Significant Other and Villains directors Dan Berk & Robert Olsen are back with new genre-bending thriller Novocaine, and Paramount Pictures is giving fans a chance to see it early with special “Adrenaline Rush” preview screenings.

Novocaine crashes into theaters on March 14, 3025.

In the film penned by Lars Jacobson, “When the girl of his dreams (Prey‘s Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, everyman Nate (Scream‘s Jack Quaid) turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.”

Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Evan Hengst, Conrad Kemp, and Jacob Batalon also star.

Fans have the chance to see the comedic action thriller early, Saturday, March 8, at 7:00 PM local time, when over 1,200 theaters across the U.S. and Canada will participate in the “Early Access Adrenaline Rush Preview.”

But what if you want to experience the action first hand? Paramount Pictures is offering the adrenaline seekers a much more immersive option with “Feel It In” advance screenings that feature synchronized seat motion and effects for Wednesday, March 12, at 7:00PM local time. These screenings will be presented exclusively in premium motion formats: 4DX, MX4D and select D-Box at participating locations in advance of the film’s national release.

Ticketholders seeing Novocaine at the “Feel It In” advance screening will also receive a limited-edition giveaway of an exclusive 14″x 20″ collector’s print created for fans attending this one-night event – while supplies last.

There’s yet another option available to catch Novocaine early: Paramount is partnering with Fantastic Fest for the first-ever fan screening of Novocaine. The “Fantastic Fest Presents“ screening will be held at the Alamo Slaughter Lane on Saturday, March 1, with actor Jack Quaid and directors Berk and Olsen in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Said Paramount Pictures’ President of Domestic Distribution Chris Aronson, “This is a fresh, fun, action-packed original movie and one that is meant to be experienced in a theatre with friends.  We’re thrilled to give moviegoers multiple early opportunities to see Novocaine before its wide release.“ 

Tickets for the “Early Access Adrenaline Rush Preview,” “Feel it In” advance screenings, and general release of Novocaine will be available starting Monday, February 24, at 6:00 AM PT. Visit novocainemovie.com/seeitfirst for tickets. General tickets can also be purchased at novocainemovie.com.

Check out the trailer below and get ready.

The post See Action Thriller ‘Novocaine’ Early with “Adrenaline Rush” Preview Screenings appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

When I first read the news that one of my favorite modern directors, Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoat’s Daughter), would be directing The Monkey, the article was accompanied by a familiar image: a toy monkey with a cracked-out face, banging two cymbals together. My brain immediately went to George A. Romero’s underappreciated 1988 film, Monkey Shines.

I also immediately assumed Monkey Shines was based on a King story—a natural assumption. What hasn’t King written at this point, after all? In reality, of course, Perkins/King’s The Monkey has absolutely nothing to do with Romero’s Monkey Shines. But while the two properties aren’t officially connected apart from their similar imagery – oddly enough, Perkins had to redesign the toy monkey from King’s story due to a Disney copyright! – they do have a few things in common. Both Monkey Shines and The Monkey feature bat-shit crazy stories full of dark humor, both helmed by fearless directors. So, if The Monkey’s release in theaters this week gives you a reason to revisit Monkey Shines? It’s (Os)good a reason as any!

George A. Romero’s Monkey Shines began as a novel written not by King, but by novelist Michael Stewart. The rights eventually landed in the hands of Orion Pictures, who wisely hired Romero to direct, specifically because of the Dawn of the Dead director’s ability to seamlessly inject dark humor into tragic horror stories.

This is immediately apparent in Monkey Shines as we meet our hero, Allan (Jason Beghe), and experience the harsh dismantling of his life. He’s a handsome, happy guy with a beautiful woman in his bed, out for a run with a backpack full of bricks. The world seems beautiful—where the sun is shining and passerby cyclists toss out high-fives instead of blocking traffic when you’re late for work. That is, until the moment a dog jumps out and scares Allan face-first into a moving truck.

