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Since its surprising theatrical run, The Substance has established itself as an instant classic. It showcased incredible horror scenes and brilliant makeup effects and opened the door for other body horror films in the years ahead. Movies like Together have been picked up by major studios after The Substance‘s success, and there will undeniably be more body horror flicks in production because of Fargeat’s masterpiece. While we wait for those movies, let’s check out some of the great horror, comedy, and drama films that both inspired The Substance and will appeal to fans of the movie.

1. American Mary (2012) Directed by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska

While The Substance is a little heavy on its themes around plastic surgery to maintain youth, American Mary never hesitates to make this part of the text. The indie horror film might not feature great performances, but it does nail a campy, hedonistic...

It’s common for stars of blockbuster franchises to turn to independent cinema as their career progresses, trying on new avant-garde roles for size in a complete change of pace. It‘s a seemingly natural trajectory, tread by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood, and, of course, Twilight star Robert Pattinson. A24 anti-heroes and thick-accented Southerners were the roles Pattinson picked following his fame as the diamond-skinned vampire Edward Cullen. The British actor has proved that he’s more than a pretty face and a romantic love interest, donning our screens as space-bound or on-the-run criminals, abusive period officers, and historical figures such as Salvador Dal, Dennis Stock (James Dean’s photographer) and Louis of Guyenne (son of King Charles VI of France).

Unafraid of difficult accents and niche artistic tastes, Pattinson likes a challenge—not to mention range. But the Team Edward-icon...

David Cronenberg has offered up his thoughts on the backlash that the Oscar-winning film The Brutalist was on the receiving end of throughout awards season.

The Canadian filmmaker was at a London Soundtrack Festival talk with career-long collaborator Howard Shore to discuss some of the films they’ve partnered on over the years.

The two visionaries discussed M. Butterfly, Cronenberg’s 1993 film about a French diplomat (Jeremy Irons) who becomes infatuated with a Chinese opera performer, Song Liling (John Lone). Their affair lasts for 20 years, and they subsequently marry, but Irons’ character is unaware or willfully ignorant that Liling is a man.

Cronenberg compared his editing of the film to the criticism surrounding Brady Corbet’s post-war epic when it was revealed that artificial intelligence was used on the film’s lead, Brody (who went on to win the best actor Oscar for his performance), to enhance the accuracy of his character’s Hungarian accent.

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper of Twin Peaks is one of the most iconic TV protagonists of all time. His distinctive appearance, mannerisms, and eccentric approach to investigating the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the eponymous Washington town are all part of why "Coop" is arguably the most famous role of actor Kyle MacLachlan's career. But, even before the show premiered on ABC in 1990, traces of the character of Dale Cooper could be seen in some of MacLachlan's film roles. For instance, both MacLachlan (New York Times) and Twin Peaks co-creator David Lynch (LA Times) have described Cooper as an older version of Jeffrey Beaumont, the protagonist played by MacLachlan in the 1986 film Blue Velvet, which Lynch directed.

But, one year after Blue Velvet, MacLachlan played another character who arguably bears an even greater resemblance to Cooper — one whom Lynch had nothing to do with. That would be Lloyd Gallagher,...

The highly anticipated “Wicked” movie is here, and is finally streaming on Peacock. After a tear-filled press tour and glitzy awards season, Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda took audiences by storm last fall and is destined to do the same on streaming.

The two leading ladies have become true sisters in the rollout of the film, even revealing several matching tattoos together. While the duo seem picture perfect for the musical adaptation, a list of stars admitted to being in the running for the powerhouses, including Dove Cameron, Renee Rapp and Amanda Seyfried for Glinda.

Jon M. Chu’s adaptation is chalked full of musical theatre trained actors, here’s your guide to the “Wicked” cast.

Cynthia Erivo in “Wicked” (Credit: Universal Pictures) Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba

Erivo leads the larger-than-life film adaptation as Elphaba. The witch (who was born green) attends Shiz University and is...

In 2019, the Argentinian thriller4x4 made waves with its biting black comedy, sharp and cynical social commentary, and its eye-catching, relevant premise — a impovershed street criminal finds himself locked in a struggle of life and death after breaking into a self-locking, bulletproof, soundproof, polarized and remote-controlled car owned and operated by a wealthy but morally indignant vigilante. Since its release, this film has been remade a few times, each in a different nation. This time, it's the United States's turn. Directed by David Yarovesky and starring Anthony Hopkins and Bill Skarsgård, Locked revisits this tried-and-true storyline, albeit with a surprisingly humane twist, and more sympathetic characters portrayed by two seasoned, versatile horror icons. When petty criminal Eddie (Skarsgård) is down on his cash and luck, he breaks into a particularly fancy SUV — and finds he can't get out. The vehicle belongs to William (Hopkins), an ailing surgeon who is determined...

