Made on a budget of less than $100,000, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (watch it HERE) earned more than $6 million during its global release in early 2023, so not only did the sequel Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 have a substantially higher budget, that success opened the door to an entire cinematic universe that will consist of at least one more Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey sequel and other horror movies inspired by children’s stories, like Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, Bambi: The Reckoning, and Pinocchio: Unstrung. Now, Variety reports that a pair of genre icons have just joined the cast of Pinocchio: Unstrung, as the film is set to star A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Robert Englund and Rob Zombie regular Richard Brake! Details on Englund’s role have not been revealed, but Brake will be playing Geppetto.
As we’ve previously heard, Todd Masters of MastersFx, creator of the version of Chucky seen in the 2019 Child’s Play remake, will be heading up the animatronics and puppetry. The Prosthetics Studio, which has worked on the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises, will be providing the practical gore. The first image of the film’s Pinocchio doll can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Frake-Waterfield is directing Pinocchio: Unstrung, which is currently in production. The story follows young James as he learns of his grandfather Geppetto’s deadly secret: Pinocchio. Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray, and Peter De Souza-Feighoney are also in the cast.
Brake had this to say about the project: “Not only is the script dark, twisted and gory, it’s also at times very funny. Todd Masters and his team have created incredible practical effects. Audiences are in for a crazy ride.” Masters added, “I’ve forever loved the original and demented story from the 1880s. So I was excited to join this production, to bring this little puppet to life — with all practical FX. This version is still a little puppet’s pursuit to becoming a boy… but the way he becomes one, is extremely gnarly… and frankly, very fun.“
Frake-Waterfield said, “Our movie flips everything you know about Pinocchio on its head. We have an incredibly talented cast and crew working on this. We are heavily relying on practical effects for all of the deaths and creature work. I can’t wait for the world to meet Pinocchio.“
Pinocchio: Unstrung is aiming for a summer 2025 release. What do you think of Robert Englund and Richard Brake joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
At the end of September, JoBlo Media and Octane Multimedia teamed up to launch a new YouTube channel named JoBlo TV, which hosts multiple feature films to watch for free throughout the week. The genres we’ll be focusing on at JoBlo TV are Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Thrillers – but for the month of October, we were celebrating Halloween all month long with our JoBlotober event. It was all horror all the time… and while the event is now over, as Halloween has come and gone, two of the three movies we released this week were still JoBlotober horror releases.
The movies that have been released on JoBlo TV over the last week are the slasher Death Cast, the supernatural horror film Pumpkins, and (to kick off November) the action fantasy film Game of Dragons. Here’s some information on each one of them:
Written and directed by Bobby Marinelli, Death Cast has the following synopsis: The experience of six fame hungry actors is documented as they unknowingly trade their lives to star in an experimental horror film. The film stars Lacy Hartselle, Kyle Swanson, Hedy Nasser, Marvin LaViolette, Danielle Stratton, Andres Erickson, Sean T. O’Brien, Khalil Abu-Jamous, Dave Johnson, Hoon Park, Jonathan Hickson, and Sharon Lanay Chapman. Hartselle can also be seen in the JoBlo TV releases Curse of the Nun, American Hunt, and Ouija Craft.
Pumpkins has been described as “Friday the 13th meets Attack of the Killer Tomatoes meets Halloween.” Starring scream queen Dani Thompson, this one tells the following story: A survival experience group clashes with a farmer set on revenge, as they wade into his land not knowing what awaits them and their team members. Thompson is joined in the cast by Craig Edwards, Samantha Hindman, Maria Lee Metheringham, Stacey Gough, John Michael Foulger, Mark Hindman Smith, James Bayes, Marcella Edgecombe-Craig, Stefan Michaels, Iona Mckeown, Will Metheringham, Sarah Jayne Curry, Anthony Wakefield, Debra Marie Mawdsley, Dale Hooley, and Mark Blake Smith. Maria Lee Metheringham also directed the film and wrote the screenplay with Will Metheringham.
