Mike

What happens when a franchise that has been relegated to the straight-to-video dumpster gets a lifeline from one of the hottest writers in Hollywood? In 1994, just one week after Quentin Tarantino walked away from the Oscars with an Academy Award for Pulp Fiction, his longtime friend and Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary revealed that his next dream project was the fourth Phantasm movie.

It was an ambitious plan to resurrect Don Coscarelli’s bizarre horror franchise. Avary had a wild script, Coscarelli was on board to direct, and the proposed movie was unlike anything the series had attempted before.

It never happened. Instead, Coscarelli had to start over with a fraction of the proposed budget, a mountain of salvaged props, footage left over from the original Phantasm, and one of the strangest investor pitches imaginable: a model wearing a bra made from the franchise’s signature silver spheres.

The funeral for Phantasm was beginning. Or was it? This is the story of what happened to Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

The Roger Avary Phantasm That Never Happened

After Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead arrived in 1994, the future of the franchise was uncertain once again. Universal had relegated the third movie to home video, making it increasingly difficult to imagine Phantasm returning to theaters. Then Roger Avary came calling.

Fresh off the success of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Avary could have pursued virtually any project he wanted. Instead, he contacted Coscarelli about making another Phantasm movie. Avary was a longtime fan of the series and had known Coscarelli since the late 1980s, when the two spent time together during the production of Survival Quest. At some point, Coscarelli mentioned an idea involving Reggie traveling through a horrific wasteland.

Avary never forgot it. When he approached Coscarelli in 1994, even the director tried to convince him that making another Phantasm was a bad idea. The franchise was already struggling to escape the direct-to-video market. Avary didn’t care. He wanted to make the ultimate Phantasm sequel, and Coscarelli intended to direct.

Over the following months, the pair developed a screenplay originally titled Phantasm 1999 A.D.. As the years passed without the project getting made, the title changed to Phantasm 2013 and eventually Phantasm’s End.

The story was considerably larger and stranger than anything the franchise had attempted before. The Tall Man had devastated the United States, leaving destruction and death behind him. Reggie drove through the wasteland in his beloved Cuda, determined to save Mike and finally kill the Tall Man, accompanied at one point by a squirrel monkey named Titi. There was also a military suicide squad called the Commandos, led by Sgt. Heckelman, whose mission was to stop the Tall Man.

And then there was Bruce Campbell. Coscarelli announced at Phantasmania that Campbell would play the lead Commando. It would have been an incredible pairing, although it never came to pass. Campbell and Coscarelli would eventually work together on Bubba Ho-Tep in 2002.

The proposed Phantasm sequel, however, continued to grow increasingly ambitious. And increasingly expensive.

Too Weird Even for Phantasm

The proposed budget climbed to at least $8 million, a huge figure compared with the movies the franchise had been making. The script also pushed the mythology into some truly bizarre territory. In various drafts, Mike and the Tall Man disappeared for long stretches. One version reportedly brought Mike back only as a corpse, while Jody suffered a similar fate.

The screenplay also attempted to explain the Tall Man’s origins. At one point, the character was controlled by a gigantic entity called the Tall Mankind, essentially a massive Tall Man head that sounded like something from The Wizard of Oz. The idea would have offered an explanation for how the Tall Man could seemingly replace himself every time he was killed. For a franchise built around dream logic, mystery, and unanswered questions, that may have been a step too far.

The bigger problem was money. Studios weren’t interested in spending millions of dollars on such an unconventional sequel, even with Roger Avary’s name attached. Coscarelli and his collaborators tried cutting the proposed budget roughly in half, but it still wasn’t enough. Eventually, Avary moved on to make The Rules of Attraction. Coscarelli went back to the drawing board.

That is where Oblivion began.

From Phantasm 4EVER to Oblivion

Coscarelli didn’t initially write Oblivion as a replacement for Avary’s movie. Quite the opposite. The intention was to create a much cheaper Phantasm that could actually get made while keeping the door open for Avary’s much larger sequel. The budget was approximately $650,000. For comparison, the previous Phantasm sequels had reportedly cost between $2.5 million and $3 million.

With that kind of money, Coscarelli had no choice but to get creative. Frequent franchise collaborator Kirsten Deem encouraged him to scale the story back and return to the spirit of the original movie. The result was one of the most inventive decisions in the entire production: Coscarelli went back to Phantasm. Literally.

The production discovered unused outtakes and deleted footage from the 1979 original and incorporated it into the new movie. Additional dialogue was recorded to make the old footage work with the new story. Because Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, and Angus Scrimm were all returning, Coscarelli could seamlessly connect footage of the younger characters to their adult counterparts. No expensive digital de-aging. No elaborate visual-effects trickery. Just old footage, new performances, and some clever editing. Necessity became the mother of invention.

