frame Film SK, Johanna Harlin, Juan Garcia Peredo, and Alberto Burgueno are co-producing. The first film earned an R rating for “horror violence, language and brief drug use.”
Harlin has said The Strangers:Chapter 1 “is close to the original movie in its set-up of a young couple in an isolated environment in a house and a home invasion happening for random reasons.” Then Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?“
During the Comic-Con panel, Harlin said that making this trilogy, “for me as a director, was just an incredible chance to take a movie that starts in a kind of claustrophobic, small setting to a totally different level, take it to an epic storytelling level without sacrificing those quality characters that we established.” The filmmakers were also trying to build Petsch’s character Maya into “the ultimate final girl” by following her through this trilogy, which takes place over the course of several nightmarish days.
Here are Deadline’s clip descriptions: The first clip features Petsch as Maya, running through the woods in the pouring rain when she stumbles upon a road. Clad in only a hospital gown and with a massive cut on her forehead, Maya jumps in front of a car seeking help, but when she gets in the car, she immediately begins to question the motives of the women who have picked her up. When they lock the doors, Maya loses it, before eventually agreeing to be taken to their home. A second scene, which unfolds in one single shot, gave a bit more context for how Maya got into that predicament in the first place. It begins with Maya trying to escape an eerily empty hospital, but all the doors are locked. At first, the cause of her panic is unclear, but soon a masked man with an axe appears in the background, and all confusion is gone. Maya tries to divert his attention so she can escape, but he’s quickly on her tail again as she takes off down a hallway and the scene fades to black. One last piece of footage shared in the room makes it clear that this will not be the last Maya sees of that man from the hospital, either. The short clip features Maya locking herself in the bathroom of an unfamiliar home when all of a sudden an axe comes flying through the closed door. Once he’s made a big enough hole, the stranger grabs Maya by the head and slams her against the door multiple times before ripping out a chunk of her hair. But by the time he makes it into the room himself, Maya has escaped out the window and is on the run again. Petsch confirmed that she lost some of her own hair while filming that third scene. That clip has been released online and can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Harlin had this to say about the hospital scenes: “I think hospitals are scary to begin with. My dad was a doctor, and I spent most time in hospitals when I was little, and I’m still traumatized by it.” He aimed to “make Maya very vulnerable in this environment that is supposed to be safe.“
Are you looking forward to The Strangers:Chapter 2? What do you think of it being a town invasion story? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Producer Courtney Solomon couldn’t say how long the wait between the second and third chapters will be, only that it “shouldn’t be too long.”
Rogue Factor and publisher NACON have dropped in on San Diego Comic-Con 2025 to announce a collaboration with AMD and Dead Good Comics on a 16-page comic book tie-in prequel to the upcoming open-world adventure title Hell is Us. Not only that, but those attendees can check out the demo for Hell is Us at the Restart Gaming Lounge until July 27.
Coming August 6, the prequel digital comic book will chronicle the events occurring right before the beginning of the game and that led to the game’s protagonist, Remi, to abandon his post as a peacekeeper to infiltrate Hadea.
Crafted in collaboration with Dead Good Comics, the comic book features artwork by Andrea Scalmazzi (Dune: House Corrino, Samuel Stern) and Antonio Antro (Lego Batman Magazine, Power Rangers), and is based on a story by Stu Taylor (Crusader Kings III: Many Roads to Power, Octobriana and the Underground, Warhammer Monthly), under the supervision of Hell is Us Creative and Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête.
The cover of the book is from Yanick Paquette (Absolute Batman, Harley Quinn, Justice League Unlimited) and Marcelo Maiolo (Wolverine, Batman and Robin, Amazing Spider-Man). The Hell is Us comic book will be available digitally, for free, on the NACON website.
Hell is Us sees players take on the role of Rémi, a protagonist on a quest to find his origins in a country ravaged by civil war. The country’s almost total autarky conceals a dark secret: the recent appearance of strange creatures reminiscent of ancient headstones and monuments in the region. Armed with weapons specially forged to fight these monsters, Rémi must learn how to defeat them and use his equipment wisely.
Look for Hell is Us to launch on September 4 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC via Steam.
Lee Byung-hun (“Squid Game”, I Saw the Devil) might be tempted by violence after getting the axe in the new teaser for Park Chan-Wook’s pitch-black thriller No Other Choice.
