Director McG adapts the popular YA novel into a by-the-numbers science-fiction flick.

Last Updated on September 17, 2024

Plot: In a futuristic world that imposes a cosmetic surgery at 16, Tally is eager for her turn to join the rest of society. But when a friend runs away, Tally embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.

Review: After Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were adapted for the big screen, every studio wanted to launch a franchise based on a Young Adult book series. While Twilight was the biggest success, countless other series were met with lukewarm receptions yet still delivered multiple sequels. It has been several years since The Maze Runner, Percy Jackson, and Divergent stopped adding to their intellectual property while countless others failed to get past an initial entry. Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, Uglies is Netflix‘s belated attempt to attract the YA audience with what is intended to be the first in a potential quadrilogy. Led by up-and-coming star Joey King, who also produces the film, Uglies is as generic as dystopian films can get and misses the subtext that the novel tried to relay about the perils of vanity and superficiality.

Uglies is set in a dystopian future where society has collapsed due to war and climate change. When scientists develop a flower that solves all issues, a class divide separates the Pretties from the Rusties. Pretties begin life as “ugly” children who are given cosmetic surgery at the age of sixteen, which transforms them into perfect human beings, which they claim prevents any conflict between people. Rusties are those who cling to the old, natural form of society, live outside of protected cities and are treated as the enemies of Pretties. On the cusp of her sixteenth birthday, we meet Tally Youngblood (Joey King) and her best friend, Peris (Chase Stokes), who are ready to transform into Pretties. After Peris leaves, Tally befriends Shay (Brianne Tju), who runs away to join renegade Rusties leader David (Keith Powers). When Tally’s birthday arrives, she is recruited by Dr Cable (Laverne Cox), leader of the city, to track down Shay and rescue her from David and the Rusties. Knowing it may be her only way to become a Pretty, Tally heads out on the quest, prepared to betray the Rusties to get what she wants.

From there, Uglies follows the same formula as almost every YA franchise mentioned in this review. Assuming the Rusties are the bad guys, Tally learns their ways, lives alongside them, and discovers that Dr. Cable and the Pretties have been lying to her all along. But it is already too late as her betrayal sets the Pretties on a path to destroy the Rusties, and only Tally, her newfound fighting skills, and her warrior spirit can save the day. There are the requisite characters who distrust Tally from the start and the love interest who sees who she truly is in her soul and helps sway Tally to join their cause, resulting in an epic showdown between the two enemy factions. It also means that along the way, we have some unsubtle explanations as to how cosmetic surgery has mutated the brains of the Pretties, making them into actual monsters. The last time a film tried to trash a specific medical specialty through heavy-handed science fiction, we had John Travolta in Battlefield: Earth, and look how that turned out.

Joey King has proven to be a talented actor with a substantial range in action films, The Princess and Bullet Train, drama in the Fargo and The Act series, and comedy in The Kissing Booth trilogy. The twenty-five-year-old actress is borderline credible as a sixteen-year-old but cannot overcome the hammy dialogue she has to spout in this film. On the other end of things, Laverne Cox seems to have a blast hamming it up as the villainous Dr. Cable, with none of her scenes coming anywhere close to feeling serious or threatening. Most of this cast barely manages to muster more than the most superficial of emotional responses, with Keith Powers and Brianne Tju coming the closest. At 100 minutes, Uglies chugs along briskly and rarely slows down to invest in much actual character development. The characters speak most of the depth in this film through weak, wooden, expository dialogue, and the audience needs little to no investment to care about anything that happens.

Adapted by Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor, and Whit Anderson, Uglies keeps fairly close to Scott Westerfeld’s novel and retains the links for the three subsequent entries in the book series. Director McG, helming his fourth consecutive Netflix feature film, shows almost none of the visual swagger his two Charlie’s Angels films boasted over twenty years ago. Uglies looks and feels generic, with some of the costumes serving as blatant rip-offs from the Tron costume department. None of the action sequences feel distinct from this movie, and the production values are lifted from The Maze Runner, while the cool hoverboards are a carbon copy of the iconic Back to the Future Part II boards. It also does not help that while the novel featured a message about body image and dysphoria, the idea of ugly and pretty being a distinction carries no depth. Because none of the actors portraying uglies are in any way unattractive, it further undermines the message the novel is trying to convey.