One is the master of gruesome horror, the other is the composer who scored his most famous films. They sit down to discuss their 46-year collaboration, and the unlikely source of their darkest, most disturbing inspiration

What would having sex in a car crash sound like, as music? What about a gynaecological exam performed by identical twins, or a man’s transmogrification into a grotesque human-insectoid hybrid? These are just some of the challenges faced, over more than 40 years and upwards of a dozen films, by the composer Howard Shore as part of his long collaboration with the director David Cronenberg. Shore, 78, may have won three Oscars for the magisterial sweep of his Lord of the Rings score, but it is his work on the 81-year-old Cronenberg’s notorious body-horror movies, from The Fly to Dead Ringers and Crash, that is most indelible. Those last two films will be screening...

Neca‘s latest wave of Ben Cooper Costume Kids action figures is a monster mash of beloved horror and sci-fi creatures.

Series 7 includes Godzilla, Planet of the Apes‘ Warrior, Jaws, Return of the Living Dead‘s Tarman, and The Fly trick-or-treaters in masks and soft good clothing styled after the vintage costumes from Ben Cooper, one of the largest Halloween costume manufacturers from the 1950s through the ’80s.

Each fully poseable toy stands approximately 6″ tall and comes with a trick-or-treat bag or bucket.

The figures are individually packaged in numbered, retro-style window boxes that pay homage to the original costume packaging.

Estimated to arrive in September, the set of five costs $104.99.

Neca’s previously wave of Ben Cooper Costume Kids — featuring Wolfman, Visible Man, Spooky Monster, Metaluna Mutant, and Clown — is due out this month.

The post Neca’s Latest Ben Cooper Costume Toys Include ‘Jaws,’ ‘Godzilla,’ ‘The Fly’ More appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!

Though a lot of fans remain a little confused about the decision to give this particular character his own solo project, we are getting a Clayface movie from the director of Speak No Evil, James Watkins, with a script from Mike Flanagan.

James Gunn has confirmed that the film will be set in the Dcu, but it seems the original plan was to introduce the villain in Matt Reeves' BatVerse.

You may recall the trades noting that Clayface would have a "significant role" in The Batman II prior to the solo movie announcement, and Batman on Film's Bill Ramey believes the character was indeed going to be the primary antagonist of Reeves' sequel before the idea for his own Dcu film began to take shape.

If you're wondering how a character like Clayface would fit in Reeves' relatively grounded BatVerse, it's worth pointing out that the original version of Basil...

Though we don't have any word on an actor DC Studios might be considering to play the lead role of Basil Karlo in Clayface, a new rumor is claiming that casting is currently underway for a female character named "Caitlin Bates."

There is no one by this name in the comics, and scooper Daniel Richtman speculates that it might actually be Caitlin Snow, aka Killer Frost. Though they are both villains, Frost and Clayface have faced off a number of times in the comics, and also joined forces on occasion.

This is just one theory, of course. A gender-swapped Hannibal Bates, aka Everyman, is also a possibility since the villain is a fellow shape-shifter. Or, Caitlin Bates might simply turn out to be... Caitlin Bates!

Speak No Evil director James Watkins was recently confirmed to take the helm of the project, which is believed to be budgeted at $40 million. The...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

My screening series Amnesiascope hosts the La Clef Revival Collective for a screening of Bye Bye Tiberias this Sunday.

Spectacle

Meanwhile, La Clef presents Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Dernier Maquis on Saturday.

Anthology Film Archives

A Volker Spengler retrospective brings three films by Fassbinder while a Matías Piñeiro-curated series offers Antonioni and Straub-Huillet.

Nitehawk Cinema

A secret Hong Kong film plays on 35mm Sunday afternoon.

Museum of the Moving Image

Snubbed Forever concludes with The Lady from Shanghai and Vertigo.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; eXistenZ, Mulholland Dr., Paprika, Dogra Magra, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas show late.

Roxy Cinema

Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart screen.

Film Forum

Play It As It Lays begins a week-long run; Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman continues...

