We told you earlier this year about Stiletto, an upcoming horror movie from director Samuel Gonzalez Jr. (The Retaliators) that’s being described as a throwback to the early slashers of the 1980s. We now have an exclusive first look at the film’s villain, “The Stiletto Killer.”

The killer’s mask was created by Jason Baker, famous for designing the mask that Ethan Hawke wore in The Black Phone, and owner of Callosum FX Studios, which is the creative brainchild of legendary special effects master Tom Savini and renowned artist and effects creator Jason Baker himself.

Baker tells Bloody Disgusting in a statement, “Creating the killer’s mask for Samuel Gonzalez Jr. & Gigi Gustin on Stiletto was an absolute blast. I personally drew so much inspiration from the script. The film is a morbidly beautiful mixture of beauty and carnage. And that was the mindset we used in the design. Something elegant and terrifying at the same time.”

Gonzalez Jr. adds, “When I was a kid I would venture into the back section of the video store to find the most obscure 80s horror flicks I could find. I was fascinated with the ‘strange and unusual’ but most specifically, the early slasher cinema of that period. Stiletto follows in the bloody footsteps of those films we love so much but also pushes it to the cinematic limit, with memorable kills and a diverse cast of both up and comers and legends alike. It’s a true love ‘obituary’ and we can’t wait to introduce the world to The Stiletto Killer.”

The film’s cast includes AEW pro wrestling star Stephon ‘Swerve’ Strickland. Strickland can currently be seen in Night of the Missing, now streaming on SCREAMBOX.

Gigi Gustin (Night of the Missing) will also star alongside Charlotte McKinney (Fantasy Island), Colleen Camp (Amsterdam, American Hustle), Pancho Moler (3 from Hell), Tyler Abron (Fear), Stephen Blackehart (Guardians of the Galaxy), Meghan Carrasquillo (Four), Russell Todd (Friday the 13th Part 2) and Mia Challis (FBI: International).

In the upcoming horror movie, “A year after the grisly murder of a local exotic dancer, the victim’s sister, Lyric [Gustin], searches for the serial killer responsible as he stalks and kills his favorite dancers on the night of the anniversary.”

Matthew Hersh is producing Stiletto.

Photo Credit: Sasha Dylan Bell

The post ‘Stiletto’ – Exclusive First Look at Slasher Movie Mask Designed by Tom Savini’s FX Partner appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

One of my all-time favorite movie quotes comes from David Arquette as Dewey Riley in Scream 2 when he says, “How do you know that my dimwitted inexperience isn’t merely a subtle form of manipulation, used to lower people’s expectations, thereby enhancing my ability to effectively maneuver within any given situation?”

There’s something about Land of Dead that just screams this quote at me. Pardon the pun. My point is that George A. Romero’s 2005 zombie return looks on the surface like any B-movie fly-by-night mid-2000s zombie fest. And it’s dressed that way on purpose. Those familiar with the subtle and effective way Romero was able to land haymakers in our faces without ever telegraphing as much as a jab will assume I’m talking about the socio-political nuances of the film. While true that Romero is a master at that, I will leave that to those smarter than myself. What I mean is that as far as pure entertainment goes, Land of the Dead came to the party with more money than Romero ever had to play with along with ingenious ideas that turned the entire zombie subgenre on its head… and it showed up there wearing a tuxedo t-shirt holding a six-pack of PBR’s.

Land of the Dead is way smarter (and better) than it lets on.

The film takes place with the zombie virus already having blazed its trail of destruction across the world. Romero drops us right into the thick of things with a sweet opening credits sequence and some explanation that ALL of the dead are coming back as flesh-eating zombies. And if you happen to be bitten by one? You’ll turn even faster. We’re then introduced to our cast of scavengers at opposite ends of the moral spectrum. Enter John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper.

Hopper plays Kaufman, an uber-powerful, super dick of a villain pulling the strings from his high rise in a barricaded, rich-person utopia where only the powerful and socially acceptable are allowed to live while all others suffer. Leguizamo plays Cholo, who has been doing dirty work for Kaufman for years and accruing his financial empire with the hopes he can move in and be a member of their society. When rebuked, he goes full rampage mode and steals a giant armored vehicle called “The Reckoning” that can move through the streets and cause tons of destruction to zombies and humans alike. Cholo threatens to use the vehicle and its ammunition against Kaufman’s version of Elysium unless he’s given five million dollars for his troubles.