Uglies is not a very good movie, and it starts with the lack of anything truly distinct about this compared to the numerous other dystopian teen movies out there. Joey King is underused as a character with nothing special about her despite attempts to show why she deserves to be the movie’s heroine. Equally, McG fails to elevate the already weak screenplay to any level on par with his prior directorial efforts, resulting in a borderline offensive movie in how bland it is. Uglies is yet another Netflix project that tries to be more than it can be with a talented cast squandered on cheesy dialogue and underbaked plot elements. Avoid this one unless your teenage child demands that you watch it with them.

Sony’s overwhelming success with its adaptation of author Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us has paved the way for another book from the best-selling novelist to get the silver screen treatment with Regretting You. Discussion about It Ends With Us, starring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and Brandon Sklenar, have dominated watercoolers since the romantic drama’s theatrical release, with big box office numbers, controversy, and rumors keeping the film on tongues. Today, Deadline says Paramount Pictures has landed the rights to Regretting You, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2019 bestseller. The Fault in Our Stars helmer Josh Boone directs Regretting You, with M3GAN and Girls actress Allison Williams set to star. Dave Franco (The Disaster Artist, Dayshift), Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), and Mason Thames (The Black Phone, Walker)join Williams to lead the cast.

Here’s a synopsis for Hoover’s Regretting You novel courtesy of Amazon:

Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.

Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.

With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris―Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.

While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.

Will Regretting You yield as much success for Paramount as It Ends With Us did for Sony? Are we about to enter the Hooververse with more of the author’s stories getting the feature film treatment? I’m sure her fans hope so.

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.

Skye Riley, the pop star lead character from Smile 2, has released a new single one month ahead of the film’s release

Writer/director Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 horror film Smile (read our review HERE, watch the movie HERE) is aiming for an October 18th theatrical release date, and in Smile 2 we’ll be following a new lead character: pop star Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott of Aladdin and Charlie’s Angels. A couple of months ago, billboards promoting this previously unheard of pop star started popping up in Los Angeles and London, and a Skye Riley fan account appeared on Instagram, with an official website also arriving online. Now, a month away from Smile 2‘s release date, the fictional pop star has released a new single called “Grieved You.” A promotional video can be seen in the embed above, and the full song can be found at THIS LINK.

The fact that the lead character is a pop star was first revealed in the trailer that was shown to attendees of the CinemaCon event back in April. JoBlo’s own Lance Vlcek was in attendance and wrote this report: Story appears to be set around a Taylor Swift type of mega-star artist (Naomi Scott) who gets sucked into the curse of Smile. The sequel has a bigger budget and slicker look, seems to be bigger in scope. There was a very cool scene where a crowd of people under control of the entity are in a tight backstage hallway chasing Naomi Scott, all of them smiling in that creepy way. Plot-wise, it doesn’t give much away. It was a montage of creepy imagery, jump scares, and a whole lot of creepy people smiling.

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.

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

Are you looking forward to Smile 2? What did you think of Skye Riley’s new single? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The upcoming horror film The 7 Dwarves will put a terrifying twist on the classic children’s story of Snow White

Putting a horror twist on popular children’s story characters who are in the public domain has become a popular trend these days. Multiple Mickey Mouse horror films are making their way out into the world since the earliest Mickey cartoons are now public domain, filmmakers are working on horror versions of Goldilocks, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, and a whole cinematic universe is being built out of horror movies based on the likes of Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Peter Pan, and others. Another project in this line-up of films designed to tarnish the reputation of childhood favorites is The 7 Dwarves, which puts a terrifying twist on the story of Snow White and is scheduled for release in March of 2025.

Promising a spine-chilling ride that will leave viewers on the edge of their seats, The 7 Dwarves has the following synopsis: In The 7 Dwarves, Snow White narrowly escapes the clutches of the evil witch, only to find herself lost in the eerie depths of the dark forest. But her nightmare is far from over. She soon becomes the prey of a sadistic group of dwarves (Cranky, Jolly, Drowsy, Meek, Snuffy, Wheezy, Chief, and Ditzy). Far from being her protectors, these sadistic dwarves hunt her relentlessly, forcing Snow White to fight for survival. As she outwits and eliminates each dwarf one by one, the tension rises to a blood-soaked climax in this spine-chilling horror reimagining.