We move away from horror (for now) with Game of Dragons, which is also known as Dragon Kingdom. Directed by Simon Wells from a script by Aston Benoit and Ben Loyd-Holmes, this one tells the following story: Born of fire and magic the Dragons’ power is immeasurable. This power could not be harnessed until a Magister used it to spawn an army of fury bloods. Prince Favian of Zaldah filled with anger when King Xalvador named Princess Elizabeth as the next ruler enlisted the Magister’s army to take control of the Kingdom. The only people that can stop him and inform the King of Favian’s insidious plan are the Princess and her two Knights forming an unlikely alliance with two Katori Warrior Women. Their quest will not be easy as their path is blocked by the fury bloods leaving them no choice but to traverse The Dark Kingdom, a land that swallows all who enter. Loyd-Holmes stars in the film with Ross O’Hennessy, Rebecca Dyson-Smith, Zara Phythian, Jemma Moore, Mike Mitchell, Jon-Paul Gates, Cengiz Dervis, Jessica-Jane Stafford, Linda Louise Duan, Adrian Bouchet, Delia Rose, Silvio Simac, Marc Zammit, Devon White, Joe Egan, Clare Duncan, and Louise Rhian Poole.
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Suppose you notice an extra groove in Amazon MGM Studios‘s step. In that case, it’s because they’ve just announced plans for an untitled George Clinton biopic starring Eddie Murphy as the legendary funk musician and leader of the Parliament Funkadelic. The project finds Murphy reuniting with Dreamgirls director Bill Condon, whose next feature, Kiss of the Spider Woman, stars Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Tonatiuh.
Murphy played James’ Thunder’ Early in 2006’s Dreamgirls, an R&B and soul singer inspired by James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and Marvin Gaye. Dreamgirls, starring Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover, and Anika Noni Rose, was an awards darling in the year of its release, with Hudson taking home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades.
Virgil Williams will pen the script for Condon’s untitled George Clinton biopic, based on Max Werner’s original draft. A lifelong George Clinton fan, Catherine Davis brought the idea to Murphy, who, in addition to playing Clinton, produces through Eddie Murphy Productions. Other producers include John Davis of Davis Entertainment, Catherine Davis, and Greg Yolen. Eddie Murphy Productions’ Charisse Hewitt-Webster, as well as George Clinton, Archie Ivy, and Jeff Jampol, are executive producing.
The untitled George Clinton biopic is based on the funk legend’s memoir Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You? The story chronicles Clinton’s challenging evolution from a musician hoping to make his mark to forming the Parliament Funkadelic, a collective synonymous with good vibes, attitude, and boundless energy. The band’s influence reaches far and wide, with groups like Digital Underground, Dr. Dre, De La Soul, LL Cool J, and Snoop Dogg citing them as inspiration. Clinton’s music breaks the barriers between musical genres, with acts such as Primal Scream, Talking Heads, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Prince, and Janelle Monáe taking cues from Parliament Funkadelic’s themes and sound.
What do you think about Eddie Murphy and Bill Dondon partnering for an untitled George Clinton biopic? Are you a Parliament Funkadelic fan? How long will it take the hair and makeup team to give Murphy Clinton’s signature dreads? Let us know in the comments section below.
There’s a new film called The Hole coming our way from South Korean director Kim Jee-woon, and a press release has revealed that Theo James of The Gentlemen, the Divergent films, and the upcoming Osgood Perkins / Stephen King movie The Monkey is set to star in it. James will be taking on the role of Owen, a successful professor living abroad in South Korea, who is bedridden after a devastating car accident that killed his wife, Sandy. He is left under the care of Yuna, his Korean mother-in-law — but when she starts to unravel the devastating truth behind Owen and Sandy’s marriage, and Owen himself, his road to recovery is threatened.
