Every week, moviegoers are polled by a company called CinemaScore to see how they like new movies in theatres. Their opinions are averaged out, and the film is assigned a letter grade. If the movie scores in the A-range, it will likely prove to be at least a decent-sized hit. Movies scored in the B-range usually do mediocre business, although there have been plenty of hits that have scored this way, too – it might just mean that the movie inspires strong feelings, with some people loving it and others not. Anything below a C-rating is a disaster, unless it’s a horror movie, because for whatever reason, even hit horror movies typically have underwhelming CinemaScore ratings. Only 22 films have ever gotten an F, but a D rating is considered the kiss of death for your film, with Joker: Folie a Deux recently scoring a dreaded D. Only one movie that scored lower than that has ever grossed $100 million  – and that movie is 2001’s Vanilla Sky.

But wait a second, you might be asking yourself… doesn’t everyone love that movie? Nowadays, yes, they mostly do, with the film a favourite among many Tom Cruise fans, who maintain that it features one of his greatest-ever performances. But, during the holiday season of 2001, during an especially fraught time – coming just months after the devastating 9-11 attacks, audiences wanted escapism when they went to the movies, not a deep, probing journey into one man’s psyche – even if it happened to star Tom Cruise. Thus, when they turned out to see Vanilla Sky, expecting an upbeat Tom Cruise movie, they revolted, only for those same people to help turn it into a major cult hit once it hit DVD, and eventually came to be regarded as a classic.

Vanilla Sky is a remake of a Spanish film called Abre los ojos, which translates as Open Your Eyes and was the toast of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Tom Cruise happened to be there that year, saw the film, and optioned the remake rights with producing partner Paula Wagner. Cruise’s career was at an interesting point at the time. The star was absent from screens in 1997 and 1998, with him spending fifteen months shooting Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, which is a project he devoted himself to so entirely he didn’t take on any work for about two years, despite arguably being at the peak of his fame. When he returned to screens, it was in an against-type supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. However, the action spectacle of Mission Impossible II quickly reestablished his box office dominance, and soon he was once again arguably the world’s biggest movie star.

At the same time, he’d struck up an amazing creative partnership with writer-director Cameron Crowe on their smash hit, Jerry Maguire. In the wake of that movie’s success, Crowe got his passion project, Almost Famous, financed by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks SKG. Despite critical raves, the movie was surprisingly unsuccessful at the box office, earning just over $30 million in North America. Enter Tom Cruise, who was keen to reunite with Crowe on a remake of Open Your Eyes, inviting him over to his house to watch the original film. Sensing its potential, Crowe, a true auteur, would not only direct but also write the screenplay, which would be closely patterned on the original.

When asked why he’d do a remake, Crowe, in a perceptive moment, compared what he was doing to a band covering another band’s song. Rather than depart from the material too drastically, Crowe opted to make the film a faithful remake, with certain shots in it being direct adaptations – such as the famous opening where Cruise’s character runs through an abandoned Time’s Square, being a direct riff on a scene in the original, where the lead character runs through an abandoned Madrid.

Crowe would go even further than that. When casting the movie, he opted to have star Penelope Cruz reprise her role as the lead love interest, a dynamic young woman named Sofia. 

The film would mostly follow the story beats of the original, with Cruise playing David Ames, a privileged, handsome playboy who owns a Conde Nast-style publishing empire (in fact – Ames Publishing was actually shot at the Conde Nast headquarters). Ames busies himself with a string of affairs but one day finds himself beguiled by a woman dating his best friend. Yet, before they can start a relationship, Ames winds up in a disfiguring car accident caused by a spurned lover, Cameron Diaz’s Julie Gianni. This leaves him scarred until a surreal operation can cure his appearance. Yet, while outwardly cured, Ames starts to seemingly go insane, having a hard time separating what’s real and what’s not, with the film framed by his prison confession to a psychiatrist, played by Kurt Russell. 

While this is similar to the original,  Crowe would imbue the film with his own perspective, turning the movie into somewhat of a pastiche of American pop culture from the sixties and seventies, the eras in which our hero, played by Cruise, came of age, and influence the chunks of the movie, as we learn late in the film, are supposed to be a simulation. Likewise, the impeccably crafted soundtrack is a serious selection of one banger after another, including everything from The Beach Boys to The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, an original song by Paul McCartney and Sigur Ros, whose guitarist, Jonsi, would later become Cameron Crowe’s regular composer after he split with his wife Nancy Wilson, of Heart, who composes the terrific score for this.