Colin Patrick Ryan is directing the film from a script by producer Chris Hoyt and executive producer Galen Christy. A press release notes, “Combining suspense, horror, and a reimagined take on a familiar tale, The 7 Dwarves promises to captivate horror fans and fairytale enthusiasts alike.” Christy adds, “We’re thrilled to bring audiences a bold, new vision of Snow White like they’ve never seen before. By turning this beloved tale into a nightmarish
survival story, fans of the original will be captivated by the unexpected twists and turns that horror lovers will be talking about for years to come!“

The 7 Dwarves is being produced by CTRL+N and Octane MultiMedia, and will star newcomer Lia Ryan in the role of Snow White. Hoyt is producing the film with Josh McKamie, Colin Stein, and Andy Swanson.

Are you looking forward to seeing how The 7 Dwarves will mix horror and the story of Snow White? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

The What Happened to This Horror Movie series looks back at the fifth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise, A New Beginning

It’s Friday the 13th, and we have decided to celebrate by releasing a new episode of the What Happened to This Horror Movie? video series that digs into one of the more divisive entries in the Friday the 13th film franchise: the fifth entry, 1985’s Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (watch it HERE), a movie that doesn’t have Jason Voorhees or his mother doing the killing. This time around, the slashing was done by a copycat – and you can hear all about it in the video embedded above.

Directed by Danny Steinmann, who also crafted the screenplay with Martin Kitrosser and David Cohen, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has the following synopsis: Years after Tommy Jarvis murdered hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees, he resides in a mental hospital and struggles with the trauma of the experience. When Tommy moves to an isolated halfway house, he has nightmares about Jason’s return, and soon one of the patients is killed. As the body count grows, Tommy begins to question his sanity and wonder if Jason has risen from the dead. But, to determine the killer’s identity, Tommy will need to survive.

The film stars Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Corey Feldman, Shavar Ross, Richard Young, Dick Wieand, Marco St. John, Tiffany Helm, Juliette Cummins, Jerry Pavlon, Vernon Washington, Debi Sue Voorhees, John Robert Dixon, William Caskey Swaim, Richard Lineback, Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Jere Fields, Bob De Simone, Rebecca Wood, Corey Parker, Anthony Barrile, Todd Bryant, Curtis Conaway, Sonny Shields, Dominick Brascia, Mark Venturini, Carol Locatell, Ron Sloan, and Ric Mancini.

This is what the What Happened to This Horror Movie series is all about: Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: What Happened To This Horror Movie?

The Friday the 13th: A New Beginning episode of What Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written, Edited, and Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A couple of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

What do you think of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Kelsey Grammer reunites with more guest stars for the second season revival of the classic sitcom.

Last Updated on September 14, 2024

Plot: Frasier Crane is in the next chapter of his life after he returns to Boston to face new challenges, forge new relationships and—with hope— finally fulfill an old dream or two. The sophomore season will see Dr. Frasier Crane return to his radio roots at KACL in a Seattle-themed episode. The series is filmed in front of a live studio audience at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Review: While many of you may feel that Frasier is too old school, we love the series here at JoBlo.com. The revival of the Cheers spin-off was a refreshingly retro sitcom filmed in front of a studio audience that, while familiar, was better than many other recent series returning to the airwaves. After a ten-episode first season knocked any dust off the character of Frasier Crane, the season two run jumps right into the screwball shenanigans that have always made the character and his supporting players enjoyable to watch. With the new characters finding their stride, the second season of the Frasier revival is showing signs of being as good as its predecessor, with one episode in particular ranking alongside the very best of the original series.

Over the first five episodes of the second season of Frasier, the series focuses on different aspects of Frasier’s relationships with friends and family. There are also romantic interests for Frasier, notably with a Valentine’s Day-themed episode that recalls some of the zanier comedy of errors plots from the first series. It is also very apparent that the writers have elected to spotlight some cast members more than others, with Nicholas Lyndenhurst’s Alan Cornwall getting an ongoing subplot involving his distant relationship with his children. Lindenhurst, whose character is designed as a replacement of sorts for David Hyde Pierce’s Niles, still gets a lot of fun out of Alan’s disdain for work, adversarial relationship with Olivia Finch (Togs Olagundoye), and overall appetite for alcohol.