The movie was originally going to be called Phantasm 4EVER. Publisher Richard Elkin, however, suggested the title Oblivion, taken from the Phantasm Fanzine. The title stuck. It also allowed Coscarelli to sneak the Roman numeral IV into the subtitle.

The Plot of Phantasm IV: Oblivion

As usual, Phantasm IV picks up after the previous movie. Reggie is released by the Tall Man, while Mike takes off in a hearse searching for answers. Reggie follows him at Jody’s request.

Mike’s journey quickly becomes a nightmare. The golden sphere inside his skull has left him unable to trust his own perception of reality. He experiences visions, memories, and flashbacks as the Tall Man manipulates his understanding of time and space. Some of those flashbacks incorporate the unused footage from the original Phantasm.

One particularly memorable sequence reveals that the Tall Man was once trapped and hanging from a tree. Young Mike frees him after the Tall Man telepathically convinces the boy that he will leave him alone. He does not.

Mike’s present-day journey becomes increasingly surreal. The Tall Man appears in the hearse, and the vehicle eventually takes Mike into the desert, where he attempts to escape his torment by hanging himself. The plan doesn’t work. Mike eventually travels through a dimensional gateway and encounters Angus Scrimm in another form: Jebediah Morningside, a mysterious old man living in the nineteenth century.

The encounter seems to offer a glimpse into the origins of the Tall Man. But this is Phantasm. Coscarelli gives the audience just enough information to make the mystery bigger rather than actually solving it.

Meanwhile, Reggie gets his own nightmare. His journey turns into a low-budget Mad Max, complete with demon cops, exploding cars, deadly women, and silver spheres. One woman, Jennifer, even has breasts that transform into silver spheres. If that sentence sounds ridiculous, remember what franchise we’re discussing.

Mike also discovers that he has developed telekinetic abilities. He uses them to crush a scorpion, kill a dwarf, and even construct his own sphere from engine parts.

Eventually, Jody’s role becomes even stranger. He appears to be an unreliable antagonist before the movie reveals that he actually died in the previous story and has been controlled by the Tall Man.

Mike uses his homemade sphere and another exploding vehicle in an attempt to finally destroy the Tall Man. It doesn’t work. Another Tall Man emerges through the gateway. Because, of course, he does.

The Tall Man removes the golden sphere from Mike’s skull, apparently killing him. Then comes one of the strangest endings in the series. Mike’s final words seem to travel backward through time, reaching a younger Mike and Reggie as they drive together. The two hear the sound but dismiss it as nothing more than the wind.

The credits roll.In true Phantasm fashion, the ending works as both a conclusion and a potential continuation. It presents a peaceful image of Mike and Reggie before the Tall Man entered their lives while simultaneously suggesting that there may be no escaping him.

For a movie made for roughly $650,000, that’s an impressively ambitious idea.

Making Phantasm IV for Almost Nothing

The production was no longer dealing with Universal, which meant Coscarelli had more freedom. Unfortunately, it also meant he had very little money. To help secure financing, Coscarelli put together a makeshift trailer featuring the classic Phantasm theme. The production even hired a model to wear a bra constructed from silver spheres outside the hotel suite where Coscarelli was pitching potential investors. That was the kind of guerrilla filmmaking Oblivion required. The production also raided Coscarelli’s storage units, where he had saved props, costumes, and other materials from previous Phantasm movies. Those leftovers became the foundation of the new film.

Michael Baldwin initially wasn’t thrilled about returning. The Phantasm movies had been notoriously difficult productions, and the money wasn’t exactly impressive. What changed his mind was the opportunity to become a hands-on producer.

Bill Thornbury, meanwhile, had largely stepped away from acting but returned after reading Coscarelli’s script and hearing his enthusiasm for the project.

And then there was Angus Scrimm. The Tall Man himself returned, even turning down a role in The X-Files movie to do it.

Effects artist Mark Shostrom ultimately went to The X-Files, but some of his former assistants joined Oblivion instead. Those assistants included Bob Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger, the future founders of KNB Effects Group.

Reggie Bannister also returned, giving the movie some of its funniest and most action-heavy moments.

The Crew Had to Get Extremely Creative

Filming began in October 1997. The production started with location work in places including Death Valley, Lone Pine, and other Southern California locations. The conditions were brutal. Locations were remote, sometimes hours from lodging. Temperatures could swing dramatically between the daytime heat and freezing nights.