One of the reasons the movie strikes a chord with audiences more now than it arguably did in 2001 might be that Tom Cruise means something different to modern audiences than he did in 2001. Cruise is one of those stars who seemed to emerge fully formed. Still, throughout the ’80s and ’90s, he was always, above all things, a romantic lead and kind of the all-American ideal of the perfect man, a thing which likely made his casting in such a bizarre, surreal movie like this tough-to-swallow for audiences at the time. While he’s still a gigantic star, we idealize him less now, with him having had his ups and downs throughout his career, which came to a head in the 2004-2005 period, when his Scientology advocacy became controversial. He was able to bounce back, but notably, outside of his re-teaming with Cameron Diaz in Knight and Day, he never again played a real romantic lead in a love story, with him focusing primarily on action films, a genre he rarely toyed with during his heyday.

All this actually makes Vanilla Sky play a little better than it might have back in 2001, where, in the wake of 9/11, audiences wanted escapism. Yet, the film is a masterpiece, and Cruise delivers the performance of a lifetime as the spoiled but sympathetic Ames. Again, it’s one of those parts only a guy like Cruise can play, as he has your sympathy no matter what. Hollywood has never had a romantic lead like him since, with guys like Jake Gyllenhaal or Chris Evans sometimes trying to make old-school, Tom Cruise-style movies like the former’s Love and Other Drugs or the latter’s Pain Hustlers. In these movies, they play unsympathetic characters you’re nonetheless supposed to root for and like, but they can’t pull it off. Cruise could have. Heck, he made you love Frank TJ Mackey in Magnolia, and he’s a RABID misogynist. Cruise is Cruise, and there’s no one else like him.

What’s also interesting about Vanilla Sky is how lavish it is for a psychological thriller. There’s absolutely no way an actor nowadays would have the kind of clout Cruise wielded twenty years ago, with him not only being allowed to shoot at Conde Nast but also arranging for Times Square to be shut down and abandoned so they could film the famous sequence where he runs through an abandoned New York. That isn’t CGI. That’s Cruise, baby. He even gets Steven Spielberg, his buddy at the time, to show up as himself in a party sequence. Spielberg later cast Crowe himself in a cameo in Minority Report as a bit of quid pro quo.  The film also allowed Crowe to reunite with some of his Almost Famous cast members, Jason Lee and Noah Taylor, who have prominent roles. The movie also gave Tilda Swinton one of her first significant parts in an American movie, while Michael Shannon also has a small role, which is more extensive in the alternate director’s cut, which has since been released on Blu-Ray.

While audiences initially didn’t respond to Vanilla Sky, Cameron Diaz’s performance as the unhinged Julie Gianni was highly acclaimed, with her earning several big award nominations, including nods from the Golden Globes and Critic’s Choice Awards. Many attributed the film’s surprising climb to $100 million as further proof of Cruise’s undeniable star power at the time, but even before it left theatres, it developed a cult. Perhaps the film’s biggest fan was a surprise, with the director of the original Open Your Eyes, Alejandro Amenabar being a noted fan of the film, saying, “When I learned, quite some time ago now, that Cameron Crowe was going to write and direct the film based on Open Your Eyes with Tom Cruise in the leading role, I felt honored. Now that I have seen Vanilla Sky, I couldn’t be more proud. Cameron has all my respect and admiration. Respect, for having plumbed the deepest meaning of the work. Admiration, for having sought new viewpoints and a fresh approach to the mise-en-scene, giving the film his own unmistakable touch. Vanilla Sky is as true to the original spirit as it is irreverent towards its form, and that makes it a courageous, innovative work. I think I can say that, for me, the projects are like two very special brothers. They have the same concerns, but their personalities are quite different. In other words, they sing the same song but with quite different voices: one likes opera, and the other likes rock and roll.”

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Fifty-one years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it HERE)… and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film, NECA is releasing new action figures of the Leatherface and Hitchhiker characters! These action figures won’t actually make their way onto collectors’ shelves until May 2025, but they’re available for pre-order through Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store.