This operation also involves the “good guy” of the bunch, Riley (Simon Baker), his forever loyal and half-burned sidekick Charlie (Robert Joy), and a rescued ex-prostitute named Slack (Asia Argento). Their travels lead them on a very Star Wars-esque quest to subvert each side of this feud and save the innocent people of the city. They are even able at one point to turn the film’s “Death Star” in the “Dead Reckoning” into their own “Millennium Falcon.”

Back to my previous quote, there is a lot more going on here in Land of the Dead than just some zombies ripping off skin in a myriad of disgusting and awesome ways. But there is that, too! A special effects crew that included the likes of Greg Nicotero and Christopher Nelson made sure there was plenty of amazing unrated Romero-worthy blood splatter to go around for everyone. The only complaint in that avenue would be the use of CGI blood splatter sporadically in the film… but the real stuff was still there by the bucket full.

All this and I still haven’t mentioned the most original and entertaining part of Land of the Dead. The motherfuckin’ zombies.

Romero takes the opportunity all these years after his previous zombie film twenty years prior to completely flip the script and have the plot focus just as much on the zombies as it does the humans. This leads to what is, in my opinion, one of the most purely entertaining zombie flicks of all time. At this point in this post-apocalyptic world, as is the case in many disaster flicks, the zombies aren’t really the main concern to the humans anymore… the humans are. The rich and powerful are either using them for paintball and carnival games or have locked them out using various barricading methods and a water-locked area the zombies can’t get to because they cannot swim. On the outskirts, our ragtag crew shoots fireworks into the sky because they’ve learned the zombies are unable to resist their awe and will stare dumbly at them while they either scoot around them or use them for target practice.

Next, Romero asks a frightening question that could be applied to so many things in the real world. He essentially says, “Congratulations! You’ve overcome your demons. Now, what will what’s left of you do when you no longer respect and fear them and they, in turn, evolve?”

As we watch our human beings struggle to exist in any capacity, we also watch the zombies slowly start to take notice of things. How we distract them. How we shoot guns. How we disrespect them. This storyline follows one zombie in particular, credited as “Big Daddy” and played memorably by Eugene Clark. He leads the charge of some of the most memorable and entertaining zombies out there. And it all culminates in a scene that starts hilarious but ends up badass (a running theme for a lot of things in the movie) when he decides to test the water out by dumbly falling into it but emerges on the other side like Jason Voorhees in a Navy Seals commercial along with a shitload of other curious zombies. In a plot development no one could have expected, this singular zombie ends up hunting down the most powerful man in the movie and then outsmarting and surprising him in the end.

With Land of the Dead, Romero had a million smart and thoughtful things to say about different issues between human beings in our real world, and he tossed that all into a blender with fun gore, intentional comedy that feels unintentional, badass characters, action, explosions, and a few jump-scares for good measure. His crowd-pleasing summer event was secretly just as smart as any “elevated horror”-tagged film you can think of.

It’s just way more fun to party with.

The post ‘Land of the Dead’ 19 Years Later: Romero’s Return Was Smarter Than the Average Zombie Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

One of the best horror movies of all time, George A. Romero‘s masterpiece Dawn of the Dead is returning to theaters for the film’s 45th anniversary, we’ve learned this week.

The iconic zombie classic will be celebrating its 45th anniversary by coming to theaters, drive-ins, and even malls across the U.S. and Canada starting on April 12, 2024, including iconic spots like the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania where the movie was filmed!

The team tells us, “The North American gala premiere of Dawn of the Dead took place on April 12, 1979 at the Gateway Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. The film began the official U.S. theatrical launch the following day, eventually rolling out across the country. To honor this special milestone, New Amsterdam Entertainment Inc.® is making the movie available again in theatres & drive-ins for coast-to-coast screenings starting April 12, 2024 and running through to the end of May!

“Hitting over 90 screens across North America, Independent Theatres and Drive-Ins have joined the celebration. While some will only host one exclusive screening event, others will have multiple showings throughout April and May.

“With special assistance from United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, for the first time in decades, many fans will be able to watch ‘Dawn of the Dead’ under the stars at several ozoners like the classic Midway Drive-In in Sterling, IL, and at a special Exhumed Films event at the world famous Mahoning Drive-In in Lehighton, PA!