On the first day, even craft services and portable bathrooms failed to arrive at the correct location. The cast’s RV dressing room ended up being used to store equipment.

And the budget problems didn’t stop there. For the scene in which Mike attempts to hang himself, the production actually rented and planted a tree in the desert.

For another sequence, Bob Ivy played the demon cop, wearing what was essentially a simple rubber mask that reminded the crew of Freddy Krueger. The makeup team transformed it into something considerably more convincing.

Ivy also performed one of the production’s most dangerous stunts. The demon cop had to explode inside a car, climb out, and walk away while completely engulfed in flames. Ivy later recalled getting badly burned during the stunt because his socks weren’t flame-resistant and his boots caught fire.

Another scene required Reggie to get a mouthful of the demon cop’s blood. The production shot the moment three times using a mixture of Karo syrup, sorbitol, and food dye. That’s low-budget horror filmmaking at its most gloriously disgusting.

Ivy also performed the stunt involving Jennifer’s car crash, driving a vehicle without a roll cage off a ramp and flipping it onto the road. He reportedly managed to land it back on its wheels. The production then blew the car up. Of course it did.

Two People Built Most of the Sets

When production moved into the warehouse, the crew had only two complete sets and two partial sets. Jebediah’s laboratory, a hotel room, and the recreated mausoleum were largely constructed from old sets and salvaged props. The art department consisted of only two people. Somehow, it worked.

The production even needed to capture the devastation supposedly left across America by the Tall Man. Getting the permits for a conventional shoot would have cost thousands of dollars. So the crew went guerrilla. They filmed in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile district in the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, when they knew the streets would be largely empty. They didn’t have permission. When a police car appeared, Angus Scrimm reportedly pretended to be picking flowers.

That’s the kind of story that perfectly captures the production of Phantasm IV.

Changes from the Script

Not everything made it from the screenplay to the finished film. One significant change involved Mike’s final moments. The original script called for Reggie to give Mike a grenade necklace to use when all hope was lost. The idea was that Mike could detonate himself rather than allow the Tall Man to do anything with his body.

His scripted final words were also different: “Goodbye, buddy. I’ll see you in Hell.”

Another memorable change involved Angus Scrimm. The Tall Man originally had a joke immediately before removing the golden sphere from Mike’s head: “This won’t hurt a bit. Well, maybe just a little bit.” Scrimm hated the line. He believed it undercut what should have been a serious moment and argued with Coscarelli about it late into the night. The two eventually walked away from one another while the exhausted crew waited for the disagreement to end.

They ultimately shot the scene both ways. Scrimm thought he had won. He hadn’t. Coscarelli kept the joke in the final movie.

The Roger Avary Connection Never Completely Disappeared

Even though Avary’s massive sequel never got made, pieces of his ideas survived in Oblivion. The infamous sphere-breast sequence originated in Avary’s screenplay. Avary himself also appears in the finished film as one of the dead soldiers in a coffin during a battlefield flashback. He was credited under the name Yrava Regor. That’s Roger Avary spelled backward.

Coscarelli’s movie was essentially built as a bridge: something small enough to make while preserving the possibility that Avary’s much larger Phantasm story might eventually happen. It never did.

The Release of Phantasm IV: Oblivion

Despite the crew’s hopes, Oblivion didn’t return Phantasm to theaters. Orion released the movie directly to video in the United States in October 1998. It did receive festival screenings, some of which featured appearances by the cast and crew. There is no reliable public box-office figure because the movie wasn’t theatrically released, although Coscarelli later said it performed well financially.

Critically, the response was less enthusiastic. The movie currently sits at 29% from critics and 42% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

The reactions are fairly predictable for a Phantasm sequel. Some viewers disliked how little of the story made conventional sense. Others appreciated that the franchise had never really operated according to conventional rules. Some wanted the Tall Man’s origins explained. Others argued that explaining the Tall Man would destroy precisely what made the character frightening. Both sides have a point.

Why Phantasm IV Still Matters

There is no pretending that Phantasm IV: Oblivion is a polished blockbuster. It’s confusing. It’s obviously cheap. Some performances and effects show the limitations of the budget. But that misses what makes the movie interesting.

Coscarelli and his crew didn’t simply try to imitate the original Phantasm. They found a way to return to it. They incorporated unused footage from the 1979 movie. They brought back the original cast. They repurposed old props and costumes. They built sets with almost nothing. They performed dangerous stunts because there wasn’t enough money to do them any other way.