Short stories have always been prime real estate in the world of adaptations. Largely those are relegated to horror anthology TV shows like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales From the Darkside, or the new Creepshow revival but that doesn’t mean exclusively. You can have things like Lawnmower Man, Eight O’Clock in the Morning, or Children of the Corn that are anywhere from 8 to 18 pages and make a whole movie, or in case of Children of the Corn an entire franchise, out of those pages. Today is all about a short story that probably had more legs than you realized. The Fly, written by George Langelaan and published in 1957 would go on to be part of 5 movies. While 3 of those are cash in sequels, one of them is a somewhat slept on late 50s classic while the other is listed at or near the top of any list discussing remakes.

The Academy Award for Best Makeup is one of the youngest Oscars. It was first handed out in 1981, one year after the Academy took heat for not having a specific award that could recognize Christopher Tucker's remarkable work for David Lynch's "The Elephant Man." Really, though, there had been mounting pressure on the Academy to honor makeup effects since the early 1970s, when Dick Smith helped Marlon Brando become Don Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" and transformed young Linda Blair into a demon in "The Exorcist."

The first Oscar for Best Makeup went to the great Rick Baker for "An American Werewolf in London," and it felt like validation for horror fans the world over. Our genre would probably never be deemed worthy of major Oscars, but here was a category that it would likely own for decades to come, because no one was doing more revolutionary work...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Anthology Film Archives

A Volker Spengler retrospective brings three films by Fassbinder; films by Ozu and Pudovkin play in Essential Cinema.

Museum of the Moving Image

Snubbed Forever continues with films by Bogdanovich and a 35mm print of Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; Herzog’s Nosferatu, Mulholland Dr., Funeral Parade of Roses, Dogra Magra, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas show late.

Roxy Cinema

Saturday brings Susan Seidelman’s She-Devil on 35mm and Wild at Heart.

Film at Lincoln Center

The career-spanning Frederick Wiseman retrospective has its final weekend.

Film Forum

Tales from the New Yorker includes films by Hitchcock, Spike Jonze, the Marx Brothers, and John Huston; Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman continues in a new 4K restoration; Addams Family Values screens on Sunday.

Last year, over 670 films were released in America, and that number has been steadily increasing every year since the end of the pandemic. That’s why I believe the Academy Awards’ limited selection of nominees will never be able to please everyone no matter how hard they try. That being said, it’s awfully clear that the Academy likes some kinds of movies more than others, as horror fans have noticed that genre productions are very rarely rewarded at the annual ceremony.

And while we think there’s a good chance that both Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance might earn their very own statuettes at this Sunday’s event, today we’d like to take a look back on other horror movies that were infamously snubbed at the Oscars. After all, it wasn’t very long ago that nearly all scary movies had to fight to...

The Academy Awards aren’t exactly an objective measure of cinematic quality, but it’s always gratifying to see hard-working artists be rewarded for their output – especially when those artists happen to work in the horror genre. And in honor of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance being nominated for a whopping five Oscars this year, we’ve decided to look back on the small selection of horror movies that have managed to win Academy Awards.

Of course, the lines separating one genre from another can sometimes be hard to define, so don’t be surprised if we end up disagreeing on what does or doesn’t count as a proper horror picture. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own Oscar-winning favorites if you think we missed a particularly good one.

With that out of the way, onto the list…

14. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Often cited as one...

A while ago DC Studios officially greenlit Clayface, a horror-themed film about a struggling B-movie actor who uses a mysterious substance to stay relevant—only to transform into a creature made entirely of clay.

The script was written by Flanagan. Safran compared the film’s tone to the 1986 horror classic The Fly. However, due to Flanagan’s commitments to his upcoming The Exorcist movie (2026) and a planned Carrie TV series, he was unable to direct.

Instead recently, James Watkins was hired to take on directing duties, with filming expected to begin later that year. Reeves is also involved as a producer alongside Lynn Harris through his production company, 6th & Idaho Productions.

Gunn and Safran clarified that Alan Tudyk, who voiced Clayface in Creature Commandos, would not reprise the role for this film, as his voice work was not considered one of his main Dcu roles.

Now industry insider Jeff Sneider...

Jeff Goldblum has earned fame for quite a few of his star-studded works across numerous genres, though the one he seems to have excelled in is the sci-fi and thriller genre. This is especially evident from the excellent chops he displayed in his 1986 masterpiece The Fly, which is even considered his best film to date by many.

Jeff Goldblum. | Credits: The Fly / 20th Century Studios.

But as much as it was loved for the outstanding performance by the actors and an even better storyline, there have also been quite a few conversations about critics deeming it a cultural metaphor specifically for AIDS. And while the reason behind it is pretty understandable, filmmaker David Cronenberg has set the record straight by revealing what it is actually about.