There are also key storylines for Eve (Jess Salgueiro) and Olivia, each of whom feels more central to this season’s plots rather than supporting characters. The most notable downgrade in these first episodes is Anders Keith’s David Crane. In season one, David is a pratfall-prone clone of his father, Niles, and, at one point, is reduced to reading supposed notes from his father, which feels like a lazy way to try and incorporate elements of that classic sibling rivalry. David was the weakest addition to the cast in the first season, and his limited presence this season actually helped the other characters gel. The differences between Frasier and his son Freddie (Jack Cutmore-Scott) also feel more natural to the story this season and less a forced dynamic to turn father and son into an odd couple that worked organically between Kelsey Grammer and John Mahoney in the first series.

This season does boast some fun guest stars in the early episodes, including Amy Sedaris and Grammer’s Back To You co-star Patricia Heaton, who plays a bartender that will recur later in the season. The biggest legacy characters we get to see back include Peri Gilpin as Frasier’s longtime producer and friend, Roz, who gets a fun outing centered on Eve and her baby. The other and most anticipated return is Bebe Glazer, Frasier’s duplicitous agent. Bebe, once again brilliantly played by Harriet Sansom Harris, returns in the fifth episode alongside guest star Rachel Bloom in what will absolutely go down as one of the best episodes of this revival and easily one of the best episodes of both iterations of the sitcom. Harris’ iconic portrayal is one of the best characters on television, and the fifth episode had me rolling.

The second season brings back director James Burrows, co-creator of Cheers, who helmed 240 episodes of the Boston-set sitcom along with 32 episodes of the original Frasier and every episode of Will & Grace. This season sees the return of director Kelly Park and writers Joe Cristalli, Chris Harris, Miles Woods, and more, along with new scribes. All of the behind-the-scenes talent made these first episodes feel more naturally funny than the first season, which was very solid compared to other sitcom revivals. The humor centered on Frasier’s haughty likes and dislikes gets put on display in episodes about Iberian ham, opera, squash, and much more. However, they are balanced by the younger cast members who help keep things from feeling aimed entirely at the viewers who watched the first series over twenty years ago.

Frasier may strike some as a relic of the multi-camera sitcom with a studio audience laugh track in an era where single-camera shows have dominated the airwaves. By focusing on shorter seasons and emphasizing good writing and the natural talents of Kelsey Grammer and his ensemble of co-stars, the revival of Frasier is better than the season that came before it. I laughed more in these five episodes than I have with any other current comedies on the air, and it is always fun to see humor when handled by the voice of Sideshow Bob. Frasier remains one of the best sitcoms of all time, and this revival proves that the character still has a long way to go. If anything, this season is a must-see for the return of Bebe alone.

Full Moon has released a trailer for the second film in their upcoming Pulp Noir line-up, the vampire tale Death Streamer

Earlier this year, Full Moon founder Charles Band announced that his company was launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, which will focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” They also set up a Patreon account where fans can subscribe and show their support for the company while getting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of these films. The first movie in the Pulp Noir line, a female serial killer story called Quadrant, received a Blu-ray, DVD, limited edition VHS, and streaming release (on Amazon Prime, Full Moon Features, and Tubi, among others) on August 23rd – and the second Pulp Noir movie, Death Streamer, is following close behind! A trailer for the film can be seen in the embed above. UPDATE: Since this article was first posted, Full Moon has announced that Death Streamer will be receiving the same type of release Quadrant was given, with its release date being October 11th!

Directed by Band, Death Streamer has the following synopsis: A modern-age vampire employs technologically advanced glasses that enable him to not only hunt his victims in and out of the virtual world… but also live stream his bloody feasts for all to see! As this high-tech ghoul continues to glut on his screaming victims, his internet-based cult of personality expands, his fanbase addicted to watching the slaughter. But when an intrepid trio of young supernatural investigators lock-down on the trail of the “Death Streamer”, the fiend turns the tables and begins stalking them.

The cast includes Aaron McDaniel (Murder of God’s Banker), Sean Ohlman (The Hand That Robs the Cradle), Kaitlin Moore (Something’s in the Air), Emma Massalone (Yellowstone), Piper Parks (Sarah Q), Llana Barron (Queen of Revenge), Angel R. Reed (Air Fryer Slaughter), Ashley Lanese (Ascension), Travis Stoner (Phobia), Halle Hubre (Beyond the Resonator), Dan Culligan (Comic Book Men), newcomers Skyler Switalski, Joe Orosz, and Chili Jean, and porn star Maddy May.