And somehow, beneath all the insanity, Oblivion retains the heart of the franchise. The friendship between Mike and Reggie is still there. The graveyards are still creepy. The gore is still plentiful. The Tall Man is still terrifying. And the movie remains committed to the strange dream logic that made Phantasm unlike virtually any other horror franchise. For a series that had been pushed toward direct-to-video oblivion, that is no small achievement.

It also wasn’t the end. Despite years of speculation that Oblivion might be the final Phantasm, the franchise eventually returned with Phantasm V: Ravager in 2016.

Roger Avary’s giant Phantasm sequel, however, remains one of horror’s great movies-that-never-were. And perhaps that’s fitting. Phantasm has always been a franchise about death, resurrection, alternate realities, and things that refuse to stay dead. Phantasm IV: Oblivion is the perfect example. The franchise was supposed to be finished. Instead, Coscarelli and his crew dragged it back from the grave with $650,000, some old footage, a warehouse full of salvaged props, a handful of dangerously committed filmmakers, and a woman wearing a silver-sphere bra outside a hotel.

And somehow, it worked. That is what happened to Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!

The post The Wild Story Behind Phantasm IV: Oblivion and the Roger Avary Sequel We Never Got appeared first on JoBlo.

Who is ready to get lost inside a furniture store all over again? According to a report from Dread Central, director Kane Parsons has officially signed on to helm Backrooms 2 for A24.

A Record-Breaking Horror Phenomenon

When A24 distributed Parsons’ feature adaptation of Backrooms, few predicted it would transform into one of the defining cinematic events of the year. The film grossed a staggering $394.1 million worldwide against an estimated $10 million budget, making it the highest-grossing release in A24’s history. At 21 years old, Parsons has instantly become one of the most sought-after visual architects in Hollywood, leaving fans eager to see where his surreal nightmare logic goes next.

While Parsons is currently co-developing a separate project alongside producer and mentor Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), returning to the yellowed halls of Backrooms looks to be his immediate feature priority.

From YouTube Viral Lore to Big-Screen Nightmare

The original film evolved from a series of viral, liminal horror videos Parsons uploaded to his YouTube channel, Kane Pixels. While combining those short films yields narrative threads, the cinematic release was an entirely unique beast. In the final cut, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a local furniture store owner, and his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), fall through reality into an infinite, labyrinthine expanse tucked beneath his shop’s cellar.

Expanding the Infinite Labyrinth

While Backrooms works as a standalone piece of architectural dread, Parsons always envisioned a broader narrative canvas. Speaking with Variety, the director explained that the property was always conceptualized to extend beyond the confines of a single film. He noted that he remains contractually bound for future installments and already has specific story threads ready to go.

Could Backrooms anchor a sprawling, interconnected horror world? The expanding universe feels spiritually aligned with Remedy Entertainment’s Control and Alan Wake video games, proving that abstract concept lore can flourish when built out carefully.

Are you ready for Kane Parsons to return to the Backrooms, or would you rather see him explore entirely new nightmare fuel? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

The post Kane Parsons returning to direct Backrooms 2 for A24 appeared first on JoBlo.

Kevin

Psycho never really seemed like franchise material. Alfred Hitchcock’s original was such a perfectly self-contained movie that the idea of sequels, prequels, remakes, and TV shows probably would have sounded a little crazy at the time. And yet, Norman Bates kept coming back. Over the years, the franchise expanded in some surprisingly good directions and at least one that makes you wonder what the f*** they were thinking. So, with Mother watching closely, let’s check into the Bates Motel and see where the entire Psycho franchise lands when ranked from worst to best.

7. Bates Motel (1987)

Many forget that this piece of the Psycho franchise even exists, and I can’t say I blame them. The TV movie stars Bud Cort as Alex West, a mentally disturbed young man who befriends Norman Bates while confined to a mental institution. Norman is barely in the movie, dying early on and leaving the Bates Motel to Alex.

The project was intended as a pilot for a weekly TV series, with different guests checking into the motel and encountering strange happenings, but NBC declined to pick it up. Instead, Bates Motel aired as a movie of the week and was pretty much forgotten.

Today, it’s fascinating mostly as a “what the hell were they thinking?” footnote in the franchise. It’s also easy to understand why the concept went nowhere. It ignored the continuity of the Psycho sequels, killed off Norman Bates almost immediately, and attempted to turn the franchise into something closer to a supernatural anthology series. At least the cast was interesting. In addition to Cort, Bates Motel featured Lori Petty, Moses Gunn, Gregg Henry, and even a young Jason Bateman.