Jeff Goldblum’s The Fly was never really about AIDS Goldblum. | Credits: The Fly / 20th Century Studios.

Set around a scientist who ends up...

We had heard that he was the front-runner, and the trades have now confirmed that Speak No Evil director James Watkins will take the helm of DC Studios' solo Clayface movie.

According to THR, Watkins landed the gig after an extensive search, and met with DC co-ceo James Gunn on Thursday for a final presentation before officially being offered the project.

"Sources say the film is budgeted at $40 million and is a Hollywood horror tale centering on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay."

Gunn will produce alongside Peter Dafran and The Batman director Matt Reeves, with Lynn Harris and Chantal Nong serving as executive producers.

Mike Flanagan penned the script, but was reportedly unavailable to direct due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series and the new Exorcist movie.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards have always been about actors celebrating their peers, but Sunday’s 31st annual ceremony will be a twofold celebration of something else as well: Los Angeles.

“One is kind of a love letter to L.A., post-fires,” executive producer Jon Brockett tells Gold Derby. “And then the other part of it is, how does that work within our room, the DNA of the show? And that is, to us, where do actors come to live out their dreams? And that has traditionally long been Los Angeles.”

For the second year in a row, Brockett is producing the show with Silent House Productions’ Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn for Netflix. The team “regrouped and shifted” a bit after last month’s devastating wildfires. A two-decade-long resident of L.A., Brockett says he realized after the fires “how much I truly love the city, its determination, its resilience,...

John Lithgow has built a remarkable career with roles that prove his versatility as an actor. However, there was one role that could have changed his career in an entirely different way. Long before The Fly became a horror classic, the actor had the opportunity to play the lead character, Seth Brundle. But instead of accepting the part, he chose to walk away.

Jeff Goldblum in a still from The Fly | Credits: 20th Century Fox

At the time, The Fly was just another project in development, but it later became one of the most iconic body horror films of all time. Jeff Goldblum’s unforgettable performance cemented his place in Hollywood, yet Lithgow was initially considered for the role. Looking back, he admitted that there was something about the story that made him uncomfortable.

What made John Lithgow turn down The Fly?

John Lithgow has played many different roles in his long career.

There have been some conflicting reports regarding the upcoming Clayface movie doing the rounds over the past week or so, with Deadline claiming that Jeff Wadlow is in contention to direct, and THR disputing the filmmaker's potential involvement while adding that J.A. Bayona has met with DC Studios about the gig.

Speak No Evil director James Watkins is the one name the trades do agree on, and according to Mttsh, he is still the "clear favorite and top choice" to helm the project.

The scooper also claims the recent rumor that James McAvoy is in talks to play the lead is not accurate, as casting has not begun just yet.

The script by Mike Flanagan is reportedly complete, but he is unavailable to direct due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series and the new Exorcist movie. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.

Based on comments from James Gunn,...

Late last year, the trades confirmed that DC Studios is moving forward with a solo Clayface movie, with The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan on board to pen the script.

The search is currently on for a director, since Flanagan is unavailable due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series and the new Exorcist movie. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.

Based on comments from James Gunn, the movie will be set in the Dcu, as opposed to The Batman director Matt Reeves' "BatVerse."

"Exciting news out of [DC] Studios today as [Clayface], a Dcu story from a script by Mike Flanagan, has been Officially greenlit. Clayface premieres in 2026."

DC Studios co-ceo Peter Safran recently shared a few new details on the Flanagan script, noting that Clayface is indeed going to be a full-on horror movie in the same vein...

A young woman's pregnancy takes an unexpected turn when she discovers she's carrying a bloodthirsty demonic entity in the new horror film The Fetus. Starring Lauren Lavera, Julian Curtis, Amy Arena, and Bill Moseley, The Fetus recently screened at Orlando's Megacon and enjoyed a red-carpet premiere in Los Angeles before it heads to select theaters in partnership with Emagine Entertainment, Mjr Theatres, Malco Theatres, and Santikos Entertainment on March 7th. Daily Dead caught up with writer/director Joe Lam to discuss collaborating with his skilled cast to develop their characters, the two most memorable moments that stand out from the making of the movie, and working with a talented effects crew behind the scenes of The Fetus.

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions for us, Joe, and congratulations on your new film The Fetus! How did you initially come up with the idea for this movie?

Joe Lam:...

When Coralie Fargeat set out to write “The Substance” she wanted to create a film that stayed with the audience long after they left the theater. So, it’s not surprising that when she sat down to write her Oscar nominated screenplay she looked to the films that had left an indelible mark on her.