Allan then wakes up to the harsh reality that he is paralyzed from the neck down. His girlfriend leaves him for the “genius” doctor who’d supposedly fixed him (Stanley Tucci). His nurse often quotes the Bible but is only a set of wings away from being a spawn of Satan herself. His mother is an overbearing guilt machine with a smile, and his best friend, Geoffrey (John Pankow), is like a depressing ’90s “HBO Special” version of Re-Animator’s Herbert West. It’s a positive for the audience, because Geoffrey feels like he came directly from a Frank Henenlotter set. But it’s terrible for Allan, who even attempts to suffocate himself to death in some dry-leaning plastic.

And we haven’t even gotten to the monkey yet!

Allan’s maladjusted scientist friend decides that to truly reap the benefits of his “smart” injections, his prize test monkey, Ella, needs to get out of the lab. So, he employs Melanie (Kate McNeil), a gorgeous monkey specialist, to work with the animal as it becomes an aide for Allan. He also hopes it will help Allan kick his depression. It works all too well—Allan and Ella become best friends, filling a hole in his heart. But when he learns that his girlfriend-stealing doctor may be responsible for his paralysis, the lab injections somehow bond a telepathic relationship between him and his monkey. As a result, Ella begins using Allan’s buried resentment and anger along with its own jealousy to murder anything and everyone around him.

I’m always surprised that Monkey Shines isn’t considered alongside Romero’s most praised projects. Then again, I feel the same way about another tragic Romero tale in 2000’s Bruiser. Perhaps people were too attached to Romero’s penchant for zombie classics. Whatever the reason, Monkey Shines faltered badly at the box office and feels, unfortunately, forgotten—even in the horror world. It’s the kind of movie that you wonder, if released today, could it have gained traction with the right marketing department? Like The Monkey has with NEON? It’s also possible that many rented Monkey Shines on a VHS whim expecting a slasher flick with a monkey gimmick. When in reality, it’s far more akin to something like Brian De Palma’s Raising Cain.

While the telepathic storyline is admittedly pretty silly, Monkey Shines remains a story told earnestly. It’s a movie full of impressive filmmaking moments, shockingly great acting, and maybe one of the best animal performances ever put to screen. Ella (Boo in real life) had a nuanced character arc that Romero and company handled like a symphony. Alongside the help of Tom Savini’s puppets, clever camera work, and DP James A. Contner (Cruising), there are almost no shots of monkey action that feel unnatural or unbelievable—an unfathomable feat when you consider the script. Though there are some janky edits due to a 240-page script that ended up with 40% to 50% cut out post-filming, Monkey Shines is a mostly seamless experience. I don’t want to think about how much CGI would tarnish this kind of film today.

Likely tracing back to his DIY roots despite working with one of the biggest budgets of his career, Romero and crew masterfully scale surreal moments that could have easily been over the top back to their base fears: A scene where Ella simply slams a cutting apparatus repeatedly against a shelf as dumbass Geoffrey reaches his hand towards her creates the type of dread a real life dismemberment would conjure. Another, when sweet Melanie is knocked unconscious and Ella attempts to light her hair on fire with a match, builds tension until we’re relieved that her hair is too wet to catch fire. That tension is only followed by Ella attempting to puncture Melanie’s unconscious face with a deadly syringe.

All this suspense is heightened by the fact that we’re experiencing it through Allan, who is forced to watch all this, unable to move his body. Finally, he manages to get Ella close enough so that he can bite his neck. Allan is then forced to brutally kill the monkey as if he were a rabid dog, frantically ripping his head back and forth with the monkey’s neck in his mouth. It gets wild, but the entire film is impressively held together by Jason Beghe’s performance. He’s the kind of guy it’s extremely easy to root for—whether it’s to get the girl, or stop a monkey from murdering his entire life. It’s a tough performance both physically and emotionally, and he never falters.

Romero’s original ending for the film featured that son of a bitch, Dean Burbage (one of Stephen Root’s first-ever film roles), carrying on the darkness of Geoffrey’s work. It was a darker ending that Romero relinquished due to bad test audience reactions and studio pressure. He did not, however, approve of the part of the theatrical ending where a dream sequence provides an Alien-esque jump scare where the monkey pops out of a bloody torso. A perfect example of the dichotomy between the expectation and imagery of Monkey Shines and the story at its heart. All this would lead to Romero happily returning to independent film for a while.

