Posts

James Wan & Gary Dauberman to Bring Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ to the Big Screen

/0 Comments/in , , /by

James Wan and Gary Dauberman- the creative team behind numerous entries in The Conjuring cinematic universe- are setting their sights on world of vampires. Their latest project involves bringing Stephen King’s 1975 classic novel, Salem’s Lot to the silver screen. The Hollywood Reporter says that Wan will produce the film and Dauberman will serve as screenwriter and executive producer.

Wan and Dauberman first collaborated in 2014 on the first The Conjuring spinoff, Annabelle. Wan produced the film and Dauberman wrote the script. This arrangement continued with Annabelle: Creation and The Nun; and now Dauberman will also direct the upcoming Annabelle Comes Home. There is currently no director announced for Salem’s Lot.  read more

Inside Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum: A Horror News Network Pictorial

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

The death of beloved paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren has all of us here at Horror News Network reminiscing about our favorite encounters with her and Ed throughout the years. Seeing as HNN’s headquarters is located in the Warrens’ home state of Connecticut, Ed and Lorraine directly impacted all of our lives, and we’re excited to be able to share some fascinating tidbits with our readers. HNN staff member Nick Banks and I were fortunate enough to visit The Warren’s Occult Museum on a couple occasions with our wives. It is no longer open to the public, so we’re even more grateful to have had the opportunity.  The museum houses the infamous Annabelle doll which was featured in numerous The Conjuring movies since 2013, but it also contains lesser known artifacts such as a Satanic idol taken from the woods of Connecticut and a shadow doll which attacks the dreams of unsuspecting victims. Not everything in the museum is haunted, however, as many of Ed’s original paintings and articles about the famous ghost busting couple are prominently displayed throughout its hallowed walls. read more

HNN Staff Members Remember Lorraine Warren

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Monroe is a small town in the southern part of Connecticut, about an hour and a half from the most famous city in the world: New York.  Unlike the cosmopolitan confines of NYC, Monroe looks like many New England towns, with plenty of woods and pastures and a number of strip malls that contain pizza shops, antique stores, and barber shops.

I moved to Monroe in 1978 as a seven year old, and today I live about a mile from the border.  One constant in my life over all of these years is the one thing that put the small bucolic town of Monroe on the map: the presence of our very own world-famous ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. read more

Trailblazing Paranormal Investigator Lorraine Warren Dies at 92

/0 Comments/in , , /by

For real life ghost story aficionados-and since 2013, even big screen supernatural movie buffs- no individuals are more prominent than Ed and Lorraine Warren. The duo founded N.E.S.P.R., the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and were involved in some of the most famous cases of hauntings of all time, including the infamous Amityville house, the Enfield poltergeist, and the Annabelle doll. They’ve been famously portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in a series of The Conjuring movies and spinoffs, which have only increased their presence worldwide over the past six years. Ed passed away on August 23rd, 2006, and Lorraine continued to help people around the world with the assistance of her son-in-law, Tony Spera. It is with heavy hearts that we report that an era has come to an end today, as Lorraine Warren has passed away at the age of 92. read more

Screenwriter Announced for ‘The Nun’ Sequel

/0 Comments/in , /by

The wildly successful Conjuring films have spawned a number of “spin-off” films including the Annabelle series and The Nun; now that I think of it, The Conjuring is kind of like the modern horror world’s answer to Happy Days…which I guess means that Annabelle is Joanie Loves Chachi and The Nun is Laverne & Shirley?

Anyway, Deadline has announced that the process of hiring a screenwriter to pen the sequel to 2018’s The Nun has come to a close with the hiring of Akela Cooper (Hell Fest, American Horror Story). Cooper will put her horror skills to work in following up on the story about the nun possessed by the demon Valak who first reared her ugly mug in 2016’s The Conjuring 2. read more

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson to Appear in Third ‘Annabelle’ Film

/0 Comments/in , /by

Fans of The Conjuring Universe prepare to celebrate. Deadline is reporting that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will reprise their roles of Ed and Lorraine Warren in the forthcoming Annabelle film.

The latest edition of Annabelle is said to be set inside the Warren’s home and focus on their daughter, Judy. The demonic doll doesn’t take kindly to being kept inside of glass and uses all of its power to stalk Judy and her babysitter.

Mckenna Grace (The Haunting of Hill House, The Bad Seed, Amityville: The Awakening) has signed on to play the role of Judy Warren. The film is written by Gary Dauberman with James Wan and Peter Safran co-producing. read more

‘The Nun’ “Preys” on the Competition at Weekend Box Office

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Nun kicked off a busy fall season at the box office by accumulating an estimated $53.5 million at this weekend’s box office, destroying the previous Conjure-verse’s opening weekend record set by the original The Conjuring with $41.8 million in the summer of 2013.

The debut is also the second largest September opening ever, going past the $48.4 million set by Hotel Transylvania 2 in 2015. The Nun could not come close to last fall’s king of the horror world, It, however, which took in $123.4 for its opening weekend.  The Nun’s $53.5 million debut was also the second largest opening ever for an R-rated horror film, again placing behind Warner Brother’s  It.  The Nun was also a hit internationally, bringing in $77.5 million, totaling $131 million worldwide. read more

New Video Explores ‘The Conjuring’ Universe Timeline and Where ‘The Nun’ Fits In

/0 Comments/in , /by

Have you ever wondered when each film takes place in The Conjuring film universe?  If so, Warner Brothers Pictures has provided all the information you need in the new featurette designed to promote the latest entry in the franchise, The Nun.

It appears that the Nun takes place in 1952, almost twenty years before the events that occurred in the original The Conjuring film and the later prequels involving Annabelle.

The runaway promotion train has been building for months for The Nun, with all the gimmicks that would make William Castle proud including a video telling viewers to watch all the way to the end (with no pay-off other than the date of release) and a recently banned youtube video that scared the pants off of a few concerned citizens.  There is no truth to the rumor that theaters will be offering every audience member a life insurance policy just in case they die of fright watching The Nun, but there are a few weeks left before the film hits theaters. read more

What Netflix’s User Review Removal Means for Horror Fans

/0 Comments/in , /by

By the end of August, user reviews of programming on Netflix will be a thing of the past. CNET reports that, “you’ll no longer be able to post written reviews as of July 30, and then in mid-August existing written reviews will be removed,” and the speculation is that this move coincides with Netflix’s intention of phasing out third party content and increasing the amount of their own original content available on the platform.

While Netflix has a lot of great programming, it isn’t exactly known for consistency across all of its offerings, and viewers are bound to regret several impromptu viewing choices when searching for lesser-known titles. User reviews were one way for viewers to decide if a program was worth their time. Obviously, numeric metrics can’t always account for personal tastes, but it’s usually a safe bet to skip something with an extremely low score. So, what will the removal of user reviews look like for horror fans? Fortunately, our genre of choice is in better shape than many other genres! read more

‘Annabelle: Creation’ Sequel Coming in July 2019

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that “Gary Dauberman, the writer behind the Annabelle movies, will make his directorial debut with an untitled Annabelle project, the newest installment of New Line’s horror franchise based on a devil doll from The Conjuring cinematic universe.”

As with the all of The Conjuring films, it will once again be produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster and the Peter Safran Co.

John R. Leonetti directed the original Annabelle and David F. Sandberg directed the prequel, Annabelle: Creation.  The new Annabelle installment is is currently scheduled for a release on July 3, 2019. read more