Directed by Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following synopsis: When Sally hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. As the group is attacked one by one by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, who wears a mask of human skin, the survivors must do everything they can to escape.

The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Jim Siedow, Edwin Neal, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Allen Danziger, John Dugan, and Gunnar Hansen.

One new action figure from NECA is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre – 50th Anniversary Pretty Woman Leatherface 8″ Clothed Action Figure. Celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! The classic 1974 slasher film by Tobe Hooper changed horror cinema forever. Own a piece of its history with this Leatherface clothed action figure from NECA! This anniversary edition figure is dressed in tailored fabric clothing similar to the retro toy lines that helped define the licensed action figure market in the 1970s. Wearing his infamous “Pretty Woman” mask and dress suit, the fully poseable 8-inch figure includes chainsaw and hammer accessories. Comes in window box packaging. You can pre-order that one through Entertainment Earth at THIS LINK and Big Bad Toy Store HERE.

The other is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre – 50th Anniversary Hitchhiker 8” Clothed Action Figure. Celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! The classic 1974 slasher film by Tobe Hooper changed horror cinema forever. Own a piece of its history with this Hitchhiker clothed action figure from NECA! This anniversary edition figure of Nubbins Sawyer, the murderous cannibal, grave robber, and brother of Leatherface, is dressed in tailored fabric clothing similar to the retro toy lines that helped define the licensed action figure market in the 1970s. The fully poseable 8-inch figure includes camera, satchel, and straight razor accessories. Comes in window box packaging. That one can be pre-ordered through Entertainment Earth HERE and through Big Bad Toy Store HERE.

Images of the action figures can be seen below, and more can be found at the links.

Will you be buying either of these Texas Chainsaw Massacre 50th anniversary action figures? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Here at JoBlo Horror Originals we talk a lot about gateway horror films. Depending on the generation you belong to, that can be a few different things. Kids of the 70s will always have Jaws as an introduction to horror and that movie is still a great way to introduce newer generations to the genre after almost 50 years. Two of my favorites from the 80’s, and two films that both my sons have seen, are The Gate and The Monster Squad. Again, both great and both still hold up as not only fun horror flicks but great ways to ease in the younger crowd. As a kid born in 1985, I am much more a child of the 90s so even if you hadn’t read the title of the video you clicked, you could probably guess that I saw Jurassic Park in theaters, it scared and enthralled me and made me want more. It became a billion-dollar franchise just in films but spawned comics, video games, toys, amusement park attractions, and nearly everything else you can license. It started as a massive blockbuster novel from one of sci-fi’s greatest and the adaptation was a sure thing. Both are regarded as musts in their respective medias, but which is better and how well did they get it from page to screen? Hold on to your butts as we see if the creators were so preoccupied with if they could adapt this work that they never asked if they should as we find out what happened to this adaptation.

The Movie

Steven Spielberg already had a relationship with famed author Michael Crichton before they worked on the film adaptation of Jurassic Park together. The two actually worked on creating the TV show ER and that’s when Spielberg learned of his author pal’s idea about dinosaurs being brought back to life for a theme park. Crichton, ever the smart businessman, knew what his 1990 novel had the potential to be so he asked for 1.5 million and a fairly large % of the movies theatrical gross for the option rights. Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Columbia all threw out bids along with their top talent to direct with Tim Burton, Joe Dante, and Richard Donner respectively all in the mix. Universal would win out with Spielberg, who famously had done a blockbuster or two, with James Cameron apparently missing out just hours before the bidding was won. The author was given an additional 500k to write the first screenplay.

That screenplay wasn’t the final product although Crichton was given a credit for the screenplay. After Hook screenwriter Malia Marmo was given a go at it in 1991, the studio decided to also bring in David Koepp to further tweak the screenplay. While Crichton felt that only 10 to 20% of the book would be able to be put on screen, Koepp was able to make it with only a couple major scenes left out even if, as you will see, the movie is quite different from the book overall. Koepp has a long and fun resume that also includes Carlito’s Way, The Shadow, the first Mission: Impossible, Panic Room, and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man to name a few. Spielberg is obviously a known entity and his other movies that dip their toe in horror or suspense are also mostly great with Duel, Jaws, and War of the Worlds all being worth your time. Crichton, as we discussed in Congo, also has Westworld, The Great Train Robbery which was based on his book and boy did I screw that up last time, Coma, and Looker to name only a few.