On its eye-grabbing surface, Monkey Shines promises horror in its most base form. This scary object/animal is about to royally fuck things up… and it does. But within that construction, it’s also a story about overcoming grief, how we treat others in their worst moments, and the results of burying our anger towards those who’ve hurt us.

And yeah, a scary monkey that will cut your throat with a shaving knife.

The post George A. Romero’s ‘Monkey Shines’ Deserves a Rewatch While You Wait for ‘The Monkey’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s incredibly rare for any movie to make more money in its second weekend of release than its first, but Spyglass and Sony’s slasher Heart Eyes managed to do just that over the weekend.

Topping its opening weekend domestic haul of $8.3 million, director Josh Ruben’s Heart Eyes just scared up an additional $10 million in its second weekend at the U.S. box office!

Positive word of mouth and strong reviews helped out here, but Heart Eyes‘ week two success can no doubt be largely attributed to this past Friday being Valentine’s Day. The movie made $4.9 million on V-Day alone, up from the debut Friday total of $3.7 million. Even this week’s Sunday and Monday totals were higher than the previous week’s Sunday and Monday hauls. Another holiday, President’s Day, surely helped to boost this past Monday’s performance.

Here’s the full Weekend #1 vs. Weekend #2 breakdown…

WEEKEND #1

• Friday – February 7 –  $3.7 million
• Saturday – February 8 – $3.3 million
• Sunday – February 9 – $1.2 million
• Monday – February 10 – $740,085

WEEKEND #2

• Friday – February 14 – $4.9 million
• Saturday – February 15 – $3 million
• Sunday – February 16 – $1.9 million
• Monday – February 17 – $1.1 million

The total domestic take for Heart Eyes is currently $22.5 million, with the film’s reported production budget at $18 million. That means it’ll need to continue making money in the coming weeks in order to become profitable at the box office for Sony. Stay tuned for updates.

Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within, Scare Me) directed the Valentine’s Day-themed Heart Eyes, with Mason Gooding (Scream) and Olivia Holt (“Cruel Summer”) starring.

“For the past several years, the Heart Eyes Killer has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. This Valentine’s Day, no couple is safe.”

The new horror movie from Screen Gems and Spyglass (Scream, Scream VI, Thanksgiving) features a screenplay written by Phillip Murphy (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) and Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) & Michael Kennedy (Freaky).

The slasher is currently Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% score from critics.

The post ‘Heart Eyes’ Made More Money in Its Second Weekend Than Its Opening Weekend appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Writer/Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck interconnect four energetic, frequently bloody stories in infectious genre-hopping anthology Freaky Tales, and the official trailer takes us back to the VHS era to tease the all-star ensemble and violence ahead.

Lionsgate releases Freaky Tales in theaters on April 4, 2025.

In the anthology, “Set in 1987 Oakland, Freaky Tales is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles.”

Check out the trailer and new poster below, which introduces “The Last of Us” star Pedro Pascal as an unconventional warrior ready for violence. The film also marks one of the final on screen appearances for the late actor Angus Cloud (Abigail, Your Lucky Day).

Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, and Tom Hanks star in Freaky Tales, executive produced by hip-hop pioneer Too $hort.

The energetic anthology made its debut last year at the Sundance Film Festival. I wrote in my review, “While Boden and Fleck create a specific love letter to the Bay Area, its adoration of music and movies is accessible on a larger scale. The way the filmmakers effortlessly shift through styles to capture each segment’s story, even playing with form and technique, makes for one of the more entertaining movie surprises in recent memory. ” 

Freaky Tales dabbles in a variety of genres, but expect horror to play a key role as well. Filmmakers Boden and Fleck wring a few comedic beats from The Lost Boys as connective tissue, and Scanners becomes one of the most surprising sources of gory inspiration.

Get ready to venture back in time to visit one pulpy depiction of the Oakland music scene with zany ’80s anthology Freaky Tales this April.

The post ‘Freaky Tales’ Trailer – Gory Violence and Music Collide in ’80s Genre Mixtape Anthology appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.