I have been a Full Moon fan for decades and check out everything the company releases, so I will definitely be watching Death Streamer. It looks like a good time to me.

Are you a Full Moon fan, and will you be watching Death Streamer? Take a look at the trailer, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

Marvel Studios’ new Agatha All Along posters evoke witches from different eras in pop culture for a killer promotional campaign.

Something wicked this way comes to Disney+ next week when Marvel Studios brings the WandaVision spinoff series Agatha All Along to the mouse-eared streamer. In the highly-anticipated and spooky-looking series, Kathryn Hahn returns as the deliciously devilish Agatha Harkness, who, in the final episode of WandaVision, became trapped in an enchanted prison by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Blissfully unaware of her power, the facade shatters upon the arrival of Billy Kaplan (Hearstopper’sHearstopper’s Joe Locke), a mysterious goth teen who turns Agatha’sAgatha’s world upside down. Today, Marvel Studios gives fans seven new Agatha All Along posters to feast their eyes upon while waiting for the show’s September 18 launch.

The new Agatha All Along posters are giving me life this Friday afternoon. Characters from the series pose in various settings from alternate eras in stylish new prints, with the images evoking everything from A Nightmare on Elm Street to rock ‘n’ roll figures like Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin, ’70s flower children and ’80s horror classics. Each poster is more intriguing than the next, as much is still unknown about the series. Will Agatha All Along bounce around in tone and environment like WandaVision? Is this a clever ad campaign to tempt viewers with the show’s horror-centric tone?

In addition to Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza, Agatha All Along features Joe Locke, Patti LuPone, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Debra Jo Rupp, Maria Dizzia, Emma Caufield Ford, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Holly Ward.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Agatha All Along pays tribute to witches from different eras of family sitcoms. Speaking with EW, Hahn spoke about how the show allowed her to emulate one of the most famous witches in Hollywood history — the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. Hahn stated that it “was also a childhood dream come true.” Meanwhile, her co-star, Patti LuPone, would don numerous crowns as Glinda, “I think I speak for a lot of us, we were breathless when we got to see Patti as a good witch for that first time,” Hahn recalls. “It was so dear and perfect, and just the sweetest thing — not words that you would normally [use to] describe this powerhouse on a stage.”

Here’s the official synopsis from Disney:

In Marvel Studios’ Agatha All Along, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps free her from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary ‘Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven and set off down The Road…

Agatha All Along begins casting a spell on Disney+ on September 18, 2024, to lead into the Halloween holiday.

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.

PLOT: A veteran assassin is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and authorizes a kill on himself. After ordering the kill, an army of former colleagues pounce and a new piece of information comes to light. Insanity ensues.

REVIEW: There’s a certain type of film that has been relegated to streaming services in recent years. Sadly, mid-tier action films sprinkled with comedy stopped being considered worthwhile theatrical investments. Thus, those movies our grandparents would claim as “that great movie you need to see” were left to be discovered on Netflix and Max. But something strange is happening with Lionsgate this year and they felt a theatrical release was justified for The Killer’s Game. At first, I was intrigued because Bautista is known for picking interesting roles and the quality must be great to warrant such a release. Instead, I was met with a generic action film that switches gears so many times it doesn’t know what it wants to be. And proving why these are better left on streaming.

The concept of The Killer’s Game is quite intriguing with a veteran assassin, Joe Flood, being told he only has six months to live. Having just met the love of his life, he wants his life insurance policy to go to her, so he puts a hit on himself. Only to find out that the doctor’s switched up his paperwork and he’s not actually dying. Unfortunately, he also discovers that the contract can’t be terminated. So with an army of assassins baring down on him, Joe has to fight to stay alive, so he can finally live the life he’s always wanted. It practically feels straight out of the 90s and is very charming. Unfortunately, it becomes so generic and stereotypical that nearly every single story beat can be guessed. 

