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‘Pet Sematary’ Climbs into Second Place at Weekend Box Office, ‘Us’ Passes $150 Million Mark

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The pulse for Pet Sematary has been running high over the past few months (and the film delivered a second place finish at the weekend box office to the tune of $25 million), but  just like the optimism of Dr. Louis Creed, the end result may not be what Paramount expected.

Pet Sematary’s debut is a healthy one for a horror remake, but all of the analytics associated with the film point to a sharp decline in ticket sales next week.  Sematary’s Rotten Tomatoes score has steadily fallen from the mid-80s to a current score of 61% fresh.  While this is an admirable number for any horror film, the fan metrics are more disturbing.  Only 49% of fans on Rotten Tomatoes liked the film (according to their Audience Score) and film-goers polled by Cinemascore gave the remake an ultra low C+.  With Hellboy opening next week, followed quickly by The Curse of La Llorona weeping into theaters two weeks later, Pet Sematary could easily drop 65% at next week’s box office, signaling an early exit from theaters. read more

Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Dominates Weekend Box Office

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Us, Jordan Peele’s follow-up to his breakout hit Get Out, dominated the weekend box office, raking in an estimated $70 million in ticket sales.  Peele’s sophomore effort took in more than twice as much as Get Out (which debuted with a 33 million dollar haul) and with such a healthy start, Us should be able to come close to what Peele’s original foray into the horror genre generated back in 2017.

While Us’s box office is certainly impressive, as it is one of the highest grossing original horror films of all time after only one weekend, it may have a hard time sustaining the momentum and word-of-mouth that Get Out capitalized on.  Us has been an unabashed hit in the eyes of critics (with a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences seem to like, but not love the picture.  When examining the metrics associated with audience reactions,  ticket buyers gave Us a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a lukewarm CinemaScore of B. read more

‘Us’: The Horror News Network Review

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This review contains spoilers.

Get Out was a smash hit on all metrics. The movie earned $255 million on a $4.5 million budget and it wowed casual fans, horror aficionados, and stuffy critics alike due to its expert blend of tried and true horror tropes and an adept level of social commentary that ties the picture together. Get Out also solidified writer/director Jordan Peele as one of the premiere horror storytellers of our time after a long and successful career in comedy. His well-deserved Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay broke barriers for an institution which typically rewards standard drama storytelling over specialized genre fare, and it drew even more attention to his knack for threading symbolism and allegory through a tightly constructed, self-contained horror story. Throughout the pre-release hype for Us, audiences were constantly reminded that this movie would have an even greater emphasis on horror than Peele’s freshman outing, and the film’s trailers expertly presented the terrifying tropes of the home invasion, the fear of the other, and ghastly sharp objects front and center. All of this build up led audiences to believe that Us would contain- above all- a great horror narrative. What we ended up with- however- is a movie that relies much more heavily on allegory than story, and the story suffers as a result… even in spite of phenomenal performances by a stellar ensemble cast.   read more

‘Candyman’ Remake Set to Cast Title Role

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According to Variety, the Candyman remake from MGM and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, has its sights set on Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for the title role.  At this point the deal is not finalized but Mateen and MGM are in heavy negotiations.  While Mateen will have some big shoes to fill in those of Tony Todd, who portrayed the iconic character in the 1992 classic, he has already appeared in Aquaman and will be appearing in Peele’s upcoming Us and HBO’s Watchmen series

The Candyman reboot film is described by the studio as a “spiritual sequel” to the original.  What that actually means remains to be seen.  With the original film being a definite favorite amongst horror fans, this updated version is already highly-anticipated.  Production on Candyman is slated to begin next spring, with a scheduled release date of June 12, 2020. read more

Full Trailer and Artwork for Jordan Peele’s ‘Twilight Zone’

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Today CBS All Access revealed the full trailer for the highly anticipated reboot of the iconic series The Twilight Zone.  Jordan Peele not only serves as executive producer, but also as the host and narrator. The original series debuted in 1959 and ran for five seasons. By the looks of the trailer, Peele and company bring The Twilight Zone, not just into another dimension, but also into the 21st century.