The cast is iconic in their roles, enough to bring back over and over again, but many of them were not the first choices. Sam Neill would play Dr. Alan Grant, but that role almost went to William Hurt, Kurt Russell, Richard Dryfuss, Harrison Ford, and Tim Robbins. Neill has also done great genre work with In the Mouth of Madness, Dead Calm, Possession, and The Omen III. Laura Dern was the first choice for Dr. Ellie Sattler, but it almost went to Robin Wright, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Helen Hunt. Dern hasn’t done much horror but did show up in Grizzly II and Inland Empire is nightmare fuel. Jeff Goldblum beat out Jim Carrey, Richard Attenborough was the only choice for Hammond, and Wayne Knight was cast after Spielberg saw his performance in Basic Instinct. Bob Peck, Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazello, and B.D. Wong were also cast, and they all do wonderful jobs in their roles.

The movie was released wide on June 11th, 1993, on a 63-million-dollar budget and, to put it lightly, became one of the biggest films of all time. After a couple re-releases it sits at over a billion dollars at the box office and won all 3 Oscars it was nominated for with best sound, best effects sound editing, and best effects for visual effects that went to greats like Stan Winston and Phil Tippett. Also lost in the awards shuffle is an incredible score from John Williams. As stated before there were immediate toys, video games, comics, and the movie series continues with its seventh movie coming out in 2025.

The Book

We discussed Michael Crichton at length last time so let’s focus a bit on the development of the book itself. Crichton actually wrote the first version as a screenplay in 1983 about a graduate student who ends up recreating a dinosaur. This changed when he felt that the science behind it would be extremely expensive and that there was no practical need for a dinosaur. People will still do things when they don’t make any sense so the author reasoned that dinosaurs would be brought back as entertainment and so the theme park angle was thrown in too. The book was originally from the perspective of a child but anyone that read the first few drafts felt that an adult’s view would capture more.

The book is what the author is most known for and is one of his best received. It is seen as a Frankenstein allegory with Dr. Henry Wu tinkering with things he doesn’t understand by bringing back the dinosaurs from extinction without actually knowing that what they do will or in some cases what to call them. It follows a similar vein in that humanity pays the price for the carelessness of men playing God. The characters were seen as mostly inserts and not very well fleshed out, something that Crichton had to deal with his whole career but the entertainment value and understandable science behind the scenes made it more palatable. One critic did say that the movie would be a trashy cash-in, so that aged well. Crichton would actually release a sequel called The Lost World that would also get the movie treatment that would also be directed by Spielberg. While Crichton would be productive in books and film for a good while after, Jurassic Park will always be the first line of his legacy.

What is the Same?

There is an accident that has to do with the impending opening of a nature preserve/theme park called Jurassic Park that is being planned to be opened and funded by John Hammond. He has found a way to bring dinosaurs back by extracting their DNA from fossilized mosquitos that have been stuck and preserved in amber. The investors in the park have become worried due to these issues and ask for specialists in specific fields to be brought in to sign off on the opening to the public. These include paleontologist Alan Grant, Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, Mathematician Ian Malcolm who specializes in chaos theory, and lawyer Donald Generro. The park has light staffing that includes main engineer Arnold, biotech Henry Wu, Game Warden Robert Muldoon, lead park vet Harding, and main programmer Dennis Nedry. The park is also hosting Hammond’s Grandchildren Tim and Lex.

A tour begins and the weather turns while Nedry turns off all the security in the park and steals DNA samples as he thinks he is underpaid and underappreciated by Hammond. He acts as a spy and covert employee for Biosyn and agent Lewis Dodson who is the chief rival to Hammonds Ingen. The power being shut down results in the tour group being attacked and the race being on to get off the island. The dinosaurs have also somehow begun to breed which was thought impossible due to the nature of them being brought back by science but it is theorized that the extra DNA that was used to fill the gap by frogs was a species that could change their gender and the dinosaurs also did that. Several of the characters die in the process including Nedry by a Dilophosaurus, Arnold by Raptors, and others but the group eventually does make it off the island while avoiding T-rex and Velociraptors.

What is different?

