Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) returns to the world of Stephen King with The Life of Chuck, and Variety reports today that NEON (Longlegs) is “closing a distribution deal” to acquire the film in the wake of it winning the People’s Choice Award at TIFF.

Variety speculates, “The film will likely be released in the summer of 2025.”

Tom Hiddleston plays the title character in The Life of Chuck, based on the 2020 Stephen King short story of the same name. The film just World Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival for its 49th edition, running from September 5–15, 2024.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Rob Peace), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Jacob Tremblay (The Toxic Avenger), and Mark Hamill (Star Wars) will also star in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation, alongside Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) and Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street).

The full cast also features fresh faces and returning Mike Flanagan regulars including…

Mia Sara, Benjamin Pajak, Trinity Jo-li Bliss, Q’Orianka Kilcher, Antonio Raul Corbo, Harvey Guillen, David Dastmalchian, Kate Siegel, Carl Lumbly, Annalise Basso, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Matt Biedel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Michael Trucco, Violet McGraw and Molly C. Quinn.

Flanagan also wrote the script and produces through Intrepid Pictures.

Based on the short story from King’s 2020 anthology If It Bleeds, The Life of Chuck is three separate stories linked to tell the biography of Charles Krantz in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house.

The post Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Life of Chuck’ Finds a Home at NEON appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Want to see Terrifier 3 a few days early? Ahead of the slasher sequel’s release in theaters nationwide on October 11, Terrifier 3 takes over the Music Box Theatre in Chicago!

Part of the Music Box of Horrors: The Dream Child event, Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse’s Terrifier 3 plays at the Music Box Theatre at 9:15pm on Monday, October 7.

Tickets are already on sale and selling fast. Grab yours while you still can!

Music Box of Horrors: The Dream Child runs from October 1 through October 31 at the Music Box, featuring 44 films over 31 days and lots of guests and special events, including RL Stine, Bobcat Goldthwaite, real snakes, Chicago premieres, the only 35mm print of Noroi: The Curse (flown in from Tokyo just for this screening), Joel Potroykus, the original Leatherface mask from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and so much more. Here’s the full event lineup.

In Terrifier 3, directed once again by Damien Leone (Terrifier, Terrifier 2), Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is set to unleash another round of chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

“After surviving Art the Clown’s Halloween massacre, Sienna and her brother are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they’re safe, Art the Clown returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare.

“The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.”

Returning cast includes Lauren LaVera (Sienna), Samantha Scaffidi (Victoria Heyes), Elliot Fullam (Jonathan Shaw) and AEW superstar Chris Jericho (Burke), with Daniel Roebuck set to debut as Santa Claus. Makeup effects legend Tom Savini, Jason Patric, Antonella Rose, Krsy Fox, Clint Howard, and Jon Abrahams also appear.

Written and directed by Damien Leone, Terrifier 3 comes courtesy of Dark Age Cinema Productions. Phil Falcone Produces with Lisa Falcone acting as Executive Producer. Co-producers include Michael Leavy, Jason Leavy, George Steuber, and Steve Della Salla. Brad Miska, Brandon Hill, and Erick Opeka Executive Produce for Cineverse.

Matthew Helderman and Luke Taylor also Executive Produce.

Terrifier 3 hits theaters nationwide October 11, 2024. Grab your tickets now!

The post See ‘Terrifier 3’ Early at Chicago’s Music Box of Horrors on October 7! [Tickets] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The writer and director of slasher-comedy Freaky reunite for Netflix’s time-traveling slasher movie Time Cut, which has been described as “Back to the Future meets Scream.”

Time Cut slashes into Netflix on October 30, 2024.

While you wait for a trailer, find a new image below courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

Hannah Macpherson (“Into the Dark”) directed the film, written by Macpherson and Michael Kennedy (Freaky, It’s a Wonderful Knife) from a story by Michael Kennedy.

In Time Cut…

“A teenage girl travels back to the early 2000s to stop a vicious killer from murdering her sister.”

Madison Bailey (Outer Banks) and Antonia Gentry (Ginny & Georgia) star.

The cast also includes Michael Shanks, Griffin Gluck, Rachael Crawford, Jordan Pettle, Megan Best, Samuel Braun, Sydney Sabiston, and Kataem O’Connor.

Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) produced the upcoming slasher.

The post ‘Time Cut’ – New Image from Netflix’s Time Travel Slasher Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Writer/Director Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot makes it easy to see why the previous two adaptations of Stephen King’s 1975 novel were miniseries. King packs his stories with rich character work and humanity, so much so that the 1979 and 2004 adaptations couldn’t condense 439 pages into any less than 181 minutes of runtime. After sitting on the shelves for years, the new adaptation gets jettisoned to streaming, along with most of King’s text. It’s an adaptation that feels heavily tampered with, gutting all story and character development solely in favor of vampire scares.

For the uninitiated, Salem’s Lot follows successful writer Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) as he returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot for inspiration for his next novel. His arrival coincides with that of shop owner Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward) and his assistant Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk). While Ben reconnects with his old town and its new residents, including love interest Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), Straker sets about helping his master turn the town into a human buffet, transforming them one by one into creatures of the night. Ben will instead find himself aligning with the survivors to fight back before they’re all turned.

There are glimmers of life in Dauberman’s Cliff’s Notes adaptation. A stunning shadow box-like scene of Straker stalking the young Glick brothers (Nicholas Crovetti and Cade Woodard) in the woods, vibrant backlit color making their silhouettes pop, is but one of many visually inventive moments that lend style. The vampire designs add atmosphere, with a stylish use of glowing eyes and crucifixes, and Dauberman deviates from the source material for a fun, action-heavy climax.

This adaptation isn’t afraid to kill its darlings, either, with most of its notable cast falling fast and brutally. The problem is that Salem’s Lot is far more interested in the vampire siege taking root in town, excising any semblance of character development. Most of the residents get an intro scene only to get unceremoniously killed later, and often so quickly that it all fails to make any impact. The central romance between Ben and Susan is so rushed, as everything about this adaptation is, that it falls to young Jordan Preston Carter as Mark Petrie to take charge as the definitive hero. Pullman acquits himself well from the abridged narrative shortcuts, injecting enough pathos to hint toward a much better film left on the cutting room floor, though most of the utterly wasted cast aren’t so lucky. A massive shame when you have William Sadler, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, and Spencer Treat Clark rounding out the roster.

Not even Barlow has much of a presence in this version of Salem’s Lot, despite his monstrous appearance and a few standout scenes highlighting his imposing power and reach. So much is trimmed out of the story that it renders this adaptation a hollower version of 30 Days of Night. That might be appealing enough for those unfamiliar with Stephen King’s story entirely or for those simply wanting a briskly paced vampire siege movie for a Halloween season watch. But for the most part, Salem’s Lot is an empty retelling that thoroughly guts Stephen King’s story, including connective tissue, leaving nothing behind but a string of showy vampire horror scenes. That Dauberman adheres to the novel’s ‘70s setting, something that seems to hold no relevance to the story, only further reminds us of what could have been.

There’s very likely a much better, longer cut of this adaptation that exists. One that wasn’t so skittish of letting audiences acclimate to this world and its characters. Of having any semblance of narrative weight, even. But this isn’t that version. Instead, you’re much better off sticking with Tobe Hooper’s classic 1979 adaptation, the faithful and spooky vision that’s far more successful at capturing what King’s stories do so well.

Salem’s Lot premieres on Max on October 3, 2024.

The post ‘Salem’s Lot’ Review – New Adaptation Guts Stephen King’s Story for Empty Vampire Scares appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.