The Halloween Zine: Movie werewolves and TV xenomorphs
#15: Plus, a serial killer thriller set in Alaska
Hello, Superfans!
It was scream at the screen week for me. And that’s just my day job.
I have a few promising trailers for you. And one that seems light on the premise.
Let’s get into it.
First up, a Halloween (not the franchise) movie update…
“Hocus pocus…”
Jack Nicholson’s Daryl Van Horne, to Jane Spofford, on the idea of witches in Salem
Witches of Eastwick (1987)
More Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus 2 screenwriter Jen D’Angelo recently confirmed she’s working on a script for a third installment.
Hocus Pocus (1993) was a box office disappointment, grossing $39 million. Re-releases brought the haul closer to $50 million and breathed some life into the franchise possibilities.
Hocus Pocus (2022) went straight to streaming, becoming Disney+’s most watched movie and setting a Nielsen record for a streaming movie debut.
The original cast is interested in returning.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production anticipates releasing Hocus Pocus 3 on Disney+, as well, though they haven’t set a date.
Trailer talk
Heretic (2024)
Hugh Grant in a horror movie.
If you’re thinking, “Wait, what?” then catch him in The Undoing (2020) while you’re waiting for this to come out. Grant delivers on moral ambiguity and menace.
He steps that up, big time, in this trailer, which gets unsettling in a hurry.
Yellowjacket’s Sophie Thatcher and The Fabelman’s Chloe East are Mormon missionaries going door-to-door to share their church’s message.
Hugh Grant’s charming homeowner invites them inside to escape the pouring rain. They say they can only come inside if a woman is present, and he assures them there is.
The trust issues develop fast.
One of the young ladies realize he’s lied to them—AFTER he’s left the room, escalating the tension.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse thriller in a strange house with a strange man.
Werewolves (2024)
“What happened? We were attacked by huge f***in' howlin' things, that's what.”
Spoon, a British soldier, explaining what went wrong to Megan during their routine training exercise in the Sottish Highlands
Dog Soldiers (2002)
I talked about Wolf Man in a previous edition. This movie releases less than a month before it. I don’t think it’ll matter.
They’re two quite different-looking movies, and I suspect Werewolves will prove the inferior of the two.
It’s the kind of trailer with a hero shot where the hero says, “Hey! Bite me.” before firing a high-caliber weapon.
Frank Grillo has a long resume playing a tough guy in movies from The Grey to the Marvel Universe. So, street cred, there.
Just not much of a story, here.
The trailer tells us a supermoon that occurred the previous year turned people into werewolves. This year, scientists are trying to stop the mutation.
As scientists are prone to do in these types of movies—and to the titular werewolves’ delight—they fail.
There’s some family stuff interwoven, but this struck me as checking a box rather than compelling.
If I want a campy werewolf movie, I’ll rewatch Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers (2002).
The Frozen Ground (2013)
This Nicolas Cage thriller just dropped on Netflix. Though it came out eleven years ago, I’d never heard of it. So much for no serial killer thrillers evading my radar.
Cage plays an Alaska State Trooper who teams with a young woman believed to be a serial killer’s only surviving victim.
Vanessa Hudgens plays the survivor, and John Cusack, the killer.
Cusack did a memorable turn as a killer in 2003’s Identity, so I’m curious to see his take on a serial killer in this movie.
If the premise sounds somewhat like Kiss The Girls, we’re on the same page.
I watched it yesterday, and a couple of things irritated me. Vanessa’s Hudgens’ character’s choices, for one. And Nicolas Cage’s cold exchanges with her, two, despite his concern for her welfare.
But but but…
I enjoyed it overall. I hung in there because, well, serial killer thriller. And Nicolas Cage acts normal. After Longlegs, I needed that. Never mind that this came well before that.
Cusack gives the movie’s best performance.
Alien: Earth (2025)
How does a teaser trailer that’s all of fifteen seconds long packs a wallop?
When it has the Alien franchise’s story world behind it.
This television series is set three decades prior to the 1979 movie… on Earth. Never mind that Alien vs. Predator beat ‘em to it almost twenty-one years ago.
It stars Timothy Olyphant as… no idea yet. The trailer was human-free. And aside from seeing Earth reflected on a xenomorph, it’s story-free, too.
Looking forward to Waiting impatiently for the full trailer.
That’s wraps this week’s edition.
Next week we’ll be tiptoeing toward the U.S Thanksgiving. If you watched something that made your skin crawl or had you screaming at the screen, share it.