Over the weekend, my wife and I watched Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. Fargeat’s unnerving body-horror thriller goes to the extreme, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I hid behind a pile of pillows for 40% of the film. What? Fingernail and teeth “stuff” is my horror movie kryptonite, and The Substance gives audiences no quarter with its approach to gross-out scenes and unforgiving self-reflection. Luckily, I watched the movie in the comfort of my home, but now those brave enough to watch The Substance in public can do so at the cinema when the film returns to US theaters on January 17, 2025.

In The Substance, a fading celebrity called Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. When Elisabeth’s other self, Sue (Margaret Qualley), disobeys the rules of the transformation, the give-and-take of the effects of the drug begin wreaking havoc on Elisabeth’s body, the struggle to maintain dominance between the two goes out of control.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Substance:

“It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?”

The Substance is a fascinating, unconventional, and unapologetic downward spiral of self-image, paranoia, and body dysmorphia. As I’d said, I spent some of the film hiding from my screen. Fargeat’s movie makes aspects of David Cronenberg’s work feel like child’s play, giving the thriller genre a new queen as Fargeat promises to make bold, surprising, and original films.

Fargeat says there will not be a sequel to The Substance. Speaking with Variety, she addressed her next steps as a filmmaker, saying, “For now I’m not discussing anything. I’m just enjoying the moment and taking some time as I really want to write my next project. It’s slowly starting to be put in motion in the back of my brain and when things calm down I’ll take it from there.” That next project is “going to be totally different but with a lot of similarities (to The Substance). I love to make bold and surprising films with things that you don’t expect, so definitely that’s what I want to do. And I love the freedom that I gave myself for this film and that’s certainly something I want to keep doing. That was the greatest thing for me on The Substance.”

The Substance returns to US theaters on January 17, 2025.

The post The Substance returns to theaters on January 17 to add more nightmare fuel to the new year appeared first on JoBlo.

Over the weekend, my wife and I watched Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. Fargeat’s unnerving body-horror thriller goes to the extreme, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I hid behind a pile of pillows for 40% of the film. What? Fingernail and teeth “stuff” is my horror movie kryptonite, and The Substance gives audiences no quarter with its approach to gross-out scenes and unforgiving self-reflection. Luckily, I watched the movie in the comfort of my home, but now those brave enough to watch The Substance in public can do so at the cinema when the film returns to US theaters on January 17, 2025.

In The Substance, a fading celebrity called Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. When Elisabeth’s other self, Sue (Margaret Qualley), disobeys the rules of the transformation, the give-and-take of the effects of the drug begin wreaking havoc on Elisabeth’s body, the struggle to maintain dominance between the two goes out of control.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Substance:

“It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?”

The Substance is a fascinating, unconventional, and unapologetic downward spiral of self-image, paranoia, and body dysmorphia. As I’d said, I spent some of the film hiding from my screen. Fargeat’s movie makes aspects of David Cronenberg’s work feel like child’s play, giving the thriller genre a new queen as Fargeat promises to make bold, surprising, and original films.

Fargeat says there will not be a sequel to The Substance. Speaking with Variety, she addressed her next steps as a filmmaker, saying, “For now I’m not discussing anything. I’m just enjoying the moment and taking some time as I really want to write my next project. It’s slowly starting to be put in motion in the back of my brain and when things calm down I’ll take it from there.” That next project is “going to be totally different but with a lot of similarities (to The Substance). I love to make bold and surprising films with things that you don’t expect, so definitely that’s what I want to do. And I love the freedom that I gave myself for this film and that’s certainly something I want to keep doing. That was the greatest thing for me on The Substance.”

The Substance returns to US theaters on January 17, 2025.

The post The Substance returns to theaters on January 17 to add more nightmare fuel to the new year appeared first on JoBlo.

Werewolves may not be as sexy as vampires, or as spine-chilling as ghosts, but their violent and tragic stories make for fascinating supernatural creatures that have been a crucial part of the horror genre for decades. Their stories typically revolve around someone losing their humanity and sense of self, becoming…

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Werewolves may not be as sexy as vampires, or as spine-chilling as ghosts, but their violent and tragic stories make for fascinating supernatural creatures that have been a crucial part of the horror genre for decades. Their stories typically revolve around someone losing their humanity and sense of self, becoming…

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At the start of 2024, JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray got to check out the Sundance Film Festival premiere of director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp’s ghost story Presence, and in his 7/10 review (which you can read HERE), he described the film as “a supernatural tale that’s light on horror but heavy on heart.” A wider audience will have the chance to see the movie now that we have switched over to our 2025 calendars, as Neon is planning to give Presence a limited theatrical release on January 24th – and with that date swiftly approaching, the film’s final trailer has now dropped online. You can check it out in the embed above.

The story of Presence gets rolling when a family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they are not alone. A supernatural force has infiltrated the house, and taken a specific interest in the couple’s daughter.

The film stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, and West Mulholland.

It hasn’t been revealed how much Neon is paid for Presence, but it is known that they came out the winner of a bidding war between “about 10” different interested distributors. So they’re probably forking over “a healthy sum.” Deadline points out that it was “shot entirely in a single location, which creates the haunting mood sought by the filmmakers.” Bumbray’s review informed us that “Soderbergh’s camera is always from the perspective of the presence itself (no one uses the term ghost here), making it an interesting visual exercise. The family is observed from an arm’s length, with us eventually realizing that the presence itself isn’t necessarily malignant, nor is it even aware of why it’s in their home in the first place.”

Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer produced Presence, with Koepp serving as an executive producer alongside Corey Bayes. H.H. Cooper co-produced and Gus Gustafson, Samara Levenstein, and Claire Kenny are associate producers.

What did you think of the final trailer for Presence? Will you be catching this movie on the big screen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Final trailer released for Steven Soderbergh, David Koepp ghost story Presence appeared first on JoBlo.

Home video distributor Shout! Studios has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the Golden Princess movie library – a deal that Variety reports will “electrify action film aficionados” because the Golden Princess library is “a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been MIA from Western markets for decades. The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.“

The line-up that is now in the hands of Shout! Studios includes “Woo’s action masterpieces Hard Boiled, The Killer, the complete Better Tomorrow trilogy, Bullet in the Head, and Once a Thief. The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, Prison on Fire and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s Aces Go Places; Tsui’s Peking Opera Blues; Tony Ching’s Chinese Ghost Story trilogy; and additional hits like Wai Ka-fai’s Peace Hotel, Andrew Kam and Johnnie To’s The Big Heat and Alex Law’s Now You See It, Now You Don’t.” And a whole lot more – as was said earlier, this deal involves 156 movies. The deal was worked out by Shout! Studios’ David McIntosh, Jordan Fields, and Taylor Devorsky, with Golden Princess Amusement Co., Ltd.’s Dickson Lai and Ronald Chu.

Jordan Fields,  Shout’s senior VP of acquisitions and originals, had this to say: “This is a big one. Golden Princess sits alongside Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest in the pantheon of Hong Kong cinema, but unlike the other two, the Golden Princess library has been dormant for decades outside of Asia. Its fingerprints are all over modern action and crime genres, though, so we have big plans to reintroduce these fabled titles to the rest of the world, complementing Shout!’s growing catalog of revered Asian films. We have big plans for home video. We know that audience and will super-serve them.” Their plans also include bringing some of these films to theatres.

Dickson Lai, executive director of Kowloon Development Company Ltd., the parent company of Golden Princess, said: “The films in the Golden Princess Library are akin to the sword in the stone. Shout! is the entity capable of unlocking its potential.“

Are you glad to hear that the 156 movies in the Golden Princess library are now in the hands of Shout! Studios? Share your thoughts on this deal by leaving a comment below.

The post Long MIA John Woo classics to finally make 4K debut? Shout now owns The Killer, Hard Boiled, & A Better Tomorrow appeared first on JoBlo.

The Sonic movies have been a resounding hit, bringing in a collective $1 billion after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 last month. Though parts of the films have been divisive for relying on original human characters, who some fans argue steal screentime from the speedy anthropomorphic animals that people show up…

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The Sonic movies have been a resounding hit, bringing in a collective $1 billion after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 last month. Though parts of the films have been divisive for relying on original human characters, who some fans argue steal screentime from the speedy anthropomorphic animals that people show up…

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Netflix is riding into the new year with one of the most brutal depictions of expansion in the American West thanks to a relentlessly intense mini-series called American Primeval. Created and written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord), with direction by Peter Berg (The Rundown, Very Bad Things), American Primeval revolves around Sara (Betty Gilpin) and her son, Devin (Preston Mota) traveling through harsh and unforgiving territory with a survivalist, Isaac (Taylor Kitsch), to escape a grim fate and find a new home. While making the journey, they experience violent collisions with cults, religious zealots, cutthroats, and lawmakers willing to kill to create a new world.

To mark the arrival of American Primeval, we spoke with the show’s director, Peter Berg, the Indigenous Consultant Julie O’Keefe, and lead actors Betty Gilpin (Sara), Taylor Kitsch (Isaac), Dane DeHaan (Jacob Pratt), Kim Coates (Bringham Young), Derek Hinkey (Red Feather), and Saura Lightfoot-Leon (Abish Pratt) about their respective roles, navigating the story’s harsh events, and creating one of the most brutally honest depictions of Western expansion ever put to film.

While speaking with Gilpin and Kitsch, we discover their motivations for joining the production, finding their respective characters, and navigating the show’s filthy locales. Meanwhile, Derek Hinkey and Saura Lightfoot-Leon discuss establishing their electric chemistry, the sense of responsibility of honoring family lineage, and training to become warriors. Dane DeHaan and Kim Coates speak on playing unhinged individuals, finding Caotes’ inner preacher, and portraying a psychotic break on screen. Lastly, Peter Berg and Julie O’Keefe discuss not glorifying Western expansion, when to step in and ensure the show’s authenticity, and Shawnee Pourier’s stellar performance as Two Moons.

American Primeval is an uncompromising approach to the brutality and cruelty of colonization. As we enter an era in American history when people in power actively try to rewrite the past, it’s important to remember what was taken and who it was taken from. American Primeval is a total package experience. Every episode covers a vast ground, telling a startling, eye-opening story with complex and enigmatic characters. Whether you’re captivated by Gilpin and Kitsch’s chemistry, sickened by the violence, or riding the downward spiral of DeHaan’s encroaching madness, the show grabs hold and never lets go until the end.

Make sure you check out our full, spoiler-free review of American Primeval.

The post American Primeval Interview: Betty Gilpin, Taylor Kitsch, Dane DeHaan, and more talk in-depth about the bloody Western drama appeared first on JoBlo.

Robbie Williams biopic Better Man hit theaters in United States over the weekend. The movie tells the story of the pop singer and his rise to fame, but replaces him with a digital monkey. It’s an oddball idea that, combined with the singer’s lack of star power over here, seems to have doomed its chances at the box…

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