As a Dave Bautista fan, I’m disappointed to say that he’s just kind of middle-of-the-road here. He’s essentially just playing a bland hitman with a heart and it doesn’t go much further than that. Even his line delivery feels like he’s just kind of sleepwalking through the part. However, I did enjoy his chemistry with Sofia Boutella, who surprised me with her vulnerability in the more romantic moments. As someone who tends to roll my eyes when she pops up in a movie, this is a big step for me. Terry Crews also has a fun part as one of the hitmen on Joe’s tail.

The Killer’s Game has this really bad habit of giving these big grand entrances to the assassins, only for them to be taken out lickety-split. This wouldn’t be an issue if it just happened the one time but it happens repeatedly, lessening the impact of each introduction. This wants to be Smokin Aces only it forgot to actually introduce interesting characters that the audience wants to see more of. Instead, all of these assassins just blend together and feel as generic as the next. The only one that really stands out is Crews, who is essentially just playing the same guy he always plays in action movies, and WWE’s Drew McIntyre, a non-sensical Scottish man who defecates in his own pants. Pom Klementieff feels severely underutilized and they really don’t take advantage of her action chops.

There are some fun action moments but most of them devolve into a grenade exploding and bodies being thrown in every direction. There’s one scene that involves jiu-jitsu that feels like a fun little chess battle. But otherwise, the action feels so overly choreographed that it loses all realism and therefore impact. I’m not saying I need a completely grounded film but every stuntman is just waiting to be pummeled. And the CGI blood is absolutely out of control and may be the most egregious of any 2024 release. It’d be one thing if it actually looked good but most of the time it just looks like blueberry jam. I would have preferred no violence over this CGI nonsense.

Despite Bautista’s great dramatic track record, he just can’t seem to pull it together when it comes to non-Marvel action. I think this can be attributed to the man clearly wanting to star in a Rom-Com, therefore taking any role that even somewhat resembles that. But this script is so weak that he’s unable to elevate the material to any considerable degree. There are some fun moments, but everything about The Killer’s Game screams generic and average. And with Bautista seemingly wrapping down his time as an action star, I really hope he figures it out before it’s too late. Because god knows the man can act his ass off.

THE KILLER’S GAME IS PLAYING IN THEATERS ON SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2024.

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On Halloween of 2022, it was announced that Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller would be developing a Friday the 13th series called Crystal Lake for A24 and the Peacock streaming service… but things have turned out to be more complicated than expected. First, the lengthy writers strike slowed down the progress of the show, then Fuller got the boot and was replaced. It remains to be seen when Crystal Lake will be going into production, but since Friday the 13th has come back around on the calendar, we thought this would be a good time for us to share Everything We Know About Crystal Lake!

FIRST SHOWRUNNER

As mentioned, Bryan Fuller was steering this ship when it was first announced, and it nearly started filming with him (and his frequent collaborator Jim Danger Gray) at the helm. Production was set to begin on July 22nd, with filming to last for seven to eight months. Charlize Theron was being considered for the role of Pamela Voorhees, Claire Danes was offered the role and turned it down, Vincenzo Natali (Cube) and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) were on board to direct episodes. Peacock had provided a budget of $85 million for the first season, which was set to consist of eight episodes, and a $300,000 deposit had been placed on soundstages in Canada… then A24 decided to “go a different way” with the material, moving ahead with Crystal Lake without the involvement of Bryan Fuller. So for right now, it could be said that we don’t know anything about what Crystal Lake will be. We only have an idea of what the Fuller version would have been. That information follows, with an update on the new showrunner at the bottom of this article.

Why did Fuller lose the job? The Wrap tried to get to the bottom of the problems, unearthing talk of unpaid writers, inexperienced executives, and questionable bookkeeping. One source said that A24 didn’t feel confident in the vision Fuller and Gray had for the show and had to pull the plug. Another source said, “It felt like everybody on the Bryan/Jim side were trying very hard to make the show. A24 felt like they were doing everything they could to not make the show.” There’s confusion over whether or not Peacock was aware of the decision to fire Fuller and Gray, were directly involved with the decision, or if the order came from one of the top executives at Universal… but whatever the case, they were fired.

Each episode of Crystal Lake was set to have a budget of $9.6 million, but A24 reportedly wanted to cut that in half. Instead, the budget was rising. In a story that The Wrap heard from more than one source, “Inman Young, A24’s production head whose previous credits include projects like The Whale (budget: $3 million) and Waves (budget: $6 million), claimed the show wasn’t just slightly over budget, it was 100% over budget. Several members of the Crystal Lake production team refuted that assertion.” The Wrap found that the show was 4 to 6 million over budget for the entire season.

