The writer/director behind the 2019 Golden Globe-nominated La Llorona, Jayro Bustamante, is back with another historical-based genre fable in Rita. Deadline reports today that Rita has been acquired by Shudder.

The film will be released on Shudder on November 22, 2024.

Rita follows a 13-year-old “who, while fleeing a neglectful household, is placed in an oppressive state-run orphanage. Rita’s arrival provides a glimmer of hope to the girls inside, who share a prophecy that an angel will appear to release them. Encouraged by one another, the girls plan an escape to claim their freedom and expose the orphanage’s abuses of power. Based on the true story behind one of Guatemala’s most harrowing tragedies — the orphanage fire of 2017, which took the lives of 41 girls — Rita shines a light on the brave orphans whose fight for survival inspired a nationwide outcry for justice and reform.”

Giuliana Santa Cruz, Alejandra Vasquez, Ángela Quevedo, Isabel Aldana, Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kénefic and Maria Telón star. 

Bustamante, no stranger to filtering sociopolitical themes and history through the lens of genre film, went through an extensive national casting call to assemble the film’s cast of child actors.

“Working with Shudder from the beginning felt like the right connection, as I found a distributor that shares the belief that cinema is more than just entertainment or a commercial product,” Bustamante told Deadline. “Since we launched LA LLORONA, Shudder has shown a great ability to handle my films, making them available to viewers through various channels, recognizing that the genre in cinema can be used to generate a powerful, positive, and thought-provoking social impact.”

Stated Shudder’s SVP of Acquisitions and Production Emily Gotto, “We are so proud to continue our work with Jayro, who has proven time and again to be a fearless filmmaker whose dedication to his homeland has put a spotlight on the rich talent and complicated history of Guatemala. RITA again demonstrates Jayro’s deft handling of the horror genre as a catalyst for powerful storytelling, and we can’t wait for the film to leave an impact on audiences.”

Producers of the film include Bustamante, Jonathan King for Concordia Studio, and Gustavo Matheu.

The post ‘Rita’ – Shudder Acquires New Fantasy Fable from ‘La Llorona’ Filmmaker Jayro Bustamante appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The lovable duo Jay & Silent Bob will return in a brand new movie that Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are shooting later this year, and Smith has taken to Instagram this afternoon to share a prop that he had whipped up for the production. It’s titled the “NecroBobicon,” a take on the classic Necronomicon from The Evil Dead that looks to be made out of Silent Bob’s face.

Smith jokes in his Instagram post, “Behold the NecronomiKev – The Book of the Dead Film Careers! Kidding (kinda). It’s actually called The NecroBobicon!”

What’s particularly cool about this prop that will be featured in the next Jay & Silent Bob movie is that it was created by Night of the Living Nick Studios, which is run by a graduate of Tom Savini’s makeup effects school. Night of the Living Nick also worked on Terrifier 3!

“I commissioned @nightofthelivingnick (graduate of the @thetomsavini School) to unearth this ancient, evil tome that features in the new @jayandsilentbob flick @jaymewes and I start shooting later this year,” Smith explains. “The NecroBobicon doesn’t swallow your soul – but legend has it that misuse of the book will leave the reader forever silent…”

We can’t tell if Smith is referring to Twilight of the Mallrats or a Jay & Silent Bob movie that hasn’t been announced yet, but keep your eyes locked on his social accounts for updates.

 

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Stop-motion animation is responsible for some of the most heartwarming moments in the history of film, but even the most ardent fan of Claymation has to admit that there’s something inherently uncanny about puppetry where you can’t see the strings. The very act of bringing an inanimate humanoid figure to life recalls spooky tales of monsters and dark sorcery, so it’s not surprising that stop-motion has also been used as a tool to scare.

And with modern media like The Shivering Truth and Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion reminding us that animation can convey terror just as easily as cartoony laughs, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the scariest stop-motion effects in horror.