While on a special edition of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, Fargeat returned with a list of six films she wanted to discuss because they had directly inspired the ideas, story, and the visual and aural storytelling of “The Substance.” During the podcast, Fargeat talked about why certain movies left such a lasting imprint on her and what she learned from each.

“It’s about the phantasmagoria, the fact that you break the rules of reality,” said Fargeat. “You create the reality of your film, and then I think it gives you such a freedom to...

Breaking Badis AMC's popular neo-Western crime drama that follows Walter White's rise and fall as a drug kingpin. Walt teamed up with his previous high school chemistry student who was already involved in the drug-dealing world, but Walt had no idea what he was getting himself into when he wanted to sell his methamphetamine. Throughout its run, Breaking Bad had numerous impactful moments that changed the show's trajectory. The show's creator, Vince Gilligan, had directed many iconic episodes but passed the torch on to numerous talented directors.

Gilligan made it clear that he wanted to provide opportunities for talented people to work on his show. Peter Gould, who wrote many episodes of Breaking Bad, directed a handful of them as well and went on to co-create Better Call Saulwith Gilligan. Even Bryan Cranston, the actor who portrayed Walter White, has directed some major episodes, too. However, many fans had...

When science-fiction and horror overlap, there is running and screaming, the towns people grab pitchforks and torches and the very idea of what it means to be human is called into question. At least, that’s what happens in some of the best movies that dip into both genres.

The age-old question of where the ethical line is in science and whether it should be crossed never ceases to generate new terrors as technology continues to develop. Killer cyborgs and androids? Out-of-control genetic mutation? Radiation-spawned monsters? All of these have have fueled some of our favorite sci-fi horror films.

If you’re new to this subgenre, here are some great movies to start with:

Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (Credit: Universal Pictures) Frankenstein (1931)

The original mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong, with a career-making — and wordless — performance from lead Boris Karloff as the monster. With this and the horror hit “Dracula,...

We have all the time in the world to go over the showstopping implosion of yet another of Netflix’s headlining Oscar ponies. Suffice it here to say that we’re guessing the only “makeup” Oscar voters are concerned with when it comes to the increasingly toxic Emilia Pérez is the concealer they’d like to apply to their ballots to hide most of the film’s 13 nominations. (Or would that be vanishing crème? James Charles we’re admittedly not.)

No doubt there are still some voting for Emilia Pérez here, even though Karla Sofía Gascón’s mug isn’t painted anywhere near as ostentatiously in Jacques Audiard’s film as usually wins in this category. And the same goes for Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, serving up basic “Alexis Michelle intentionally pissing off Michelle Visage” realness in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked.

But when this category includes an option for...

On a particularly gloomy afternoon in Los Angeles, Demi Moore walks into the room, her presence instantly brightening the space. Dressed in a chic yet relaxed ensemble, she carries her designer handbag, —but her adorable, tiny, wide-eyed puppy is not with her.

Moore is no stranger to reinvention. From the breakout success of “Ghost” (1990) to the cultural phenomenon of “Indecent Proposal” (1993), and now to her critically acclaimed turn in “The Substance,” she has had a career that defies Hollywood’s conventional wisdom. But this time, something feels different.

“This whole journey has just been a shock and awe,” she says with humility and amusement. “I had no expectations, so everything has been a surprise, and honestly, that’s a really beautiful place to be sitting in.”

At 62, Moore has just earned her first Academy Award nomination for best actress, a recognition that was both unexpected and long overdue. Her performance...

One of the least-expected, most welcome, and coolest surprises on Star Trek: Discovery was the ongoing, recurring presence of David Cronenberg as the mysterious character, Dr. Kovich, who first popped up in season three of the show. Cronenberg has acted on occasion over the years but is far, far better known as the director of such features as The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash, Eastern Promises, Cosmopolis, and Crimes of the Future. And now he’s back in the director’s chair for The Shrouds, which, nearly a year after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, will open in the United States on April 25.

Sideshow and Janus Films, which will release the film, just dropped a brief synopsis and a short teaser trailer. The synopsis reads, “Karsh (Vincent Cassel) is a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife, he invents GraveTech, a...

How dark is David Cronenberg willing to go? The survey says: pretty freaking dark. Janus Films just dropped the release date and new teaser trailer for Cronenberg's latest descent into darkness, The Shrouds. Written and directed by the legendary creator of The Fly, the long-awaited film was first released in competition at Cannes in 2024, then played at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, and has been sitting on its mystery release date for months. Now, American audiences nationwide will be able to witness the next installment of Cronenberg's sci-fi, horror legacy.