RIGHTS SITUATION

While the Friday the 13th franchise has been at a standstill in recent years due to a copyright lawsuit between original Friday the 13th producer/director Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriter Victor Miller, that lawsuit has come to an end. Miller has been awarded the copyright to the 1980 classic within the United States (as well as non-exclusive foreign rights), and to get this TV show rolling he has teamed up with his lawyer Marc Toberoff and Rob Barsamian – an investor in the original Friday the 13th who has a stake in the rest of the franchise. Due to the involvement of both Miller and Barsamian, the makers of Crystal Lake will be able to use anything they want from the existing Friday the 13th franchise. From Mrs. Voorhees to every variation of Jason Voorhees, it’s all fair game.

As Fuller told Fangoria, “We can use everything. We can go to Hell, we can go to space. That’s not to say that we will do those things … although if we do go 10 seasons, I will be lobbying hard to go to space. (laughs) A24 and Marc Toberoff, have beautifully and excruciatingly assembled all of the Friday the 13th rights. As a streaming series, we have the rights to do everything underneath the Friday the 13th umbrella. The movie rights are a completely different thing. They are tied up at New Line and are super, super messy and probably won’t be untangled anytime soon, but as far as us chickens in the television industry, uh, roost, we have access to anything and everything that Friday the 13th has done up until this point.“

Crystal Lake is part of A24’s goal to expand into more commercial projects, as they were specifically looking for a globally recognized property that could move them into more mainstream territory. So the idea of expanding the Friday the 13th franchise is very appealing to them. According to The Wrap’s article, Fuller’s approach to the material was to make each season a deconstruction of the first four Friday the 13th films. “The series would incorporate lore from several sequels but remix that material in a way similar to Fuller’s Hannibal, which interpolated the Thomas Harris novels for three seasons.” A source close to A24 confirmed, “We had the mask, we had the sequels, we could do whatever we wanted. He had a good path forward, which I did really like.“

CAST

Only one cast member was announced when Fuller was involved, but it’s a name Friday the 13th fans will be familiar with. Adrienne King, who played final girl Alice Hardy in the original film (and returned for the opening sequence of Friday the 13th Part 2, where she was killed off) will have a recurring role on Crystal Lake. It has not been revealed who King would be playing on the show, or if she’ll still be involved now that Fuller has moved on.

Fridaythe13thFranchise teased that there would be “big surprises coming for actors involved as well as who will be portraying certain characters“. We do know that Fuller met up with Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter FX artist Tom Savini, but we don’t know what was discussed during that meeting.

WRITERS

When Fuller was showrunner, he was writing episodes of the show. He also revealed that Scream writer Kevin Williamson would be scripting an episode, which Williamson later described as an hour-long chase episode… and we learned that the chase sequence would be “set entirely on a frozen Crystal Lake, with the summer camp’s cabins trapped under snow drifts.” Fuller gathered a group of writers for what would usually be called a “writers room”, but for some reason it couldn’t legally be called that in this situation. Instead, it was called a “think tank” and these writers were brought together to brainstorm ideas for the show over the course of six weeks. In this think tank were Fuller’s “three lieutenants”, who have worked with him on previous shows like Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and American Gods, as well as Tommy Pico, who is on the Reservation Dogs staff; Tananarive Due, who has written multiple novels over the last thirty years and executive produced Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror; and Steven Barnes, who is also an author and has also contributed scripts to shows like Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits, and the ’80s version of The Twilight Zone. There were others in the think tank, but their names haven’t been revealed.

On Barnes and Due’s podcast Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!, Barnes said the work they did in the “think tank” was “The weaving together of a dozen different threads, the epitome of the plotter technique“… that being used to describe the approach of completely plotting out a story before writing it. “To write without any sense of an outline is diametrically opposed to what was happening in that room.” Every idea was broken down with meticulous detail.

Due was awed that “an entire room of very, very high level and smart storytellers can swim in the same direction and do so peacefully, and then if the showrunner says, ‘Eh, I don’t like that direction,’ then bam! They’re all swimming in another direction.” The goal in the room was to “integrate with the mastermind”, the mastermind being Fuller in this case. “You’re not in charge, it’s not your story, you are in service to the mastermind, in service to the showrunner.”

