io9 speaks with Simon Barrett, writer-director of the new horror movie Seance, about his screenwriting process, his love of “old-fashioned” horror, and what it’s like trying to make a scary movie in a time when the real world is terrifying as hell.
Photo: Diane Freed (Getty Images)
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a pretty trashy, by-the-numbers example of the kind of slasher revival films that dominated the horror genre a few decades ago (it’s like
Scream without being clever), but it does have one standout scene: After being sufficiently terrorized by a mysterious killer with a big hook and a raincoat (who knows what they did last summer), Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character breaks down in the middle of the street and screams to the heavens: “What are you waiting for, huh? What are you waiting for?” It’s a relatively grounded expression of fear that has transcended cowering in a corner and become outright frustration. The killer is fucking with her and her friends, and she’s sick of it. She wants them to just come out and get it over with.
I Know What You Did Last Summer Star Says Saw Turned His Film Into a Comedy
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The back half of the 90s saw the return of teen-aged slasher, all of which ranged in their actual effectiveness, with star of the first two I Know What You Did Last Summer films Freddie Prinze Jr. recently joking that James Wan s work in the subsequent decade made his films feel so tame that they might as well be comedies. Kicking off with
Saw, which he followed with films like
Insidious and
The Conjuring, it s hard to argue with just how frightening of adventures Wan has delivered audiences over the years, but for those who have a soft spot for slashers, Prinze s earlier efforts are likely just as effective as they were back then.
Bill Heck
(I’m Your Woman) are reported by Deadline to be joining the YA horror series which will be a “modern take” on the 1997 slasher movie. Production will begin this month in Hawaii.
Sam Esmail has a new TV series on the way, and it has just been picked up to pilot by ABC, according to Deadline. The
Homecoming director and
Mr. Robot creator makes his first foray into broadcast television with the procedural
Acts of Crime, which is described as a “unique spin” on the crime procedural. Esmail is set to write, direct and execute produce the series.
Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Though sharing the same premise as the late- 90s film, the series is in fact based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan.
I Know What You Did Last Summer follows a group of teenagers who are stalked by a mysterious hook-wielding killer the year after they covered up their involvement in a fatal accident on graduation night.
Sara Goodman (
Preacher) will write and executive produce. Craig Macneill will direct and executive produce the first episode. Production is set to begin in Hawaii this month.
And finally, no, you don’t have deja-vu, nor are you living in an endless loop (although at times it does feel like you are); Andy Samberg’s just going back to the land of sci-fi comedy. According to