“The mighty Alamo Drafthouse will be fulfilling thousands of audience requests by unleashing it into 34 of their cinemas across the country and die-hard fans will finally be able to again watch the movie in its premiere city of Pittsburgh, this time at the Row House Theatre! The film will be screened all across North America in historical venues including places like the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA, where the original version of The Blob was filmed in 1958!

“Meanwhile, The Music Box Theatre in Chicago will present special single showings of both the 2-D and 3-D editions later in May! Stereoscopic fans will also be able to catch it in 3-D at the Galleria Mall in St. Louis, MO, where hopefully they won’t have to hunker down to survive a zombie apocalypse! St. Louis is not the only city that is taking the film back to its primary setting; through special arrangement, Cinemark Theatres will be exclusively presenting Dawn of the Dead for One-Night-Only on Friday April 12th…at the MONROEVILLE MALL!”

The full itinerary for Dawn in the Dead in theaters can be found below…

CANADIAN THEATRES (Single Showings):

04/14: Vancouver, BC @ Rio Theatre

05/03: Edmonton, AB @ Metro Cinema @ The Garneau

05/31: Saskatoon, SK @ Broadway Theatre

CANADIAN THEATRES (Running through end of May)

04/12: Hope, BC @ New Hope Cinema

04/12: London, ON @ Imagine Cinema

04/12: Ottawa, ON @Mayfair Theatre

04/12: Montreal, QC @ Cinema Du Parc **IN 3-D!**

04/19: Hamilton, ON @ Playhouse Cinema

04/19: Waterloo, ON @ Princess Original Cinema

05/04: Toronto, ON @ @ Revue Cinema

U.S. THEATRES & DRIVE-INS (Single Showings):

04/12: Monroeville, PA @ Cinemark Monroeville Mall and XD

04/13: Seymour, CT @ The Strand Theater

4/27: Brookline, MA @ Coolidge Corner Theatre

04/20: Rochester, NY @ The Little Theatre

04/26: Savannah, GA @ Lucas Theatre for The Arts

04/26: Wichita, KS @ The Orpheum Theatre

04/27: San Luis Obispo, CA @ Slow Film Fest (Freemont Theatre)

5/15: Iowa City, IA @ FilmScene at Chauncey **IN 3-D!**

05/18: Sterling, IL @ Midway Drive-In

05/19: Sewickley, PA @ Lindsey Theatre (Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival)

05/25: Lehighton, PA @ The Mahoning Drive-In via Exhumed Films

U.S. THEATRES & DRIVE-INS (Running through end of May):

04/12: Tucson, AZ @ The Loft Cinema

04/12: Gardena, CA @ Gardena Theatre **IN 3-D!**

04/12: Los Angeles @ Alamo Drafthouse Downtown

04/12: San Francisco @ Alamo Drafthouse New Mission

04/12: Santa Ana @ The Frida Cinema

04/12: Denver, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse Sloans Lake

04/12: Littleton, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse Littleton