Sorry to my oldest son and one of my closest friends who are reading the book soon but here be spoilers. I won’t go into every single detail as this isn’t that type of video and it would be too long but while the main idea and story is the same from page to screen, the journey and many of the characters are quite different. The opening incident in the book is an attack on a child in Costa Rica that initially is the reason that Grant and Sattler are brought in, to identify the injuries to specific animals. The movie opens with an accident while moving some of the dinos into the park and it is very Spielberg and reminiscent of Jaws. Another smaller change that doesn’t make or break for the title is that Hammond’s grandkids are switched around a bit with Tim being older than Lex and also being the one that can hack security while Lex is the little sister. These roles are reversed in the film with Lex being older and having knowledge of computers.

Getting into some of the bigger plot changes we have Grant and the kids taking the river back to the main center to try and escape as well as an end scene with several characters using nerve gas to kill off the remaining raptors. In terms of characters, Harding has a much larger role in the novel and the character of Gennero plays the role of two book characters. While Donald Generro is the lawyer from the book, he is also a strong and caring character who makes it to the end and helps save people and destroy dinos. The character that shares a similar death as well as the cowardly aspects of movie Generro is publicist Ed Regis who does not exist at all in the movie. Characters also have different fates between the two worlds with Muldoon living in the book but Wu, Malcolm, and even Hammond all dying in different ways. Finally, the character Hammond is also more of a careless villain in the book as opposed to his movie counterpart who is stubborn, but ultimately understanding and cares more about the people than the park. There are many other changes, but the big ones make the two different enough experiences to hopefully get you to explore both.

Legacy

It is difficult to say which one is better particularly when they are as different as these two are. I remember reading the book in high school almost 10 years after watching the movie and being very confused. I personally think this is one of the rare cases where the movie is objectively better than the book, but I can easily see where if you read the novel first, that would be your preference. Both are mandatory to read and watch and you will be entertained either way. There is also countless other avenues to quench your Jurassic needs should you want more. As Weird Al said, Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark but this is a trip worth sparing no expense for.

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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For about a decade, Leonardo DiCaprio was attached to produce a big screen reboot of the classic genre property The Twilight Zone through his company Appian Way. Multiple drafts of the script were written and Joseph Kosinski was set to direct the film… but it never made it into production. The Twilight Zone got a small screen reboot from producer Jordan Peele and his company Monkeypaw Productions instead. But DiCaprio isn’t leaving the Twilight Zone behind entirely, as IndieWire reports that he is now producing a documentary about the show’s creator, Rod Serling!

Appian Way is teaming up with Goodlight, Grub Street Films, and Verdi Productions to make this documentary happen. DiCaprio is producing alongside Chad A. Verdi, Jennifer Davisson, Phillip Watson, Taylor DiGilio, Blake J. Harris, Michelle Verdi, Chad Verdi Jr., Paul Luba, and Jonah Tulis. Tulis, who previously directed GameStop: Rise of the Players and Console Wars, is at the helm. According to the IndieWire report, the producers “have received the full blessing of Serling’s daughters Jodi Serling and Anne Serling, who are executive producing the project.”

The Serling documentary will explore how Serling’s writing helped change television forever. The film will look at Serling’s humble beginnings in television and how he later used his platform to affect change both on and off the screen, including his battles with censors and how he grappled with thought provoking issues of racism, war, the dangers of technology, and morality via the genre-bending, sci-fi parables. But the Serling film will also be told in “his own words,” leaning on archival footage — provided by his estate — to have his own voice helping to guide the story. The film will also have re-enactments of moments of his life shot in black and white in the style of The Twilight Zone.

Jennifer Davisson provided the following statement: “We are excited to dive into the life of such a visionary who understood the role storytelling plays in pushing and challenging societal norms. Equipped with a vast and extensive collection of archival footage, we hope to capture the essence of a man who used The Twilight Zone so poignantly to drive social and political change.“

Chad A. Verdi added, “We are very excited to collaborate with Appian Way and provide an inside look on Rod Serling’s story with a personal narrative and footage that audiences have never seen before. This documentary will be the first of several projects that we plan on producing with this team.“

The Twilight Zone originally ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Serling was a prolific writer outside of the show he created as well, writing for many TV shows and TV movies. He also worked on the scripts for multiple films, including the original Planet of the Apes. He passed away in 1975, at the age of 50.