6. Psycho (1998)

Gus Van Sant’s Psycho takes the word “remake” about as literally as possible. The film is a nearly shot-for-shot recreation of Hitchcock’s iconic original, this time in full colour and with an entirely new cast. As an experiment, it’s fascinating. As a movie, it feels almost completely unnecessary.

There are some differences. Certain moments are more explicit, Van Sant throws in a few strange stylistic flourishes of his own, and the performances naturally give familiar scenes a different flavour. But the movie even uses Joseph Stefano’s original screenplay, which means you’re just watching Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, and William H. Macy deliver the same dialogue that another cast did nearly forty years earlier.

That does make the remake interesting in an academic sense, particularly when you compare the different ways the actors approach the material. But it also constantly reminds you that Hitchcock already made this exact movie—and it was so much better.

“You can’t copy a film,” Van Sant told The New York Times in 2005. “If I hold a camera, it’s different than if Irving Penn holds it. Even if it’s in the same place, it will magically take on his character. Which was part of the experiment. Our Psycho showed that you can’t really appropriate. Or you can appropriate, but it’s not going to be the same thing.”

No, it is not.

5. Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

The fourth and final installment of the original Psycho franchise finds Anthony Perkins returning to his iconic role one last time. He would die just two years later.

The film functions as both a sequel and a prequel, flashing back to depict the deeply troubled relationship between a young Norman Bates (Henry Thomas) and his domineering mother, Norma (Olivia Hussey).

After hearing so much about Norma throughout the previous three movies, it’s striking to finally see her brought to life. She’s even more openly abusive and terrifying than we might have expected, and the flashbacks do a convincing job of showing how Norman became the man we know.

The framing story, which has the older Norman calling into a late-night radio show, is a little gimmicky, but there’s some genuinely strong material here. Now married and expecting a child, Norman becomes terrified that his mental illness could be inherited, leading him to consider extraordinary measures to make sure that never happens.

Psycho IV: The Beginning is certainly the weakest of the original four films, but it’s still well worth watching. Perkins remains compelling to the end, and the movie gives his version of Norman Bates a surprisingly fitting final chapter.

4. Psycho III (1986)

Directed by Anthony Perkins himself, Psycho III embraces a darker, sleazier 1980s slasher vibe, with a healthy dose of black comedy thrown in for good measure.

Picking up where Psycho II left off, Norman Bates is once again running the Bates Motel while struggling with the lingering influence of Mother. His fragile stability is disrupted by the arrival of Maureen (Diana Scarwid), a troubled young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Marion Crane, along with an opportunistic drifter (Jeff Fahey), and a journalist (Roberta Maxwell) determined to uncover the truth about Norman’s past.

It’s much more obviously influenced by the slasher boom that Psycho itself helped inspire, with bloodier kills, more nudity, and a generally seedier atmosphere than the previous films. But Perkins clearly understands the strange appeal of Norman Bates, and he gives the movie enough dark humour and personality to keep it from feeling like just another ’80s slasher sequel.

It may not have the elegance of the original or the surprisingly strong character work of Psycho II, but watching Perkins do his thing is always a pleasure. Give it a watch.

3. Bates Motel (2013-2017)

Unlike the TV movie of the same name that kicked off this article, the Bates Motel TV series was a genuine success. Over the course of five seasons, Freddie Highmore was able to dive into the mind of Norman Bates in a way no other actor ever had the opportunity to, even Anthony Perkins. He’s fantastic in the role, wisely making Norman his own rather than simply doing a Perkins impersonation, but Vera Farmiga is arguably the show’s secret weapon.

Her Norma Bates becomes a real human being rather than the monstrous figure we had imagined in the movies. Her relationship with Norman is loving and supportive, but also toxic, tragic, and deeply uncomfortable. Farmiga gives Norma enough warmth so you understand why Norman loves her so fiercely, even as their bond becomes increasingly destructive.

I’ll admit that the idea of a Psycho prequel series rubbed me the wrong way when it was first announced, but Bates Motel quickly won me over. More importantly, it gradually becomes far more interesting than a straightforward prequel, evolving into an alternate version of the Psycho story.

By the fifth and final season, the series is actively remixing the events of Hitchcock’s movie, allowing familiar characters and moments to unfold in surprising new ways.

2. Psycho II (1983)

For the penultimate entry, I went back and forth over whether Psycho II or Bates Motel was more deserving of this spot. I completely understand why someone might put Bates Motel ahead of it, but for me, I had to go with the first sequel.

As someone who absolutely loves Hitchcock’s Psycho, the idea of sequels being produced after his death always seemed wrong to me, so for years, I avoided them entirely. That was stupid. When I finally gave the sequels a chance, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed them, particularly Psycho II.