Scripted by Christopher Chen, The Hole is based on the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award winning novel of the same name by Hye-young Pyun. This adaptation is being produced by Esmail Corp, K Period Media, and Anthology Studios. The Veterans will be representing international distribution rights at the American Film Market next week. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group are representing the US rights. Individual producers are Sam Esmail, Chad Hamilton, and Nick Krishnamurthy of Esmail Corp; Kimberly Steward and Alex Foster of K Period Media, and Andy Sorgie of Paisan. Jee-woon is also producing, as is Jay Choi. Soon Ho Song who will serve as a co-producer for Anthology Studios.
The press release notes that the story will be told in a combination of English and Korean, as it takes place in both the United States and South Korea. Filming will take place in both countries, with production expected to start in the first or second quarter of 2025.
The novel had the following description: Oghi has woken from a coma after causing a devastating car accident that took his wife’s life and left him paralyzed and badly disfigured. His caretaker is his mother-in-law, a widow grieving the loss of her only child. Oghi is neglected and left alone in his bed. His world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his troubled relationship with his wife, a sensitive, intelligent woman who found all of her life goals thwarted except for one: cultivating the garden in front of their house. But soon Oghi notices his mother-in-law in the abandoned garden, uprooting what his wife had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes. When asked, she answers only that she is finishing what her daughter started. A bestseller in Korea, award-winning author Hye-young Pyun’s The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms. As Oghi desperately searches for a way to escape, he discovers the difficult truth about his wife and the toll their life together took on her.
Kim Jee-woon’s previous directing credits include The Quiet Family, The Foul King, A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, The Good the Bad the Weird, I Saw the Devil, the Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Last Stand, The Age of Shadows, Ilang: The Wolf Brigade, Untact, and Cobweb (the South Korean movie, not the horror film produced by Seth Rogen).
Does The Hole sound interesting to you? Have you read the Hye-young Pyun novel the film will be based on? Share your thoughts on this Theo James / Kim Jee-woon collaboration by leaving a comment below!
Mike Flanagan and David Dastmalchian are both prominent figures in the horror world, so it’s somewhat surprising that their first collaboration came not on a horror project, but on Flanagan’s upcoming movie The Life of Chuck – which, despite being a Stephen King adaptation, is a drama. Today, Deadline has announced that Flanagan and Dastmalchian are set to work together again… and this time the project is a horror film. Flanagan will be producing Epilogue, which Dastmalchian will star in alongside Flanagan’s wife and frequent collaborator Kate Siegel. Michael Fimognari, who worked as cinematographer on most of Flanagan’s work and directed episodes of The Midnight Club and The Fall of the House of Usher (not to mention the films To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and To All the Boys: Always and Forever), will be directing, working from a screenplay by Luke Barnett and Tanner Thomason.
An action horror story, Epilogue is set one year after the zombie apocalypse has supposedly come to an end and will follow a desperate couple who set out to find a cure for their infected daughter. The Coven will be launching distribution sales next week at the American Film Market.
Flanagan is producing the film for Red Room Pictures. Also producing are Courtney Petrakis, Brittney McDade, and Broken Road Productions’ Todd Garner.
In addition to The Life of Chuck, Dastmalchian’s acting credits include Afraid, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, The Boogeyman, Oppenheimer, Boston Strangler, Late Night with the Devil, the Ant-Man films, Dune: Part One, The Suicide Squad, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Bird Box, Blade Runner 2049, Twin Peaks, The Belko Experiment, Prisoners, and The Dark Knight. Siegel is also in The Life of Chuck, as well as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Wrath of Becky, Hypnotic, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hush, and Oculus, among other titles.
Are you glad to hear that Michael Fimognari, Mike Flanagan, David Dastmalchian, and Kate Siegel are teaming up for a zombie movie? Share your thoughts on Epilogue by leaving a comment below.