Are you looking forward to the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Rod Serling documentary? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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Two years after the Lego Tallneck was released, Sony has announced its second Horizon Zero Dawn crossover set with the toy brick company, and just in time for the launch of the abridged, Lego Horizon Adventures adaptation of the open-world RPG. The set is actually affordable, too.

Read more…

Two years after the Lego Tallneck was released, Sony has announced its second Horizon Zero Dawn crossover set with the toy brick company, and just in time for the launch of the abridged, Lego Horizon Adventures adaptation of the open-world RPG. The set is actually affordable, too.

Read more…

Fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, both games and movies, are excited to see the next chapter of the film series, which brings in one of the games most popular characters, Shadow. Keanu Reeves joins the franchise as the voice of Shadow and wanted to remain faithful in his interpretation as director Jeff Fowler explained, “He really wanted to create a very fan-faithful version of the character. He did research.“ The anticipation grows as Paramount now releases a new poster of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and announces that tickets will go on sale on November 25. The movie races into theaters on December 20.

The official synopsis reads,
“Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.”

Jeff Fowler returns to direct Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from a screenplay by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on a story by Casey and Miller. Ben Schwartz returns as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, with Idris Elba (Knuckles), Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Tails), James Marsden (Tom Wachowski), Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski), Tom Butler (Commander Walters), Lee Majdoub (Agent Stone), and Jim Carrey (Dr. Robotnik). Newcomers to the fast-paced and family-friendly franchise include Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog, Krysten Ritter as Captain Rockwell, and Alyla Browne as Maria.

Executive producers on this new entry include Haruki Satomi, Shuji Utsumi, Yukio Sugino, Jeff Fowler, Tommy Gormley and Tim Miller. Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara and Hitoshi Okuno are on board as the producers of this sequel.

With the recent Knuckles spin-off series and this new installment introducing Shadow, Sonic producer Toby Ascher has a vision that the property can grow to become “Avengers-level.”  Ascher states, “We got really excited about the idea of expanding our characters in our world into television, specifically, because it gives us a platform to really do character studies. We knew that, with Shadow coming into Sonic 3 and some of the bigger things that we want to do, the Sonic franchise on the movie side is going to be these Avengers-level events. They’re going to be these big, exciting stories that have a lot of different characters.”

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Writer/director Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 horror film Smile (read our review HERE, watch the movie HERE) reached theatres last month, with JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray praising the film as “one of the year’s best horror movies” in his 9/10 review. The movie has been doing well at the box office, pulling in about $132 million worldwide so far, and now we know when Smile 2 is going to be available to watch in the comfort of our own homes: Paramount is giving the film a digital release tomorrow, November 19th!

Smile was based on Finn’s short film Laura Hasn’t Slept (watch it HERE), which won the Special Jury Recognition Prize in SXSW’s Midnight Short category. Caitlin Stasey (Neighbours) played the title character in that short, and reprises the role in Smile, making it a follow-up of sorts. Smile has the following synopsis: After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.

Here’s the Smile 2 synopsis: About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.

Naomi Scott of Aladdin and Charlie’s Angels takes on the role of Skye Riley and is joined in the cast by Lukas Gage of The White Lotus and You, Rosemarie DeWitt of La La Land and the Poltergeist remake, Dylan Gelula of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Dream Scenario, Raúl Castillo of Army of the Dead and Knives Out, Miles Gutierrez-Riley of The Wilds and On The Come Up, and Kyle Gallner (Red State), reprising the role he played in the first movie. A featurette revealed that Drew Barrymore (Scream) also makes an appearance, playing herself and interviewing Skye Riley on her talk show.

Smile was produced by Temple Hill, and they produced Smile 2 as well.

