If anyone can turn Stephen King’s disappointing sequel to The Shining into a decent movie, it’s the director of last year’s surprisingly great Gerald’s Game.
It’s been a few days since Gerald’s Game hit Netflix, and if you’re reading this, that means you managed to avoid sustaining a severe injury from all the squirming and cringing you did during That Scene. Congrats! However, said squirming may have distracted you from a few interesting Easter eggs in Mike Flanagan’s surprisingly effective adaptation of Stephen King’s most seemingly unfilmable novel. Not only did Flanagan manage to sneak in a couple of references for hardcore King fans, but he also tossed in a couple from his own tales of terror.
IT may be the surprise box office hit of 2017, but it’s not the most surprising Stephen King adaptation of the year. That honor goes to Gerald’s Game, Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of what is perhaps the most un-adaptable novel in King’s bibliography — not necessarily in terms of the story’s graphic content, but by virtue of its narrative conceit. Approximately 98 percent of Gerald’s Game centers on one woman and her inner monologue as she desperately attempts to free herself from a dire situation.
How about a new Stephen King trailer to go with this week’s new Stephen King movie? On the eve of IT’s release (read our full review here), Netflix has unleashed the first trailer for Gerald’s Game, the upcoming thriller from Oculus director Mike Flanagan. As any good King fan will tell you, Gerald’s Game is probably the most unadaptable of the author’s novels — and that’s not necessarily due to graphic content, despite the implications of the inciting incident.
It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year…Fantastic Fest 2017 is right around in the corner, and if the first wave of film programming is any indication, this year’s lineup is going to be pretty stellar. The initial roster boasts the usual assortment of intriguing genre fare (like Takashi Miike’s 100th film, if you can believe it) alongside festival favorites and potential awards contenders, including new films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Ruben Ostlund, Martin McDonagh and more — so much more!
Remember Before I Wake? It stars Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth, and Thomas Jane, is directed by Oculus’ Mike Flanagan, and we’ll probably never get to see it. The last anyone heard about it was a trailer that came out over a year ago, following the first trailer that was released a year before that. Release date shuffling and Relativity Media’s bankruptcy combined to form a perfect storm in which Before I Wake was cast overboard into the graveyard of international streaming and downloads on the Pirate Bay.
Unless Game of Thrones is planning a dramatic return for Daario Naharis, our future seems painfully bereft of Michiel Huisman. Or at least it was, as Netflix now sets the fan-favorite star to lead its new series adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House.
Weirdly enough, this week’s only new nationwide theatrical release is…Inferno. Luckily, Ouija: Origin of Evil hit theaters last week, giving thrill-seeking audiences a perfectly scary alternative to watching Tom Hanks solve some puzzles this Halloween weekend. If you’ve already seen Mike Flanagan’s surprisingly solid Ouija prequel, you may have noticed a particularly creepy easter egg lurking in the fictional family’s basement — and if you haven’t seen the film yet (or if you didn’t notice the first time around), Flanagan has confirmed a spooky connection to his previous horror hit, Oculus, which should inspire you to check out Origin of Evil this weekend.