While I wonder where all the trick-or-treaters have gone, they could be at the theater enjoying another spin on the dancefloor with Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance. The symbiotic sequel took a bite out of $2.8M at the Halloween box office on Thursday, quickly slithering into the top spot above preview screenings for Robert Zemeckis’ Here, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Zemeckis’ heartfelt (if uneven) drama banked $475K, with shows beginning at 2 PM at 2,402 locations.
Sony hopes Venom: The Last Dance, directed by franchise vet Kelly Marcel, could make as much as $20M in its second week after a weak debut in the States with $51M. Venom: The Last Dance, which stars Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, and Clask Backo, sits at $184.5M worldwide, though Sony hopes the film has legs throughout its theatrical run. Meanwhile, Miramax thinks Here, a fixed camera angle drama focusing on a family throughout generations, could earn $7M over the weekend despite weak review scores, including a $38% Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Quorum, who tracks a film’s performance throughout its theatrical run, thinks Sony has stones for releasing a tentpole film so close to the 2024 Presidential Election race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. As each candidate approaches the final lap of their respective campaign roadmaps, the contentious race is all any news outlet can talk about, making little room for cinematic fanfare. Sony’s recent run of superhero films (Morbius, Madame Web) isn’t doing Venom: The Last Dance any favors, as critics and fans mercilessly panned both movies. While Tom Hardy’s Venom has a built-in fanbase and surprisingly good luck at the box office, audiences are distracted, anxious, and hard-up for dollars. These circumstances make going to the movies a second thought, especially considering how fast movies are released on Digital in a post-pandemic market.
Here’s hoping Sony’s Kraven the Hunter, releasing on December 12, fares better. The upcoming anti-hero film focuses on Kraven’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, which starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world but also one of its most feared.
What are you seeing at the theater this weekend? Let us know in the comments section below.
I have a soft spot in my cold dark heart for a well-done romantic comedy. When Harry Met Sally, 10 Things I Hate About You, and 500 Days of Summer all manage to be interesting while presenting a fun love story. Well-made ones are few and far between, mind you, but they scratch a certain itch. So to see Scream‘s Melissa Barrera and Casual‘s Tommy Dewey combine forces for one in the horror space, and you’ve got my interest. Then add in a Monster that looks like Ron Perlman from 90’s TV’s Beauty and the Beast and it feels like Your Monster was made just for me.
I was lucky enough to talk to the cast and director about all things Your Monster. Melissa Barrera and I got into what it’s like to maintain a believable romance when your scene partner looks like a monster (spoilers: she thought he was hot), while Tommy Dewey got into the difficulties of emoting in the makeup. Edmund Donovan and Kayla Foster have unique roles in the film, and Edmund gets into what it’s like to avoid the humanity of such an evil character. Writer/director Caroline Lindy then confirms whether or not the design of the monster was based on Perlman’s Beast. These chats were a blast and showed there was a lot of love on set when making this film. So make sure you check out the interview above!
Your Monster plot:
Your Monster tells the story of the soft-spoken actor Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera), who is dumped by her longtime boyfriend (Edmund Donovan) while recovering from surgery and retreats to her childhood home to recover. With her future looking bleak, insult is added to injury when Laura discovers her ex is staging a musical that she helped him develop. But out of these gut-wrenching life changes emerges a monster (Tommy Dewey) with whom she finds a connection, encouraging Laura to follow her dreams, open her heart, and fall in love with her inner rage.
YOUR MONSTER IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON OCTOBER 25TH, 2024.
Ella Balinska of the Blumhouse horror thriller Run Sweetheart Run, the 2019 Charlie’s Angels movie, the recently released thriller Skincare, and the short-lived Netflix Resident Evil series, has signed on to star in an apocalyptic horror movie called Monsters, and Deadline reports that Voltage Pictures will be presenting the global distribution rights to potential buyers at the American Film Market in Las Vegas next week. Glenise Mullins has written the screenplay and will be directing the film, which is expected to go into production in January.