For the purposes of this list, we’ll be considering any film that utilizes stop-motion to bring a character to life, be it as a brief photo-realistic special effect or traditional animation.

As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite animated effects if you think we missed a particularly frightening example of stop-motion horror.

With that out of the way, onto the list…

6. Pennywise – It (1990)

Modern television shows often boast blockbuster budgets and film-quality special effects in order to compete with theatrical releases, but the made-for-TV productions of the 90s taught us to manage expectations when it came to bringing supernatural monsters to life on the small screen.

And while we all remember Tim Curry’s performance as the real highlight of 1990’s It mini-series (as we should, with the actor basically carrying the experience on his sexy shoulders), he was aided by a series of clever special effects meant to show off the evil clown’s shape-shifting powers. Personally, I think the creepiest of these effects was the brief use of a stop-motion puppet during the series’ infamous shower scene, where Pennywise reshapes himself to travel through a drain.

Visually, the mini-series isn’t on the same level as the Andy Muschietti adaptations, but the eerie nature of the animation here cements the stop-motion Tim Curry puppet as a memorable moment in claymation history.

5. The Mysterious Stranger – The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)

A criminally underseen classic, Will Vinton’s animated celebration of Mark Twain’s life and imagination is by no means a horror film, but this mostly wholesome experience briefly makes an unexpected detour into disturbing territory when the filmmakers decide to reference Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger – also known as The Chronicle of Young Satan.

Featuring trippy animation and impressive facial work, this single disturbing sequence has largely outshined the rest of the film with its bizarre portrayal of Lucifer and the folly of humankind. That’s why it’s become a staple of scary video compilations everywhere, with some online users even claiming that the scene is so unsettling that the movie must be cursed.

4. Otik – Little Otik (2000)

More of an art-house fairy tale than a proper genre film, Jan Švankmajer’s experimental fable differs from the other live-action movies on this list due to the simple fact that its special effects aren’t actually trying to emulate reality.

Telling the story of a childless couple that adopts a humanoid-looking tree stump only to have to deal with the consequences of the creature’s insatiable hunger, Little Otik makes excellent use of jerky animation to enhance the film’s atmosphere. There’s an unmistakable otherworldly vibe here that could only have been accomplished through stop-motion craftsmanship, and I wish we’d see this kind of thing pop up in more movies.

3. Full-Body Werewolves – The Howling (1981)

Joe Dante’s classic creature feature may have been overshadowed by the other famous werewolf movie from 1981, but that doesn’t make its groundbreaking special effects any less impressive. While Rick Baker and his team were only tasked with bringing a single werewolf to life in John Landis’ film, Rob Bottin had a whole tribe to deal with, making the results that much more impressive.

Of course, the eeriest of the flick’s creative decisions has to be the use of stop-motion in all of the wide shots featuring the werewolves’ full bodies. The technique could easily have felt cartoony and out of place, but there’s something appropriately off-putting about the monsters’ unnatural movements here – which is why The Howling makes it onto this list.

2. T-800 Endoskeleton – The Terminator (1984)

We may take the T-800’s iconic skeletal design for granted these days, but that explosive moment in the original Terminator where it’s revealed that Schwarzenegger’s robotic endoskeleton survived the tanker explosion must have been one hell of a twist back in ’84. And while Arnold’s robotic performance and the gnarly gore effects accompanying it are simply legendary, I think the film’s scariest moments were achieved in an animation studio.

Another case of a filmmaker using stop-motion to bring monstrous wide-shots to life, uncanny frame-by-frame puppetry was the perfect choice to set up the antagonist’s desperate final form. In fact, I’d argue the stop-motion version of the iconic robot is its scariest iteration across the entire franchise, with only the messy Terminator Salvation coming close to competing with its grimy charms.

