Comic-Con 2019: Photos from the Show Floor on Thursday
San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing and Horror News Network is there to bring you into the action. The photos below are from the show floor on Thursday, July 18, the first full day of SDCC.
General horror news
Comic-Con 2019: Preview Night Photos
Horror News Network is on the ground at San Diego Comic-Con! This is the 50th year of the popular convention which was first held in 1970 at the U.S Grant Hotel for 300 attendees. The convention now fills 460,000 square feet of the San Diego Convention Center and welcomes over 135,000 people with comics, movies, TV, games, and events. Over 1,000 exhibitors are there and many of them feature horror. The convention officially begins on July 18 and runs through July 21, but July 17 is an evening-only Preview Night. See below for some photos from the show floor.
‘Ghostbusters’ Haunted House Coming to Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights
Get ready to do some bustin’ on both coasts this fall, because for the first time ever, Ghostbusters is coming to Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights in the form of a new haunted house.
Sony Picture’s classic is celebrating its 35th anniversary, and (according to Universal’s official press release) “…you’ll jump through the movie screen of the original 1984 film and walk through some of your favorite scenes like the New York Public Library, the Temple of Gozer and more.”
‘Crawl’ Swims Away With Third Place at Weekend Box Office
Alexandre Aja’s creature feature Crawl latched onto third place at the box office this weekend with an estimated total of $12 million, becoming one of the many horror films this summer to snag a high spot on the countdown despite underwhelming returns.
Paramount’s Crawl entered a crowded swimming pool this weekend with Annabelle Comes Home and Midsommar (both continuing to make decent, but not great money at the box office), and further divided the amount spent on individual horror films. Many industry insiders predicted a bigger debut from Aja’s alligator rampage, but the top heavy summer box office of 2019 struck again, siphoning the majority of the funds into only two releases (Spider-Man: Far From Home and Toy Story 4). While super-hero stories and family-friendly films are not direct competition for horror films, it appears that they are limiting the amount spent on them, with parents and baby-sitters deciding to bring children to “sure things” rather than finding entertainment for themselves at the cineplex.
A Look Back at…’The Lost Boys’!
In the sweltering heat of summer, on July 31st of 1987, the eightiest of eighties vampire films was unleashed upon the world. Directed by Joel Schumacher, who was fresh off of the “Brat Pack” coming-of-age film St. Elmo’s Fire, The Lost Boys made 32.2 million dollars on a budget of 8.5 and also made scores of girls love vampires long before Edward Cullen hit the scene.
The Beginning…
Recently divorced Lucy is moving her and her children Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) to the coastal California town Santa Carla to stay with her father for a while. Only referred to as Grandpa (and Dad) throughout the film, folks may recognize veteran actor Barnard Hughes from 1982’s Tron. The film opens with a pan-in shot of a boardwalk full of games and rides and a group of rock-star dressed youths fucking around on a carousel. Then a quick cut to Lucy, Michael, Sam and Nanook (the pup) driving to Grandpas. The group passes the “Welcome to Santa Carla” sign and Michael notices that someone has spray-painted Murder Capital of the World” on the back of it – that’s not creepy at all. Cue Echo & the Bunnymen’s ‘People are Strange’ cover.
Buy / Wait / Rent: July 2019 Blu-Ray Releases
We sift through the new release heap so you don’t have to!
Welcome to Horror News Network’s Buy / Wait / Rent, a monthly article devoted to the most highly-anticipated horror releases on blu-ray. Here you will find the best home video releases of each month, along with our opinion on whether each film is a must-own on the first day of release, something you should wait to buy until it goes on sale, or something you’re better off renting for a one-time watch. And now, on to the notable new releases of July 2019!
Godzilla Invades San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con will be taking place July 17-21, 2019 in San Diego, California. This will be the show’s 50th event and whether you are attending or not, expect to see a lot of news and information up to and on the dates of the event. Luckily for horror fans, there is no shortage of panels, events, and exclusives to satisfy your every horrific need.
This year also happens to be Godzilla’s 65th anniversary for the original film. In 1954, “Godzilla” was released and was the first of dozens of movies about the giant monster, as well as several comics and video games. To celebrate this long-lived yet prehistoric creature, the parent company, TOHO, has plans to host a booth dedicated to the Kaiju at San Diego Comic-Con with photo opportunities, live mural painting, and a variety of props including the actual suit used in “Godzilla 2000.” An exclusive from Bandai that will be available to attendees is the “65th Anniversary 1954 Godzilla Deluxe Vinyl Figure” which is a 6.5-inch-tall recreation of original Godzilla. The item will retail for $30 and will be available at SDCC in limited quantities daily.
‘Ghost Hunters’ Returns to Airwaves in August
Paranormal investigation programs are more popular than ever, but the one that started the entire genre is ready to return to the airwaves after a three year hiatus.
The former SyFy Network hit Ghost Hunters returns as a new series on A&E this August and stars one of the original TAPS founders Grant Wilson. Wilson will also be joined by fellow investigators Daryl Marston, Kristen Luman, Brandon Alvis, Mustafa Gatollari, Brian Murray, and Richel Stratton on the series, which received an initial order of 20 episodes.
Burger King Unveils ‘Stranger Things’ Upside Down Burger
Burger King joins the ever-expanding promotional partner list for Netflix’s Stranger Things season three with an official “Upside Down Burger”.
The limited-edition burger will hit the following cities on June 21: Miami, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. There will only be eleven locations in total (get it?) featuring the burger (which in any reality is just a traditional Whopper served upside down, so just in case you can’t get to one of these locations, you can replicate the Hawkins National Laboratory experiment on your own with a simple flip).
‘Ghost Adventures’ Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum is Already Being Impacted by ‘The Devil’s Rocking Chair’
Well, it didn’t take long for “The Devil’s Rocking Chair” to start causing trouble at Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum in Las Vegas. According to an official tweet, the rocking chair stirred up so much paranormal activity, that the museum had to temporarily shut the exhibit down.
So we just shut-down a new exhibit @hauntedmuseum temporarily because of what just occured w/ staff & a guest… moments before we opened the exhibit me and my assistant witnessed a plug get yanked out of the wall socket by itself then the door to the chair opened slowly