According to Deadline, Sideshow and Janus Films will be releasing The Shrouds, on Friday, Apr. 18 in New York and Los Angeles, and nationwide on Friday, Apr. 25, nearly a year after its premiere.The film, starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, and Sandrine Holt, has been summarized as: "Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower,...

Body horror fans, get ready to be thrilled by this exciting news! David Cronenberg's latest body horror flick The Shrouds finally has a U.S. release date. When Sideshow and Janus Films picked up the U.S. rights to the film back in September 2024, the companies revealed that it would be hitting theaters in the U.S. in spring 2025. That meant anywhere between March and June. Now, we have an official release date for its U.S. theatrical debut!

Before hitting theaters nationwide, The Shrouds will be released on Friday, April 18, 2025, in New York and Los Angeles. Then, on Friday, April 25, the body horror will be available in theaters across the country. Don't forget to mark your calendar because you won't want to miss this latest chilling creation from David Cronenberg.

If you're familiar with Cronenberg's previous work, you'd know that he's in no way new to the body horror subgenre.

The acclaimed filmmaker behind The Fly, Crash, and A History of Violence recently gave fans a tantalizing glimpse of his upcoming project, The Shrouds, and hinted at his filmmaking future.

Presented during an exclusive screening at La Cinémathèque française in Paris, Cronenberg’s latest film stars Black Swan's Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and The Brutalist's Guy Pearce. The director himself introduced The Shrouds and shared heartfelt reflections on his career, as well as a cryptic promise about what may lie ahead.

Related David Cronenberg's The Fly Is Getting a Follow-Up Film

American director Nikyato Jusu will tackle the new film.

The Shrouds has already sparked intrigue among film enthusiasts, thanks to Cronenberg’s reputation for merging the grotesque with the cerebral. While details about the plot remain scarce, the film promises to explore the dark, existential themes that have defined his work. Speaking to the audience before the screening,...

The Cronenberg directors all found an affinity with horror, with David Cronenberg, dubbed the "Baron of Blood" or the "King of Venereal Horror," paving the bloody and provocative path his children would soon follow. With the likes of Shivers (1975) and The Fly (1986), David is often credited with helping invent the genre of body horror, using grotesque physical transformations, viral outbreaks or sci-fi to coax these brutal moments out. Brandon Cronenberg follows in his father's footsteps with films that also dip into the sub-genre of body horror like a sledgehammer, including in Possessor (2020) or Infinity Pool (2023), living up to his legendary surname.

With the exception of how Young Frankenstein scared the hell out of Homer Simpson —

— Mel Brooks’ directorial output isn’t known for being terribly creepy. But his filmography as a producer is a whole other story.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Brooks’ production company Brooksfilms was behind a number of disturbing movies, including David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, the grave-robbing drama The Doctor and the Devils and The Vagrant, a horror-comedy about a yuppie who’s terrorized by an unhoused man.

But perhaps most shockingly, Brooks also produced David Cronenberg’s 1986 body horror classic The Fly. In fact, Brooks ended up saving the project after 20th Century Fox read the script and decided to withdraw funding. Brooksfilms stepped in to finance the picture, with Fox agreeing to distribute it.

As the director revealed in an interview published in Cronenberg on Cronenberg, Brooks was thrilled about having the freedom to...

When we discuss Hollywood flops, it's important to stress that the term "flop" has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It's strictly about the movie's extreme financial failure. Francis Ford Coppola's "One from the Heart" was a massive flop, but, over 40 years later, it's now considered by many to be an artistic triumph (something to keep in mind as we move further away from the wipeout of 2024's "Megalopolis"). Brian De Palma's "Casualties of War" was a costly bomb for the legendary filmmaker, but the movie received rave reviews at the time and still stands as one of the greatest Vietnam War films ever made. And while Michael Lehmann's "Hudson Hawk" might've thrown a dent into Bruce Willis' commercial reputation, people with exquisite taste have come to recognize its anarchic genius.

When a non-franchise movie flops, my initial instinct is to find a way to stick up for it,...

Scanners is the cornerstone of 1980s horror/sci-fi and a breakthrough for the now legendary director David Cronenberg, now the seminal shocker is set a mind-blowing Limited Edition makeover from experts in the field, Second Sight Films, this March. Second Sight Films announce the brand-new Scanners Limited Edition 4K/Uhd …

The post David Cronenberg’s ‘Scanners’ set for Dual Limited Edition release from Second Sight Films ‘So good, it’ll blow your mind’ released 31 March 2025 appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

From All Of Us Strangers to Hundreds Of Beavers to The Zone Of Interest, last year was by all metrics a banger of a year for cinema — just check out our 20 Best Movies of 2024 if you need any further reminder. And as your friendly neighbourhood Empire has pored over what the next twelve months has in store on screens both big and small, we've found a lot of movies that you simply must see in 2025. 133 to be exact.