Barnes pointed out that the showrunner is then “in service to the money people who are actually paying for all of this, so he needs to able to communicate to the writers and keep a group of people on track, but also be able to understand how they would be able to produce this and comfort the money people that their money is being spent well.“

Apparently traditional writers rooms last for much longer, something like thirteen weeks. But Due and her collaborators were told “this room was moving very, very fast. That we broke the number of episodes we had in six weeks, whereas some rooms would have only broken one episode in six weeks.” They said they were able to work at that speed and figure out the episodes so quickly because of the “extraordinary leadership” of Fuller.

Williamson said the script Fuller wrote for the pilot episode “was so beautifully realized. A gorgeous portait of a mother unraveling in her grief. Not to mention bloody horrific!” Cube director Vincenzo Natali, who worked with Fuller on Hannibal, added that Fuller’s Crystal Lake would be “another Hannibal-level reinvention that was simultaneously beautiful, sad, poetic, funny and horrifying.” We don’t know if any scripts that were written under the guidance of Fuller will be used for the final version of the show.

MUSIC

Harry Manfredini created the memorable scores for most of the Friday the 13th films – including the iconic “Ki ki ki ma ma ma” sound effect. Other composers took over for Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Freddy vs. Jason, and the 2009 Friday the 13th. Fuller planned for there to be two musical options to choose from when fans watch Crystal Lake on Peacock: a classic Harry Manfredini score and a modern score.

“PRE-REMAKE-UEL”

When Crystal Lake was first announced, it was described in news reports as a “prequel” to the films. That’s not a term Fuller would use, and when asked about it he said it was a “pre-remake-uel”… whatever that may mean. During a later public appearance, he said, “We’re honestly going to be covering it all. The series is covering the life and times of these two characters” (presumably he’s referring to Pamela Voorhees and Jason Voorhees there!) The plan was that we would see “many familiar manifestations of Jason” throughout the series while revisiting Camp Crystal Lake.

Fuller also said the Crystal Lake series would be appropriately murderous, probably “dropping bodies every episode”. Much like Hannibal, the show would have a distinctive look.

MULTIPLE SEASONS

Peacock has given Crystal Lake a full-season commitment with a penalty if they don’t do a season 2, so it’s basically a two season commitment. Thinking ahead, Fuller mapped out four seasons of the show. When the show was announced, Fuller provided the following statement: “I discovered Friday the 13th in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since. When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled to be exploring the camp grounds of Crystal Lake under their banner.“

NEW SHOWRUNNER

Despite running into problems on Crystal Lake, A24 is still committed to making the show, which is said to be very important to Peacock. A source close to A24, lawyer Marc Toberoff, and a source close to NBCUniversal all confirmed that Crystal Lake is still moving forward. With Fuller removed from the job, it just needed to find a new showrunner – one A24 would be confident going into production with. It remains to be seen if they will use the original Fuller scripts and outlines, or start over completely. Nick Antosca – a co-producer on Hannibal and an executive producer on Chucky – was one of the contenders for the showrunner job, but it was believed that Antosca (who wrote the screenplay for an unmade Friday the 13th reboot back in 2015) would scrap Fuller’s work and rebuild Crystal Lake from the ground up if he signed on.

After a three month search, the showrunner job ended up going to Brad Caleb Kane, who also serves as co-showrunner and executive producer of It: Welcome to Derry, the It prequel series that’s coming to HBO next year. In addition to showrunner, Kane will be credited as creator, writer, and executive producer of Crystal Lake.

Kane hasn’t said whether or not he has any intention of salvaging elements from the Fuller scripts, but he did provide the following statement: “From the moment I watched Jason Voorhees squeeze a guy’s eyeball out of its socket (in glorious 3D!) at the tender age of 8 years old, I knew my creative path was someday destined to converge with The Man Behind The Mask. Nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick, and nothing’s defined the genre more than Friday the 13th. I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to this iconic franchise, particularly with such fearless partners as Peacock and A24.“

Now, we wait to find out what Kane is going to do with this project now that it’s in his hands.

That’s everything we know about Crystal Lake at this point – but as more details are revealed, we’ll be sharing the news with you here on JoBlo and Arrow in the Head!