This will be the feature directorial debut for Mullins, who has previously worked as a writer on the TV shows The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Outer Range, The Continental, Warrior, Surface, and Star Trek: Discovery. The story Mullins has crafted for this film follows a mother (Balinska) as she fights to lead her two young daughters to safety across 20 miles of unforgiving terrain in a perilous post-apocalyptic world teeming with relentless, zombie-like creatures. So Resident Evil may be over, but Ella Balinska is still having to deal with a zombie apocalypse.
James Harris and Mark Lane at Tea Shop Productions are producing Monsters with David Whitney.
Nicolas Chartier, CEO of Voltage Pictures, had this to say about the project: “We are thrilled to collaborate with such exceptional talent. Ella brings a unique blend of intensity and vulnerability to her roles, making her the perfect fit for this emotionally charged story. Glenise, with her remarkable storytelling expertise, has crafted a haunting vision that will captivate audiences worldwide. We couldn’t be more excited to bring their combined talents to the screen with Monsters.“
Mullins added, “Monsters is a deeply personal story for me as a mother. It’s not just a harrowing tale of survival but an exploration of the raw, instinctual drive to protect those you love at any cost. Its themes are universal — love, sacrifice, and the enduring hope that fuels us, even in the face of overwhelming darkness.“
Does Monsters sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this upcoming Ella Balinska horror movie by leaving a comment below.
Last year, Jamie Foxx was hospitalized under mysterious conditions. Questions, concerns and conspiracy theories arose online when people speculated about the situation when the severity of it came to light. Foxx and his family remained extremely private during that time and Foxx will now tell his story to the world. He explained, “Everybody wants to know what happened, and I’m going to tell you what happened. But I’ve gotta do it in my way. I’m gonna do it in a funny way. We’re gonna be on the stage. We’re gonna get back to the standup sort of roots.” Foxx previewed the audience, saying, “It’ll be called, What Had Happened Was, and it’s got all the things that happened, especially on our side of our community.”
Enter the teaser trailer for What Had Happen Was…, which is Foxx’s newest comedy special from Netflix. At the time that Jamie advertised for tickets to this live show, the post read, “Join us for an unforgettable one-man show as Jamie Foxx takes the stage to share his journey through a serious health scare, filled with humor, heart, and inspiration! Experience Jamie Foxx like never before in this intimate and engaging performance, as he opens up about his struggles, triumphs, and everything in between. Get ready for a night of laughter, reflection, and genuine connection. Don’t miss this exclusive one-man show!”
When he first made the announcement of the show, Jamie poked fun at the conspiracy theories that his public appearances during that time was a double, “I dove out of a car to save this Black woman’s purse. That ain’t no damn Jamie, that’s a clone.” The star would also address the new lease on life he’s gained since he was discharged from the hospital, “I’m so thankful. And I just get emotional. Because it was really… it’s beyond the scope. Cherish life. I have some people in my life that really made sure I was here because it was dire straits.” However, Foxx would then joke how insufferable his joy became for his family, “I was drinking some water, like ‘Wow, you taste this water? It’s so wet. This is the wettest water’ [and his daughter responded,] ‘Dad, you’ve gotta chill out.’”
Way back in March of 1927, famed writer HP Lovecraft wrote the science-fiction/horror short story The Colour Out of Space. In the story, a meteorite crashes in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. Fifty years later, the people who lived there suffered greatly. Their crops grow bountiful but rotten on the inside, their animals become mutated, and eventually, they themselves are driven to insanity and death. Not only was this Lovecraft’s favorite personal short story but would become one of his most well-regarded works. Sixty years later, in 1987, a film based on Lovecraft’s short story went into production under the title The Farm. What would follow was the financial failure of a movie with stories behind the scenes more grotesque than its monsters. Yet, it still somehow spawned three even more unheard-of and totally unconnected sequels. This is the story of What the F*ck Happened to The Curse?