In a year that's set to see James Gunn's Dcu take flight with Superman; Ethan Hunt take on quite possibly his last impossible mission; Yelena Belova return to our screens in Dark Av— er, Thunderbolts*; James Cameron whisk us away to Pandora in Avatar: Fire And Ash; Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan scare us up good and proper with Sinners; and new movies fly at us from seasoned auteurs, buzzy new filmmakers,...

Once upon a time, saying the name Cronenberg meant you were definitely talking about the director of The Fly, Dead Ringers, Videodrome, and Eastern Promises: David Cronenberg. Admittedly, to this day, he is still the best-known Cronenberg, and “Cronenbergian” can be used in a similar way to the term “Lynchian” (for David Lynch), with both terms describing a certain kind of style of filmmaking sometimes imitated, but rarely equaled. David Cronenberg has been directing for much longer than his son, Brandon Cronenberg, with the 40-year-headstart helping there for hopefully obvious reasons, but the last decade or so has seen the latter Cronenberg releasing several movies that live up to the legendary cinematic surname he has. There are things found within the filmographies of both men worth comparing, but also plenty of differences, helping Brandon Cronenberg combat any nepotism allegations that might be thrown his way.

As it hits Shudder this Friday, Sasha Rainbow’s Grafted is bound to receive a lot of criticism comparing it to another little horror movie called The Substance. That would be fair, as both features deal with a lot of similar themes, from body horror to freak biotechnology to how we succumb to our society’s beauty standards. However, to reduce Grafted to a Substance-like film is more than a little unfair. For starters, the Grafted screen debut is too close to The Substance’s own release date to dub it a rip-off. Secondly, director Coralie Fargeat herself is not shy about admitting to the body horror canon that inspired her own creation. The Substance is full of nods to movies like The Fly and Re-Animator – movies that, no doubt, also inform Rainbow in her film, much like the French classic Eyes Without a Face.

Update: The 4-day-holiday estimates have come in from Comscore, and it looks like Mufasa: The Lion King was able to edge out One of Them Days to take the top spot. Propelled by holiday matinees, Mufasa made $15.5 million compared to One of Them Days‘s $14.225 million. The weekend’s big flop, Wolf Man, clawed its way to a third-place finish with $12.5 million. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 wasn’t far behind with $11 million, while Moana 2 was able to pull ahead of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera with an $8.1 million gross. That was all expected, given that school is out for Martin Luther King Day, so a lot of folks are taking their kids to see movies. Even still, this was one of the lowest-grossing MLK weekends on record, as last year Mean Girls and The Beekeeper proved to be breakout hits. Nothing this weekend even came close to the $33 million...

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Wolf Man.

From an underdeveloped story to an underwhelming werewolf design, there are a few reasons why Wolf Man has been getting such mixed reviews from critics. Wolf Man is director Leigh Whannell’s second reimagining of a Universal Monsters classic after his retooling of The Invisible Man, released in 2020. The new version of Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner as a married couple, Blake and Charlotte Lovell, who drive up to a spooky farm in Oregon to gather the husband’s late father’s things and contend with a local werewolf.

Based on the reviews, it seems that, by the end of Wolf Man, a lot of critics were left disappointed. It has a “rotten” score of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Some publications, like Sight & Sound and The New York Times, gave the movie a positive review, while others, like The Independent...

From creating the “Saw” franchise alongside James Wan to revitalizing the monster-movie genre with his critical and financial hit “The Invisible Man,” Leigh Whannell has been tapping into our fears for over two decades, and his latest star, Julia Garner, believes he’s done it again with “Wolf Man.” Not only that, but that he’s gone further than ever before.

In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Garner shared that Whannell’s “Wolf Man” sources more terror than previous iterations by making the transformation from man to wolf part of the journey. In the film, Garner’s character is forced watch in alarm as her husband (Christopher Abbott) starts to become a beast, both physically and emotionally — like a disease slowly taking hold.

“It’s more scary when it is a slower transition because I still recognized little elements of Chris,” said Garner. “His skin and his hair was changing,...