Neon will release the film in theaters this fall after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
No Other Choice is an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s mystery thriller The Ax and follows “a man who is abruptly laid off by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years. He grows increasingly desperate in his hunt for new work, eventually coming to a life-altering decision.”
The novel’s synopsis might give a clearer idea of the madness ahead: “Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off. Eighteen months later and still unemployed, he puts a new spin on his job search — with agonizing care, Devore finds the seven men in the surrounding area who could take the job that rightfully should be his, and systematically kills them. Transforming himself from mild-mannered middle manager to ruthless murderer, he discovers skills he never knew he had — and that come to him far too easily.”
Son Ye-jin (“Crash Landing on You”), Park Hee-soon (“Squid Game”), Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North), Yeom Hye-ran (“The Glory”), Cha Seung-won (Night in Paradise), and Yoo Yeon-seok (“When the Phone Rings”) also star.
Park Chan-wook, the Award-winning Korean filmmaker behind The Vengeance Trilogy, Thirst, and Stoker, co-wrote the script with Lee Kyoung-mi, Jahye Lee (Uprising), and Don McKellar (Blindness).
No Other Choice marks the director’s return to the silver screen after the 2022 romance mystery Decision to Leave, and his second collaboration with Neon after the re-release of Oldboy in 2023.
Watch the stylish new teaser below, along with the poster, which sets the darkly comedic tone and hints at bloody violence.
In the wake of Scream Factory’s 4K SteelBook, Dan O’Bannon’s horror-comedy classic The Return of the Living Dead shambles back to life with a new release from Arrow Video.
Arrow Video brings the 1985 horror movie The Return of the Living Dead to Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD and Limited Edition Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2025.
4K Ultra HD Limited Edition contents include:
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Gary Smart and a preview of the forthcoming sequel comic Revenge of the Living Dead
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
Here’s the full lineup of included Special Features…
DISC ONE – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD)
4K restoration from the original negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless mono audio plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by writer-director Dan O’Bannon and production designer William Stout
Audio commentary by Stout and actors Don Calfa, Brian Peck, Linnea Quigley, Beverly Randolph and Allan Trautman
Audio commentary by actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin and make-up effects artist Tony Gardner
Audio commentary by fans and filmmakers Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths
The Origins of the Living Dead, an archive interview with author John Russo
The FX of the Living Dead, an archive featurette on the special effects
Party Time: The Music of Return of the Living Dead, a featurette on the film’s soundtrack
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, an archive tour of the locations by Sean Clark
The Dead Have Risen, an archive featurette with Calfa, Peck, Quigley, Randolph, Trautman, Clu Gulager and James Karen
Designing the Dead, an archive featurette with O’Bannon and Stout
The Decade of Darkness, an archive featurette about 1980s horror classics
Deleted scenes from a VHS workprint
Theatrical trailers and TV spots
DISC TWO – MORE BRAINS! (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 2017 feature-length documentary about the making of the film, featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew
A Conversation with Dan O’Bannon: The Final Interview
Deleted scenes from the documentary
Return of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes
Resurrected Settings: The Filming Locations Today
Taking the genre that George A. Romero invented and turning it on its (severed) head, Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon made his directorial debut with one of the most beloved horror-comedies of the 1980s: the instant zombie classic The Return of the Living Dead.
Freddy (Thom Mathews) is on his first day of work at the Uneeda Medical Supply Warehouse when his co-worker Frank (James Karen) decides to show off the airtight canisters filled with human remains in the basement, lost by the military long ago. One of the canisters unexpectedly leaks a poison gas and sets into motion a full-scale uprising of the undead, against which warehouse boss Burt (Clu Gulager), mortician Ernie (Don Calfa) and Freddy’s punker friends (including Linnea Quigley) may be the last defense.
Super7 has released its second wave of Godzilla Fun! Fun!, a line of 5″ vinyl toys that launched earlier this year.
The new additions include Burning Godzilla and Destoroyah from 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah along with Godzilla’s 2001 appearance from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
Priced at $22 each, they’re expected to ship later this month.
Fun! Fun! are two-part figures with a cute, minimal aesthetic inspired by vintage Japanese toys. Crafted in premium soft vinyl with hand-painted details, they’re packaged in patisserie shop-inspired window boxes.
Available now, the first Godzilla wave includes Godzilla’s 1989 appearance from Godzilla vs. Biollante, Mechagodzilla’s 1993 appearance from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, and Godzilla’s 2023 appearance from Godzilla Minus One.
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