This second on-screen iteration of HP Lovecraft’s short story would be adapted for the screen by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge scribe David Chaskin. Actor David Keith was then brought on board to direct. You may recognize Keith from his acting in such films as An Officer and a Gentleman, the 2002 Carrie remake, or my personal favorite: as the asshole White Sox catcher Jack Parkman in Major League 2. He definitely has the face of one of those actors who you point to Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood-style and go “Hey, I know that guy from somewhere!” Though it was his first time behind the camera, Keith had the assistance of famed Italian horror film director Lucio Fulci on the set. Fulci’s place there, however, is a matter of contention. For starters, Fulci was credited as Lois Fulci. This is because they changed most of the Italian crew members names in the credit to make them sound more American. The first alarm bell of many that may pop up as we go through the story of the aptly titled The Curse…
Fulci was listed in the credits as a Producer and Special Effects Designer on the film. Which Producer Ovidio Assonitis disputes. He claims Fulci was merely there as a second unit director. Still yet, so many moments in The Curse resemble Fulci’s previous work that it has led some to wonder if Fulci did far more than just direct the second unit or handle the special effects. Perhaps in a Steven Spielberg/Tobe Hooper, “who really directed Poltergeist?” sort of way. In this case, we are unlikely to ever know. This film is not something many people involved in the production seem willing to discuss. For a multitude of reasons.
The film would star Wil Wheaton in his first theatrical part since his performance in Stand by Me put the world on notice the year before. Wheaton played Zack, a teenage boy who was forced into a new family when his mother Alice (Kathleen Jordon Gregory) married Nathan (Claude Adkins). Nathan was… how to put this…. a complete and unfathomable asshole. He was a domineering farmer and father who used the word of his God as an excuse to physically and emotionally keep his kids and wife in line. When he’s not striking the children, he’s telling his wife that her biscuits are dry. That or, demeaning her for trying to get some adult time with him in the bedroom. But Nathan gets what he deserves. Both in his demise (in the form of a pitchfork through the gut) and in the fact that his wife ends up going outside in the middle of the night to bang an extremely creepy barn dude. Don’t ask me why this scene even exists because I won’t have an answer. But damn that guy was hairy. This completely pointless love making scene also happens to be the moment that a meteor arrives at the farm, putting into motion events that poison the water and turn everything to gooey death.
Wheaton’s real-life younger sister Amy Wheaton was cast as his innocent and loving little sister in the film; Opposite his new stepbrother: a mouth-breathing and obnoxious Cyrus. Think of Cyrus as the annoying Friday the 13th Part V chocolate bar guy, only as the entitled favorite child of your asshole step dad. The punchable character was played by Malcolm Danare, who Wheaton would later say was “kind and gentle” in real life, making him and his sister feel a little safer. Which, after the meteorite lands, our characters are anything but.
Once the meteorite melts into the ground and infiltrates the water of this small Tennessee community, they chalk it up to… and I quote… airplane “dookie” that froze on its way down and then melted. There-forth anything that comes into contact with the water is infected. Plants become robust but diseased with worms and other exploding nastiness. The cows grow giant pulsating sacs of worms and other goo. Human beings start to grow boils on their faces and end up mutated, murderous monsters. But the hard-headed community is too wrapped up in either their own greed, religion, or simple hard-headedness to do anything about it before it’s too late.
The entire watching experience of The Curse is a strange one. While the story and setting are American-centric, the effects are Italian horror through and through. Disgusting and over the top in a way that even a simple chicken dinner will make you want to hurl. It’s all Fulci, all the time when it comes to the gross-out gags. These same special effects overlaid with the ultra-80s horror score are, to be honest, the only things that truthfully capture your attention in the film. Most of the characters are obnoxious and the movie focuses on some really pointless shit for much of its runtime. A storyline involving the refusal of Nathan to sell his farm and a plot to build a water dam that doesn’t amount to a pile of frozen airplane space dookie story-wise. But as far as nasty horror scenes go? It’s goo gone wild. Nothing in the film, however, is as gross as what allegedly went on behind the scenes according to a now-adult Wil Wheaton….