Twenty-two years after being committed to a mental institution, Norman Bates is declared sane and released. He returns home and attempts to rebuild his life while reopening the Bates Motel, but Marion Crane’s sister, Lila Loomis, once again played by Vera Miles, remains convinced that it’s only a matter of time before Norman kills again.

Bringing Norman Bates back after more than two decades could have been incredibly cheap, but Psycho II makes you question whether Norman might actually deserve our sympathy. Anthony Perkins is terrific because you’re constantly wondering whether Norman has genuinely been rehabilitated or whether he’s slowly losing his mind all over again.

And that ending. So good.

1. Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s original is still untouchable. It works as a thriller, a horror movie, and a character study. Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates is frightening precisely because he’s so likable, awkward, and vulnerable. The iconic shower scene may get most of the attention, but it’s the movie’s quieter moments—Norman talking to Marion in the parlour, Detective Arbogast climbing the stairs, Norman’s final stare—that really stick with you.

It’s one of those movies whose influence is so enormous that you almost have to remind yourself just how groundbreaking and new it must have felt in 1960. Its content may seem relatively tame by today’s standards, but Psycho pushed the limits of violence, sexuality, and what mainstream audiences were accustomed to seeing onscreen. Not to mention, it was the first major American movie to show a flushing toilet. Audiences must have been doing some serious pearl clutching.

More than sixty years later, Psycho hasn’t lost its power. The performances, Bernard Herrmann’s score, Hitchcock’s direction, the editing—It’s a masterclass in practically every regard, and there was never really any question that it would take the top spot.

Your Turn

And that’s how I’d rank the Psycho franchise. There are definitely a few placements here that could be debated, particularly regarding the sequels and Bates Motel, so I’m curious to see how your list compares. How would you rank the Psycho movies and TV projects? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Every Psycho Movie (and TV Series) Ranked appeared first on JoBlo.

After nearly 30 years of waiting, Myron Stackpool is finally back. Head of the Family 2: Sirens of Seduction has made its way through production, and special effects artist Tom Devlin has shared a behind-the-scenes video showing how the new Full Moon production brought the grotesque oversized-headed villain Myron back to life.

Devlin, whose 1313FX effects company handled the practical effects for the sequel, takes viewers behind the scenes of the shoot, including footage of Michael Citriniti back in the chair as Myron Stackpool. And if you were wondering whether Head of the Family 2 is going to embrace the wonderfully bizarre spirit of the 1996 original, this footage suggests the answer is yes.

Myron Stackpool Is Back in Head of the Family 2

One of the highlights of Devlin’s video is test footage of Citriniti in costume and makeup as Myron. The video shows just how much practical work goes into creating the character. At one point, Devlin explains that the oversized Myron head is so large and heavy that Citriniti has to limit his movement.

Devlin’s footage also captures several scenes being filmed, including Citriniti performing as Myron while interacting with the other characters. The production crew can be heard discussing camera positions, eyelines, and practical effects as the cast works through scenes.

The footage offers a fun glimpse at the practical filmmaking behind the sequel. We get to see the actors working through scenes, Devlin adjusting the oversized head, crew members preparing shots, and everyone trying to make this gloriously strange material work.

Head of the Family 2 Wasn’t Always Going to Be Head of the Family 2

When Sirens of Seduction was originally announced as part of Full Moon’s 2026 slate, it wasn’t a Head of the Family movie. The project appeared on Full Moon’s slate alongside Models vs. Werewolves, Dungeon Dolls, The Grim Rapper, Terror Express, Buried Secrets, Lost Girl’s Private Diary, Robotica, and Catacombs of Horror. At the time, Sirens of Seduction was described as a standalone story about Professor Grantham and his demonic Sirens – female heads carved from alabaster, ruby, and crystal. The original synopsis promised that the Sirens could fly, sing, kiss, and kill after the proper words were whispered into their tiny ears.

Full Moon eventually revealed that the project had become Head of the Family 2: Sirens of Seduction, bringing back Myron Stackpool from the 1996 cult classic. It’s a wild evolution for a movie that started out as an entirely different entry in Full Moon’s 2026 lineup.

The original Head of the Family was released in 1996 and introduced audiences to Myron Stackpool, the giant-headed patriarch of a dysfunctional family.

In addition to Michael Citriniti, the cast of the sequel, which is directed by Full Moon founder Charles Band, includes Sarah Moliski as Pauline, Emma Massalone as Sira, Rebecca Stoughton, Jordan Allen Bell, and Matthan Harris.

