Last night I attended a midnight screening of The Wretched, an upcoming indie horror that was filmed locally. It was directed by a brothers-duo whose father Bart Pierce did special effects on The Evil Dead. The directors (who also made 2011's Deadheads) were in attendance, along with some of the cast and crew. It's set in a small lakeside town, the kind I grew up in, and concerns a teenage boy who suspects his next door neighbor is being possessed by some sort of witch who is abducting the local children and erasing them from everyone's memory. The movie is extremely well made and has a very unique atmosphere, considering they don't make a lot of movies around here. The cast is all really good, a standout being Zarah Mahler as Abbie. The writing and plot could have maybe been a bit stronger, but overall I thought it was a pretty well-done indie horror. It's also played straight, and is a major improvement over their previous movie Deadheads which I wasn't especially crazy about. The movie doesn't have distribution yet, and this was only the second public screening (the first being at Fantasia last month). I will keep an eye out for release info and share when I know more. More reviews: Bloody Disgusting DreadCentral 28 Days Later Analysis
IFC Midnight has acquired the rights to The Wretched, with plans to release it sometime in 2020. IFC Midnight typically means a Blu-ray release from Scream Factory.
With theaters closed due to the global pandemic, IFC has chosen to launch this in drive-ins as part of a double feature with their other new release True History Of The Kelly Gang. Opens May 1st: California (Sacramento and Montclair) Arizona (Glendale) Florida (Ocala) Georgia (Vidalia) Opens May 15th: Tennessee (Sparta) Georgia (Jesup) with more drive-ins TBA https://www.wretchedmovie.com/
This was fucking awesome. Best horror movie this year so far. Hell, it's better than a lot of the horror movies I've seen the last few years. At first I was afraid it was gonna be yet another one of those 80:s throwback movies, but after that opening scene, which is set in the mid 80:s, it moves forward to the present day. The movie does have an old-school feel though, and it takes the time to let us know the characters, before all hell breaks loose. One of the few movies today, where I really cared about the characters, and wanted them to survive the horror. It's really suspenseful, especially the last 30 minutes, it's edge of the seat stuff. Superb practical make-up and gore FX, great camera work (without any annoying shakycam) and a proper horror soundtrack, that kinda gave me some Evil Dead vibes at times. I hope the movie does great, and I'm definitely gonna get the blu-ray.
Not sure you and I watched the same movie Steel. This one didn't do much for me. The characters were mostly good but the story itself I didn't find very engaging. I also didn't really care for the look of the witch and thought she was more lame than scary.
Yeah, after reading your post I was definitely more eager to see it. Sadly I just didn't work for me. The lead kid was definitely on the boring side which doesn't help. Also the witch looks almost exactly the same as the demon from Insidious 4 which I hate the look of. Seriously, check this out: Also, how can there be any info out there on the witch for the kid to look for? Spoiler: Spoiler One of her main powers is making people forget...
I just have a soft spot for horror movies, with someone finding out that weird/supernatural shit is happening over at the neighbor's house But, damn, I forgot what the demon looked like in Insidious 4, so I didn't notice until now.
The drive-in release strategy seems to be paying off, as this movie has been consistently topping the box office since its release. That said, it has no competition except maybe the Valley Girl remake?
See that's probably part of the problem for me too. I've tried to watch Fright Night a handful of times and I just can't get into it. I wish I liked it more because the effects are sick, especially towards the end. Actually, as I'm writing this I just remembered and will say that The Burbs is one of those "spy on the weird/suspicious neighbor" movies I really enjoy.
I love the original Fright Night (hated part 2 though), but I can understand if you didn't like The Wretched, since it's pretty similar to that movie. Yeah, The Burbs is great. I really need to revisit the movie, probably been a decade since I last saw it. Hope it still holds up