1. Cthulhu – The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

From Antrum to Late Night with the Devil, I’m a sucker for faux retro cinema, which is why I can’t help but bring up Andrew Leman’s silent Lovecraft adaptation, The Call of Cthulhu. Championed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, this ambitious indie production presents itself as a 1920s adaptation of the short story of the same name, utilizing period-accurate visuals as it brings Lovecraft’s most iconic creation to life.

Granted, the puppet looks a little goofy in clear lighting, but the narrative build-up to the great old one’s reveal makes it an incredibly unnerving moment, especially when you consider that we’re only really watching an insane sailor’s recollection of these events – not necessarily what actually occurred. And like some of the other movies on this list, the creature’s unnatural movements only add to the eldritch horror.

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Beginning in March 2022, Ti West and Mia Goth have unfolded a decades-spanning saga with what’s commonly referred to as the “X Trilogy,” which of course kicked off with 1970s-set slasher X and continued with the 1918-set prequel Pearl and now the 1980s-set MaXXXine.

It’s of course extremely uncommon to get an entire trilogy of movies in just over two years, but what’s also incredibly unique about Ti West’s trilogy is that each film is a completely different beast altogether. The movies may not be massive box office hits but they’ve damn sure made their mark on pop culture, and they’ve even caught the attention of an all-time cinema great.

In a letter to The New York Times, Martin Scorsese has expressed his appreciation for what Ti West has been able to accomplish with the X Trilogy, and he seems particularly impressed by the way each movie in the trilogy represents “a different type of horror, related to different eras in American moviemaking.”

In Scorsese’s own words, X represents “the ’70s, the slasher era,” while Pearl represents the “’50s melodrama in vivid saturated color.” As for this year’s MaXXXine, the final installment in the trilogy reflects 1980s Hollywood, which Scorsese describes as “rancid” and “desperate.”

The three movies, Scorsese goes on to explain, collectively tell “three linked stories set within three different moments in movie culture, reflecting back on the greater culture.”

The New York Times sums up the gist of Martin Scorsese’s letter as follows, “By smuggling thoroughly modern ideas into films that were also steeped in the aesthetics of the past, Scorsese thought, West had done something bold and thoroughly cinematic.”

MaXXXine is now playing in theaters nationwide. It’s been advertised as the final installment in the Maxine/Pearl saga, but Ti West did recently tease a “weird idea” for another installment.

We’re up for it. And we’re thinking Martin Scorsese probably is too.

‘Pearl’

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Based on DC’s acclaimed graphic novel, Watchmen: Chapter I is the first film in a two part animated adaptation from Warner Bros. Animation and Paramount, and IGN lets us know this afternoon that it’s headed to Digital on August 13 and physical media August 27.

IGN previews, “The animated feature is a faithful adaptation of the groundbreaking graphic novel series by writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons, which redefined the superhero genre when it debuted in the mid-1980s.”

Here’s the official synopsis for the film from director Brandon Vietti…

“In an alternate world history set in 1985, the murder of a government-sponsored superhero draws his outlawed colleagues out of retirement and into a mystery that threatens to upend their personal lives and the world itself.”

The voice cast includes Matthew Rhys (Dan Dreiberg, Nite Owl), Katee Sackhoff (Laurie Juspeczyk, Silk Spectre), Titus Welliver (Rorschach, Walter Kovacs), Troy Baker (Adrian Veidt, Ozymandias), Adrienne Barbeau (Sally Jupiter, Silk Spectre), Corey Burton (Captain Metropolis), Michael Cerveris (Jonathan Osterman, Dr. Manhattan), Jeffrey Combs (Edgar Jacobi, Moloch), Grey DeLisle, Kelly Hu, John Marshall Jones (Hooded Justice), Max Koch, Phil LaMarr, Yuri Lowenthal (Wally Weaver), Geoff Pierson (Hollis Mason, Nite Owl), Dwight Schultz, Jason Spisak, Kari Wahlgren (Janey Slater), and Rick D. Wasserman (Edward Blake, The Comedian).

Head over to IGN to learn more and look for Watchmen: Chapter II later this year.

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