The official synopsis for the sequel reads:

When the grotesque Head returns with a sinister plan to reclaim a normal human body, he unleashes two beautiful women he has cursed into living shrunken heads to seduce the greedy, the wicked, and the desperate into his web of black magic, but when they discover they are destined to become his final sacrifice, they turn their deadly charms against the monster who enslaved them.

Charles Band Still Wants to Make Bride of the Head of the Family

Sirens of Seduction becoming Head of the Family 2 doesn’t mean Charles Band has abandoned the other Head of the Family sequel he’s been talking about. Band has discussed Bride of the Head of the Family since the ’90s, but that long-promised sequel has never made it to the screen. Band still plans to make that sequel eventually.

Head of the Family 2: Sirens of Seduction Has Wrapped

According to Devlin, the production still had a couple more days of filming after the “head” portion wrapped, but the Myron material was complete. And it was quite a day.

“We shot 30 and 1/2 pages in 1 12 and 1/2 hour day. 13 hour day,” Devlin says in the video. “It was absolute madness.”

He goes on to describe the lead-up to the project as “absolute madness” as well, but clearly had a great time returning to the Full Moon family.

“It was so much fun,” Devlin says. “It was really great to get to come back to Band Camp and see all my old friends and I really had a blast.”

There is currently no release date announced for Head of the Family 2: Sirens of Seduction, but after all this time, the most important thing is that the big-headed villain is finally back.

Are you looking forward to Head of the Family 2: Sirens of Seduction? What do you think about Sirens of Seduction being transformed from a standalone Full Moon movie into a Head of the Family sequel while we wait for Bride of the Head of the Family? Let us know in the comments.

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Samuel Goldwyn Films is bringing the new crime thriller The Girl in the River to theatres today, September 4, and JoBlo has an exclusive clip from the film to share with our readers. Directed by Brando Benetton in his feature directorial debut, The Girl in the River stars Maggie Grace (Lost, Taken), Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Chucky), Emmy winner Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip, Bad Boys: Ride or Die), and Emmy nominee Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai). Check out our exclusive clip in the embed above!

The film follows a seasoned criminologist and a young female psychologist who are lured to a remote Mississippi town to investigate the murder of a little girl and the disappearance of her twin sister.

The project was previously described as a Southern Gothic thriller, with producer Andrew Stevens teasing the twists and characters waiting inside Benetton’s feature debut.

“Brando’s script masterfully captures the essence of a Southern Gothic thriller, weaving in unexpected twists, deeply complex characters, and together with a stellar cast, they elevate the genre.”

Andrew Stevens Entertainment and Black Diamond Films produced the movie, with Andrew Stevens and Joe Lemmon producing. Executive producers include Rick Moore, Hicham Benkirane, Jeff Roschman, Dawn Bursteen, Alessandro Penazzi, Sam Stevens, and Alan B. Bursteen.

The Girl in the River was written and directed by Brando Benetton, whose previous work includes the action thriller short film Nightfire, which starred Emmy nominee Dylan Baker. Benetton also has more than a decade of assistant director credits to his name, plus credits as a grip, a production assistant, an editor, a location manager, a digital effects artist, a producer, an actor, and even a stunt coordinator. He has pretty much done it all!

With its combination of a murder investigation, a missing child, a remote Southern setting, and a cast that includes Grace, Sawa, Haddish, and Macchio, The Girl in the River is quite intriguing. The film is now playing in theatres from Samuel Goldwyn Films. Will you be watching it? Take a look at our exclusive clip at the top of this article, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post The Girl in the River Exclusive Clip Previews the New Crime Thriller Starring Maggie Grace, Ralph Macchio & More appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: On a quest to recover the scattered pieces of a medallion capable of ending demonic control over Earth, demon hunter Taryn Barker must travel through time to change the past and save the future.

REVIEW: A decade ago, director Zoe Kavanagh made her feature debut with an independent action horror film called Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter, which blended elements of Underworld, The Evil Dead, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to tell the story of a young Irish woman (played by Niamh Hogan) who was recruited into a life of fighting against the forces of evil after her younger sister was murdered. It was an interesting, entertaining movie and a cool, promising start for Kavanagh’s directing career. It’s been a long wait, but Kavanagh has finally returned with her second feature – and she has brought Taryn Barker / Niamh Hogan along with her!

Kavanagh has made a steady stream of short films in the years between her two features, and Hogan has also continued working in the entertainment industry, racking up both acting and stunt credits, working on the likes of The Marine 6, Vikings, Viking: Valhalla, and more. The years of extra experience really shine through for both of them: Hogan delivers a great performance as her seasoned-yet-irreverent demon hunter character (inspired by the likes of Ash Williams and Jack Burton), while Kavanagh has made a film that’s a step up from her debut feature in every category. The story is better, the pace is quicker, the action has improved, and an increase in budget has also enabled her to bring more impressive special effects to the screen.