A press release notes that “fans who purchase the film on Digital or 4K Ultra HD will have access to over 40 minutes of heart-pounding bonus content. Hear from cast and filmmakers as they break down the film’s most intense moments; go behind-the-scenes to see how the make-up, prosthetics, and visual effects bring the nightmare to life; check out deleted and extended scenes not seen in theatres, and more! Bonus content: – Commentary by Director Parker Finn: Take a peek behind the smile with commentary from writer/director Parker Finn as he goes through the gory details of this terrifying sequel. – Ear To Ear: Cast and filmmakers dive deep into the SMILE universe and discuss how they brought the director’s vision to life. – The Rise and Fall of Skye Riley: Naomi Scott brings you into the cursed life of popstar Skye Riley. – Behind The Music: Take an inside look at the music and choreography from the film. – A New Smile: SMILE veteran Kyle Gallner gives insight into his character’s gory return and filmmakers break down the film’s intense first moments. – Smiler: A New Monster: Bigger, bolder, and more insane! Take a behind-the-scenes look at the grotesque monster behind the smile. – Turn That Frown Upside Down: Meet Lewis, a friend of Skye, and get an in-depth look at the gruesome make-up and prosthetics behind his terrifying smile. – Show Me Your Teeth: Explore how the filmmakers captured the uniquely horrifying car crash. – Deleted and Extended Scenes.” (Availability of bonus content varies by digital retailer.)

Are you glad to hear that Smile 2 is getting a digital release this week? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Poetry Comics Month, Day 18: Seasons

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PLOT: A group of homeless misfits must fight for survival when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the city.

REVIEW: I’ve never understood why Studios remake great horror films when there are so many not-so-great ones out there with plenty of potential. Whether it’s due to budget, acting, or creative bankruptcy, a great concept can be squandered. So it’s exciting to see 1987’s Street Trash get a South African update as it’s a relatively unseen cult film. Because of that, they’re able to take the bones of the original, but not be beholden to any specific events or scenes. And the results are entertaining as hell.

The plot of Street Trash involves a group of homeless misfits who uncover a government scheme to take out homeless people. They each have a certain degree of charm that it’s easy to sympathize with them and their plight. The actors did a great job and really blew my expectations away. There were a couple of deaths that genuinely made me sad since they’d been such entertaining characters. It’s so difficult to actually get an audience to care about side characters yet this does a fantastic job of it. And then the villains are so blatantly evil that any comeuppance they get is so rewarding. I wouldn’t call any character deep yet they get across what they’re supposed to with relative ease.

I’ll be perfectly honest: I don’t have exact recall of the original film but its connections feel rather light. I mostly just watched this as its own thing, but was obviously aware of the loose connections. There’s no mysterious booze that causes all of this, it’s actually a substance created by the government. There’s a fun reference to the genital mutilation scene from the ’87 film, firmly putting this film in the same world. It could practically be a sequel in that it doesn’t really conflict with anything in the first. And the director seems to agree.

Street Trash is surprisingly well shot given the cult origins of the original. The filmmakers clearly were making a point to get past the grindhouse style and provide more interesting visuals. The gore is absolutely fantastic, with plenty of ooey-gooey sliminess to satiate gorehounds. I love this style of practical FX so I couldn’t get enough of all the multi-colored carnage. It was such delightfully gory fun. But Street Trash is about more than just guts and gore; it actually has a very salient social message… even if it can be kind of lost at times in the silliness.

As much as there are evil characters, the film doesn’t do a good job of giving us a villain to work towards defeating. Whether it’s the Rat King or the actual Government Head, they don’t appear in the film for long enough times to feel like a fully formed threat. They mostly just check off a box versus making an actual impact in the film. This is too bad, because nearly every element outside of the bad guys works well. While the filmmakers are taking the technical side very seriously, the story still has that campy over-the-top tone that brings the fun. The Title Cards let us know right away that this is going outside of the norm of cinema with “a Ryan Kruger Thing” getting prominent placement.

Some may go into this expecting something of the so bad it’s good variety but it’s hard to call this bad. Sure, it’s very silly and over the top but the acting is competent and there are never any cheap edits or sets. This really moves past the grindhouse style of the 1987 film and gives it a different feel. They also take advantage of parts of South Africa to really add production value to their dystopic world. There’s still that indie charm of nearly every scene taking place in the same series of locations.

I had an absolute blast with 2024’s Street Trash. The original film never really spoke to me yet this is making me rethink my original take. Despite its low budget, the story never feels constrained. And the unambiguous black/white dynamic of good/evil really worked for me. While it’s still got cult movie vibes, there’s clearly a lot of love and talent behind the camera that pushes this above similar fare.

STREET TRASH WILL BE RELEASED DIGITALLY ON NOVEMBER 19TH, 2024.

Street Trash

GREAT

8

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