04/12: Westminster, CO @ Alamo Drafthouse Westminster

04/12: Arlington, VA @ Alamo Drafthouse Crystal City DC

04/12: Washington, DC @ Alamo Drafthouse DC Bryant Street

04/12: Miami, FL @ Night Owl Drive-In

04/12: Atlanta, GA @ The Plaza Theatre Atlanta

05/12: Chicago, IL @ Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

5/14: Chicago, IL @ Music Box Theatre **IN 2-D & 3-D!**

04/12: Shelbyville, IN @ Skyline Drive-In

04/12: Boston, MA @ Alamo Drafthouse Seaport

04/12: Silver Spring, MD @ AFI Silver Theatre

04/12: Eagan, MN @ Emagine Eagan

04/12: Lakeville, MN @ Emagine Lakeville

04/12: Plymouth, MN @ Emagine Willow Creek

04/12: White Bear Lake, MN @ Emagine White Bear

04/12: Woodbury, MN – Alamo Drafthouse Woodbury

04/12: Springfield, MO @ Alamo Drafthouse Springfield

04/12: St. Louis, MO @ Alamo Drafthouse City Foundry

04/12: St. Louis, MO @ Galleria 6 Cinemas **IN 3-D!**

04/12: Missoula, MT @ The Roxy Theatre

04/12: Cary, NC @ Cary Theatre

04/12: Charlotte, NC @ The Independent Picture House

04/12: Raleigh, NC @ Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh

04/12: La Vista, NE @ Alamo Drafthouse La Vista – Omaha

04/12: Las Vegas, NV @ The Beverly Theater

04/12: Brooklyn, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn

04/12: Brooklyn, NY @ Nitehawk Cinema

04/12: Brooklyn, NY @ Nitehawk Prospect Park

04/12: Huntington, NY @ Cinema Arts Centre

04/12: New York, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan

04/12: New York, NY @ IFC Center

04/12: Staten Island, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island

04/12: Syracuse, NY @ Exploradome

04/12: Yonkers, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers

04/12: Columbus, OH @ Gateway Film Center

04/12: Tulsa, OK @ The Circle Cinema

04/12: Portland, OR @ Hollywood Theatre

04/12: Phoenixville, PA @ The Colonial Theatre

04/12: Pittsburgh, PA @ The Harris Theater

04/12: Vandergrift, PA @ Riverside Drive-In

04/12: Providence, RI @ The Columbus Theatre

04/12: Sioux Falls, SD @ Sioux Falls State Theatre

04/12: Des Moines, IA @ Des Moines Film / Varsity Cinema

04/12: Austin, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline

04/12: Austin, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane

04/12: Austin, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Village

04/12: Corpus Christi, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Corpus Christi

04/12: Dallas, TX @ The Texas Theatre

04/12: Denton, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Denton

04/12: El Paso, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse East El Paso

04/12: El Paso, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Montecillo

04/12: Houston, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Lacenterra

04/12: Laredo, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Laredo

04/12: Lubbock, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Lubbock

04/12: Richardson, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Richardson

04/12: San Antonio, TX @ Alamo Drafthouse Park North

04/12: Ashburn, VA, @ Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun

04/12: Charlottesville, VA @ Alamo Drafthouse Charlottesville

04/12: Winchester, VA @ Alamo Drafthouse Winchester

04/12: Woodbridge, VA @ Alamo Drafthouse Woodbridge

04/12: Chehalis, WA @ McFlier’s Chehalis Theater

04/13: Albuquerque, NM @ The Guild Cinema

04/19: Salem, MA @ Cinema Salem

04/19: Jacksonville, FL @ Sun-Ray Cinema

04/19: Santa Fe, NM @ Jean Cocteau Cinema

04/26: Gibson City, IL @ Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In

05/03: Emmaus, PA @ The Emmaus Theatre

You can learn more and grab tickets over on the official “Dawn 45” website.

In the 1978 horror classic, “Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.”

Ken Foree, David Emge, Scott H. Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star in Dawn of the Dead.

Romero’s sequel to Night of the Living Dead, the original Dawn of the Dead ended up becoming the second installment in a six-movie undead saga from the late master of zombie horror.

The post George A. Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Returning to Theaters Across North America for 45th Anniversary! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The past comes to claim its revenge in SCREAMBOX Exclusive horror movie Followers, which joins the Bloody Disgusting-powered SCREAMBOX streaming service tomorrow!

In Followers, “A year after surviving a brutal attack, a social media influencer and her friends find themselves once again in the crosshairs of a dangerous and relentless dark web cult, thirsting for retribution and willing to stop at nothing to get it.”

In this Chattanooga Film Festival official selection, director James Rich and co-writer Zac Hersh imbue the horror genre with timely social commentary. Gigi James, Revell Carpenter, Molly Leach, Jackson Jones, and Michael Bonini star. Rich and Hersh also appear in the film.

Followers joins SCREAMBOX’s growing library of unique horror content, including Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, Here for Blood, Terrifier 2, RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop, Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story, The Outwaters, Living with Chucky, Project Wolf Hunting, and Pennywise: The Story of IT.

Start screaming now with SCREAMBOX on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Prime Video, Roku, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.

The post ‘Followers’ – Home Invasion Thriller For the Influencer Generation on SCREAMBOX Tomorrow! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

There’s an infamous anecdote about a scientist who was presenting a lecture on how earth and other celestial bodies orbit around larger bodies. When he finished the lecture, an old lady supposedly stood up and claimed that the scientist was wrong because the world wasn’t floating in outer space but was in fact supported on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what was supporting the turtle, the old lady replied: “it’s turtles all the way down.”

While this story is often used to explain the concept of an infinite regress, it’s also a great example of how the simulation hypothesis – the idea that the universe as we know it is a kind of virtual reality – is actually much older than the modern concept of computers.