Taryn Barker is a demon hunter, but this sequel widens the scope and has her facing off with a variety of threats. There are demonic creatures, but the opening sequence features vampires, genre icon Lisa Wilcox (of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5) gets to chew some scenery and give a really fun performance as a “time witch,” and there’s even an undead slasher who stalks a campground in the 1980s! Given that Friday the 13th is my favorite franchise, is it any wonder that I enjoyed Time 2 Kill more than its predecessor when it uses time travel magic to drop Taryn into a slasher-haunted campground in the ‘80s?

Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill was partially filmed in Ireland, as the first movie was, but this time the production crew also came over to the United States (Kentucky, to be exact) because Kavanagh felt that a summer camp slasher needed to be filmed in the U.S. After an evil higher-up (who she communicates with through holograms reminiscent of Star Wars movies) orders her to stop Taryn’s relentless search for a powerful medallion, time witch Elysia Cronika (Wilcox) zaps Taryn – and some hapless youngsters – back to the late ‘80s, just in time for them to become prey for an undead slasher named Lucien Krull (Lar Mclachlan) at a place called Camp Beaver. (Where Lucien worked as the groundskeeper, until he joined a cult and started killing campers.)

Although we do have people getting killed at a camp, the movie is a bit too fast and wild to really lean into the camp slasher vibe for very long, and – aside from Angel Nichole Bradford as Deborah, who sort of becomes Taryn’s protégé along the way – the camper characters don’t make much of an impression (except the unlikeable ones). But the action is plentiful, and I appreciate that any camp slasher elements made it into the movie at all. That’s not what I expected from a Taryn Barker sequel.

This all builds up to a really fun, time-hopping conclusion. In the end, I was very glad that Kavanagh and Hogan had decided to bring Taryn Barker back after all this time, and I’m left hoping that this isn’t the last we’ll see the demon hunter. In the meantime, I hope we’ll see another Kavanagh movie much sooner than the decade wait we had to endure between the two Demon Hunter movies, whether her next feature has Taryn Barker in it or not.

And if you’re wondering, I don’t think watching Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter first is a requirement for enjoying Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill. The first movie gives Taryn’s back story and the set-up for her situation, but new viewers should be able to dive right into this sequel without any issues.

Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill is available on VOD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

The post Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill review – Time Travel, Lisa Wilcox, and a Camp Slasher Make for a Fun Sequel appeared first on JoBlo.

A new clip from Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil has arrived, and it gives audiences another taste of the filmmaker’s bloody and surprisingly funny take on the iconic survival horror franchise. The two-and-a-half-minute clip centers on Austin Abrams’ character Bryan as he runs down a snowy city street while trying to survive the nightmare unfolding around him as zombies begin plummeting from the roofs of the surrounding buildings. The undead bodies hit the street and nearby cars with spectacularly messy results in a mixture of horror and dark comedy. The sequence is a good showcase for the tone Cregger appears to be bringing to Resident Evil. While the movie promises plenty of blood and violence, the filmmaker isn’t afraid to inject some humor into the nightmare. You can watch the clip in the embed above.

That combination of horror and comedy was also evident in the reactions to the first 30 minutes of Resident Evil, which Sony Pictures recently screened for members of the press. JoBlo’s own JimmyO praised the footage as “fantastic,” specifically highlighting the balance between horror and laughs and Austin Abrams’ performance as Bryan.

What is Resident Evil about?

Resident Evil follows Bryan, a medical courier who finds himself caught in the middle of a biohazard outbreak. What begins as a routine night quickly turns into a desperate fight for survival as he encounters the horrors unleashed by the outbreak.

Cregger, who previously directed Barbarian and Weapons, is directing Resident Evil from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shay Hatten. The filmmaker has previously promised that Resident Evil is the most violent movie he has ever made, and the movie’s R rating backs that up. The MPA rated the film R for “strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.”

Abrams stars alongside Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Johnno Wilson, and Kali Reis.

While Resident Evil is based on Capcom’s long-running video game franchise, Cregger has approached the movie as a survival horror story centered on an ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary nightmare. Judging from this new clip, that nightmare is going to be pretty messy.

Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18, 2026. Will you be catching it on the big screen? Take a look at the clip, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Resident Evil: new clip shows Austin Abrams running for his life as zombies fall from the sky appeared first on JoBlo.