The reboot also exhibits some real star power as well.  Featured in the re-imagined Twilight Zone are John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, James Frain, Ginnifer Goodwin, Zabryna Guevara, Adam Scott, and Steven Yeun, just to name a few.  The series is scheduled to premier with two episodes dropping on April 1st, with the full series released on April 11th for CBS All Access subscribers. You can check out the full trailer and key art below. read more

HNN Staff Discuss What to Expect in 2019

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The upcoming year is shaping up to be quite a significant one for horror fans, with numerous film and television projects scheduled to premiere across many different platforms.  From Pet Sematary to It: Chapter Two to yet another promising Jordan Peele production, there is reason for both optimism and skepticism within the genre.

Join HNN’s Christine, Larry and Sean as they discuss and critique what to expect in 2019.

Visit our YouTube channel (and the video below) for the entire episode, and check out our Patreon page for even more exclusive videos and content that you can’t get anywhere else (https://www.patreon.com/horrornewsnetwork). read more

Jordan Peele Takes the Super Bowl into ‘The Twilight Zone’

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In case you missed it during the Super Bowl, or just have no interest in football, Jordan Peele popped in to give the public a tease of his reboot of the classic The Twilight Zone series. Peele appears on the back drop of an empty Super Bowl giving fans just a small taste of him as the host of the series.   Not much else was revealed about the show, except a hint of that iconic Twilight Zone theme song in the background.

Peele, along with his production company, Monkeypaw, has been immersed in several projects ever since the explosive success of his directorial film debut, Get Out in 2017. Besides the upcoming reboot, Peele’s highly anticipated feature, Us, is due out in March, and casting has already begun on another Peele project, the reimagining of Candyman.  The Twilight Zone is set to premiere on April 1st, streaming on CBS All access. read more

Jordan Peele Debuts ‘Us’ Super Bowl Trailer Hours Before the Big Game

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According to CNBC, this year’s Super Bowl commercials will cost advertisers $5.25 million for 30 seconds of airtime. This means the new one-minute trailer for Jordan Peele’s Us will set Universal Pictures back $10.5 million (more than half of the film’s production budget!) when it runs during the big game. Such big spending isn’t exactly surprising considering Peele’s previous film, Get Out, earned over $255 million worldwide and netted the auteur an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Given all of the money at stake, Universal likely wants as many eyes on the screen as possible during airtime and lots of feverous anticipation; but Peele himself had a trick up his sleeve for fans who just can’t wait until kickoff to catch another glimpse of this highly-anticipated film. read more

Release Date for ‘Twilight Zone’ Reboot

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Twilight Zone fans of the world, celebrate! Deadline has reported that on Monday, April 1st, the Jordan Peele hosted reboot of the classic sci-fi show will premiere with two episodes on CBS All Access and then new episodes will be available weekly on Thursdays starting April 11th for CBS All Access subscribers.

The series will be a modern re-imagining of  the Rod Serling original which aired 1959-1964. As mentioned above, Jordan Peele will be taking on the Rod Serling role of narrator and host and confirmed actors for the series include Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, Greg Kinnear, Luke Kirby, Sanaa Lathan, Kumail Nanjiani, Adam Scott, Rhea Seehorn, Allison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Jefferson White, Jonathan Whitesell, Jessica Williams, DeWanda Wise and Steven Yeun. read more

2019 Oscar Nominations Ignore Horror Films After Incredible Wins in 2018

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Did you think that The Shape of Water’s and Get Out’s big wins at the Academy Awards last year meant that horror movies would finally be getting a fair shake during awards season? Think again! The 2019 Oscar nominations are out, and the horror genre is only represented with a single nomination for A Quiet Place in the category of Best Sound Editing.

Last year, The Shape of Water received 13 nominations (the record is 14), and it ended up winning Best Picture, Best Director (Guillermo del Toro), Best Original Score, and Best Production Design. Get Out was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Jordan Peele), Best Original Screenplay (Jordan Peele), and Best Actor (Daniel Kaluuya), and Peele took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Between these two films, the horror genre was represented in many of the Academy’s most prestigious categories. read more