In a blog post, titled “When you watch The Curse, you are watching two children who were abused and exploited daily during production. No adults protected us”, Wheaton describes a set where both he and his sister were subjected to both physical and mental abuse. He says that he never wanted to do the film and that even as a kid he knew it would be bad for his career at the time. His parents, however, were tempted by the prospect of a hundred thousand dollars (of which he would only make fifteen cents on the dollar), a trip to Rome, and a role for his little sister. Wheaton recalls being beckoned to a meeting about the film with some producers without his agent. His mother instead acted on his behalf in a meeting where he was frightened and pressured by everyone present to sign on to the project. Once in Rome, he says his sister and he were subjected to a bevy of broken child labor laws and forced to work twelve hours a day without any breaks for five days a week. He says he was touched inappropriately twice by two different adults during production and had no faith his mother would do anything about it were she told. He called the director “coked out of his mind most of the time”, alleging he spent most of his time on set sleeping with or trying to sleep with one of the actresses.
Things unfortunately keep getting darker from there. Wheaton says that the cuts on the face of his little sister as he consoles her in the film were not only real… but were put there by the production themselves. He says the makeup department “would literally cut my little sister’s face with a scalpel, in three places, and put bandages over them”. He also says in his blog that Fulci was the second unit director during the scene where his little sister’s character is attacked by the chickens. He claims that Fulci had live chickens thrown at his then nine-year-old sister, tying their legs to her so that they would peck her. And that their mother was on set and supportive of the scene. He also mentions having “buckets of talc, broken wood, bits of wallpaper and plaster” thrown into his face during the collapsing home scene. Shockingly, there’s not a lot out there in terms of a response to these horrid things Wheaton describes in the blog post. Wheaton says that to this day is unable to watch the film and understandably won’t sign any posters or promotional material from it at horror conventions. Which is what prompted him to finally write the blog post as he didn’t want to have to explain this every time someone brought merch from the film to him to sign. Again, understandably.
As a young Wil Wheaton had feared, the film was a total and utter box office flop grossing less than 2 million dollars domestically for distributor Trans World Entertainment. The film developed a small cult following on VHS and eventually DVD, where all three of its sequels would also land. I haven’t taken part in them myself and won’t but it is said that they have virtually nothing in common with the film. The fourth film, for instance, is a 1988 film titled Catacombs with nothing in common with the franchise that they simply renamed it Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice for its VHS release. Some high quality shit we have going on here, folks. Continuing the juxtaposition between the American and Italian horror themes, two different soundtracks were made for the film. An American and Italian version. Each with a ten minute score suite from Black Demons.
The reviews and critical responses to the movie itself are a bit hard to gauge. Some call it an entertaining gross-out film, while others refer to it as “increasingly unwatchable and flat-out incompetent” movie.
As far as the films effect on Wil Wheaton, he says, “Ultimately, as I predicted and feared, this piece of shit movie cashed me out of respectable films forever. I got offers for movies, but they were always mindless comedies or exploitative horror films. They were never the serious dramas I wanted to work in after Stand by Me”. Wheaton would go on to explain that the studios had compared him and River Phoenix to each other since Stand by Me released, wondering which of them was a more bankable star. He noted that they would see Phoenix doing respectable films with Harrison Ford and then see him “in this piece of shit”.
Wheaton would salvage his situation however and go on to play Wesley Crusher in the hit series Star Trek: The Next Generation among many other roles throughout his career.
For those of you who don’t want any part of this film knowing what has been alleged here but still want to see the story of Colour Out of Shape unfold on screen? HP Lovecraft’s work was previously adapted as Die, Monster, Die! starring Boris Karloff. Then again in 2019’s Color Out of Space, directed by The Island of Dr. Moreau’s Richard Stanley and starring the great Nicolas Cage.
And that, my friends, is what happened to The Curse.
A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