Typically, MLK Day weekend is a box office bonanza, but it seems that a potential, would-be blockbuster in the form of Wolf Man is seriously underperforming, cratering Hollywood’s hopes for a high-grossing weekend. Indeed, some box office forecasters believed the film would open in the $30 million range (we predicted a much more modest $17 million), but in the end, the film will be lucky to pass $12 million this weekend. In fact, at its current rate, the film won’t even come close to topping the weekend, with Mufasa: The Lion King in line for a solid $16 million gross, while the well-reviewed One of Them Days (which our own Tyler Nichols surprisingly loved), will come in second-place with Deadline estimating $14 million.

So what happened? It seems horror audiences were put off by Leigh Whannell’s grounded take on the classic monster, which ditched almost all of the elements people associated with...

Wolf Man is now playing in theaters in most major markets worldwide, and we're delving into the horror reboot's intense final act while touching on how this latest take on the classic Universal Monster differs from other versions of the terrifying tale.

Spoilers follow.

The movie begins with an overprotective (borderline abusive) father taking his young son hunting in the dense Oregon woods. After an encounter with an unseen creature, the man becomes obsessed with tracking the monster down.

We then jump forward 30 years, as Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) receives a letter informing him that his estranged father has legally been declared dead after going missing in the woods years earlier. Blake convinces his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to accompany him to his dad's secluded house to pack up his belongings.

After swerving to avoid a shadowy figure standing in the middle of the road,...

It’s difficult to single out one decade in cinema history as being the grossest. It’s easy to disqualify earlier decades, back when sensibilities seemed to be a little different and censorship was more widespread. But by the 1980s, at least, movies seemed unafraid to push boundaries, get gooey, and gross audiences out; you can even see it with relatively mainstream movies by this point, like The Thing and The Fly.

Having already tackled one of the biggest villains in Universal Studio’s Mount Rushmore of Monsters, Leigh Whannell returns to battle the beast in Wolf Man (2025). Remaking a classic is never an easy task but, as with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024) and really any picture that’s has been worked and re-worked so many times, it’s less about the painting itself and more about how the artist decides to fill the space inside the lines. For better or worse, Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck find new ground to recontextualize the classic story for a modern audience, using themes and motifs from the contemporary horror playbook in an attempt to make these monsters of yesteryear feel universal once more.

Wolf Man (2025) stars Julia Garner (Apartment 7A) and Christopher Abbott (Possessor) as Blake & Charlotte, a couple on the verge of collapse. In an attempt to rekindle the fire of their family bond,...

Director Leigh Whannell is back with Wolf Man, a new interpretation of Universal’s classic monster that’s out in theaters today. The horror filmmaker takes a vastly different approach to the werewolf mythos, treating lycanthropy as a disease that yields no shortage of body horror.

Wolf Man doesn’t feature one transformation sequence; instead, it plays out over the course of the film and is handled completely via practical effects. Bloody Disgusting spoke with Whannell about the challenges of making a werewolf movie, tracking the multiple stages of transformation, and the film’s unexpected sources of inspiration.

In Wolf Man, the trouble starts when Blake (Christopher Abbott) travels back to his childhood home with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), with a strange creature driving them off the road and leaving them vulnerable to attack. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot “Pierce” and “1941” plastered across Blake’s moving rental truck,...

Geena Davis has had a four-decade career in film and television, and it all began because of the comic way she filled out a pair of underwear in the classic comedy “Tootsie.” Davis was an aspiring model and actress when director Sydney Pollack cast her and she drew huge laughs as Dustin Hoffman’s dressing room mate who doesn’t know he is really a man. She thereby exercises and walks around the dressing room in just a bra and panties causing Hoffman’s character great discomfort.

Davis then turned to television in the cult hit sitcom “Buffalo Bill” for which she even wrote an episode. While beloved by critics and award shows the dark show never found its audience and was cancelled shortly into its run. Davis was then cast as the lead in a sitcom named “Sara” which was supposed to make her the next Mary Tyler Moore.

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Castle Freak Vinyl from Waxwork Records

Castle Freak‘s soundtrack is available on vinyl for the first time via Waxwork Records. The score is composed by Richard Band.

Priced at $30, the album is pressed on “Dungeon Splatter” colored vinyl. It’s housed in a gatefold die-cut jacket with artwork by Anthony Petrie.

Horror Valentines from One Man Riet

Love is in the scare, and One Man Riet has released his annual horror valentines.

Two new sets feature vintage-inspired designs based on Trick ‘r Treat, The Fly, American Psycho, and more.

17 different sets of seven 4×6 cards are available in total. They’re $20 per set, and you’ll save $10 if you get three or more.

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