However, it was only with the technological advances of the 90s that this idea became prevalent in popular culture and caught on with general audiences. Obviously, the unprecedented success of the Wachowski sisters’ The Matrix had something to do with this, but Neo’s story was merely the most popular example of a (then) growing trend of simulation-focused cinema.

And while everyone’s heard of eXistenZ and Dark City, today I’d like to discuss one of the more obscure movies about simulated reality, Josef Rusnak’s neo-noir murder mystery, The Thirteenth Floor.

Heavily inspired by Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 novel Simulacron-3 (which told the story of a completely functional virtual city developed for dystopic market research), the film that would become The Thirteenth Floor began life as a passion project by Rusnack and co-writer Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez. Impressed with their work, disaster film veteran Roland Emmerich decided to produce the movie through his German-American studio, Centropolis Entertainment.

In the finished picture, we follow Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) in late 90s Los Angeles as the sole suspect in the murder of his tech billionaire mentor Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl). In an attempt to clear his name, Hall partners with Fuller’s daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol) and his friend Whitney (Vincent D’Onofrio) and proceeds to investigate Fuller’s final project: a virtual reality simulation of LA in 1937. What follows is a mind-bending mystery thriller that has our protagonist questioning everything he knows about himself and the world around him.

AND WHAT MAKES IT WORTH WATCHING?

While I can’t honestly sit here and argue that The Thirteenth Floor is an unsung masterpiece, I do think that it garnered an unfair reputation as a dud due to it releasing a mere month after The Matrix. Sure, the flick doesn’t boast the same level of production value and mass audience appeal as some of its peers, but that’s no reason to dismiss a legitimately engaging story.

Despite the lack of memorable action set-pieces, the fact that the flick isn’t content with simply using the simulation set-up as a gimmicky plot-twist already makes the experience worth the price of admission. You know what the film is about from the very beginning, with Rusnak preferring to delve into the philosophical and theological implications of nested realities as Hall realizes that a mysterious force has been playing God with his life while he does the same with the digital denizens of 1939 LA.

The sci-fi technobabble and general setup doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny (I mean, how does the virtual world look so good in ’99 when we know that three-dimensional graphics from that era looked like amorphous blobs of primitive polygons?), and the pacing can be rather slow at times, but I still think the film is compelling enough to overlook these minor flaws. In fact, I’m not the only one who thinks so, with notable philosopher Slavoj Žižek having publicly defended the film and claimed that it was better than The Matrix when it came to exploring the consequences of the simulation hypothesis.

Personally, a lot of my good will towards the film comes from an appreciation of its meticulously crafted atmosphere. I’m a sucker for classic noir ambience and The Thirteenth Floor delivers in spades even if the effects budget can’t quite keep up with the filmmakers’ ambitions. That being said, I find it easy to forgive some questionable digital effects work given the movie’s computerized subject matter.

Of course, none of this would matter if we didn’t care about these characters, so it’s fortunate that the flick boasts likable character actors like Gretchen Mol and Vincent D’Onofrio to liven up a script that admittedly focuses more on the esoteric elements of the narrative than the humanity that motivates it.

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Despite the concept’s popularity, a majority of scientists agree that the simulation hypothesis is inherently unscientific, as suspecting that our reality is a digital facsimile doesn’t actually change anything about how we interact with the universe. However, there are some dissenting voices who bring up a series of disturbing implications about the idea. For example, exactly how much agency do we have if the entire world is pre-programmed, and what happens to everyone if the simulation is turned off?

It’s precisely this kind of existential thinking that makes The Thirteenth Floor such a compelling experience. Where most of the famous simulation movies involve some kind of power fantasy as the protagonist takes control of their environment, Rusnak’s film prefers to dwell on the helplessness of realizing that everything you know is a lie.

From the main character’s steadily declining sanity to the very notion that someone can take over your body and forcibly turn you into a criminal, there are plenty of disturbing concepts to go around here, especially when you pair these ideas with the film’s murder mystery elements. In act, I’d argue that this exceedingly dreary tone might also have had something to do with the flick’s poor reception at the time of release.

The Thirteenth Floor may not reach the same heights as some of its peers, but that certainly doesn’t make it a bad movie, and I’m glad that it’s developed something of a cult following in recent years. And with the film revealing that most of the story actually took place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to look back on this simulation-based oddity and draw your own conclusions about the nature of reality.

There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.

The post Looking Back on the Horrors of Simulation in ‘The Thirteenth Floor’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.