Alam Nyo Ba?

Michael Leavy wants to be the next Freddy Krueger, and he has gone beyond just saying it. The Stream director and Terrifier producer has shared a video of himself in full Freddy makeup, giving horror fans a look at what he could potentially look like under the iconic hat and glove. Check it out in the embed above!

Leavy actually has a pretty great connection to Robert Englund and Freddy Krueger that goes back more than a decade. In the 2014 horror movie Fear Clinic, Leavy played the younger version of Englund’s character, Dr. Andover. So if Leavy eventually gets the chance to take over the role of Freddy, it would be the second time that he and Englund have shared a character.

Leavy released his new Freddy video after fans asked to see him in the full makeup, using the hashtag #LeavyForKrueger and making it clear that he’d love the opportunity to play the character made famous by Englund. His brother Jason Leavy threw his support behind the campaign, saying that nobody is better suited to put on the glove.

Michael Leavy already played Robert Englund’s character

Fear Clinic was directed by Robert Green Hall and starred Robert Englund as Dr. Andover, a psychiatrist who uses an experimental device called the Fear Chamber to treat patients suffering from severe phobias. The movie also featured Fiona Dourif, Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, and Corey Taylor.

Leavy appeared in the movie as Young Andover, making his connection to Englund’s character especially appropriate now that he’s campaigning to play Freddy Krueger. And this isn’t some random fan deciding he would look cool in Freddy makeup. Leavy has spent much of his career working in the horror genre, both in front of and behind the camera.

He has produced movies including Terrifier 2, Terrifier 3, Screamboat, Stream, Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story, and Penance Lane. He also directed Stream and the Leprechaun Revenge short, among numerous other projects.

Michael Leavy previously made a Leprechaun short

Last year, Leavy and his brother Jason made Leprechaun Revenge, a proof-of-concept fan film designed to show Lionsgate what they could do with the Leprechaun franchise. The short starred Mark Holton as Ozzie Jones, the character he played in the original Leprechaun in 1993, and Linden Porco as the Leprechaun. Maren Altman also appeared in the film. The story follows an older Ozzie who has spent decades preparing for the Leprechaun’s possible return, only to discover that his paranoia wasn’t so unreasonable after all.

Leavy made no secret of his desire to direct an official Leprechaun movie. He described the short as a love letter to the original franchise, with a darker modern twist while still preserving the horror-comedy balance that made the series so much fun. That particular plan hasn’t worked out yet. Lionsgate is now developing another Leprechaun movie, with Saw sequel writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan writing the screenplay. Oren Koules and Miles Koules are producing, while the plot, cast, director, and production schedule remain under wraps.

So Leavy isn’t currently attached to the new Leprechaun movie, but that doesn’t mean he’s done trying to get his hands on a classic horror character.

For now, you can watch his Freddy Krueger transformation above and decide for yourself: could Michael Leavy be the next actor to put on Freddy’s glove?

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The cast of They Follow, the long-awaited sequel to David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, just got a little bigger. Deadline reports that Landman star James Jordan has joined the cast of the Neon horror movie, although the details of his role are being kept under wraps. Jordan’s casting brings him into an increasingly impressive ensemble surrounding returning star Maika Monroe. Neon has not commented on the casting, and plot details remain under wraps.

Jordan is best known for playing petroleum engineer Dale Bradley on Paramount+’s Landman, where he appears alongside Billy Bob Thornton. He has also worked extensively with Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan, appearing in Yellowstone, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, Wind River, and Those Who Wish Me Dead. Jordan currently stars in Sheridan’s Lioness as well.

The actor joins a cast that already includes Monroe, reprising her role as Jay Height, and Naomi Ackie in a new role. The ensemble also features Jackie Earle Haley, Justine Lupe, Anna Mirodin, Jayne Taini, Michael Gandolfini, Tom Pecinka, Melora Walters, Ben Krieger, Natalie Shinnick, and Jan Hoag.

What is They Follow about?

That’s a very good question. They Follow is the sequel to Mitchell’s 2014 horror movie It Follows, which starred Monroe as Jay, a college student who becomes the target of a relentless supernatural entity after a sexual encounter. The entity can take the form of different people and slowly but relentlessly follows its victim, creating one of the most memorable horror concepts of the 2010s.

The sequel takes place 10 years after the events of It Follows, but Mitchell and Neon have yet to reveal the story beyond that basic setup. Monroe has previously teased that the sequel will take a very different approach from the original, describing it as more grounded and focused on two women dealing with significant emotional struggles.

Mitchell is once again directing from his own screenplay, with Neon holding worldwide rights and planning a theatrical release in the United States. The movie does not yet have an announced release date.

Who else is returning for They Follow?

Monroe isn’t the only connection to the original movie. Mitchell is back behind the camera, and Disasterpeace is returning to compose the score. The original film’s electronic soundtrack became a major part of its unsettling atmosphere.

It Follows premiered at Cannes in 2014 before becoming a breakout horror hit. Made for a reported budget of just over $1 million, the movie earned roughly $23 million worldwide and helped establish both Monroe and Mitchell as major names in modern horror.

Now that filming has wrapped and another cast member has been revealed, They Follow is one step closer to finally reaching theaters. The big question is what, exactly, has been following Jay for the past decade — and whether whatever comes next will be even worse than what she faced the first time around.

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PLOT: When Brodie, a washed-up metalhead, resurrects his dead bandmates for a battle-of-the-bands, the result unleashes riffs, gore, and apocalyptic carnage only DEATHGASM can deliver.

REVIEW: I loved Deathgasm so much when it first released in 2015, as it was the perfect combination of comedy, horror, and metal that only the Kiwis can pull off. Metalheads Brodie and Zakk were lovable losers, and I found myself rooting for the love story between the former and Medina. So I was over the moon with the announcement of its sequel Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon. Now, we’re picking up a decade later, where Brodie’s life hasn’t exactly turned out the way he wanted it to: he’s unemployed, single, and his life seems to be crumbling around him. He wants to bring back his dead friends so that life can be like the old days. Only, things don’t go as planned, and he has to stop his friends from trying to end the world.

Despite Brodie having the cards stacked against him in just about every way, Milo Cawthorne is still able to make him likable. I’m sure it helps that we’re seeing an active Brodie versus the more passive one who lost his girlfriend in between films. But even while he’s making bad decisions, I still found myself rooting for him and being charmed by his clueless nature. James Joshua Blake’s Zakk was actually a bit of a dick in the first film, making some pretty selfish decisions. Oddly enough, his zombie transformation actually makes him a bit more likable, while still keeping his character consistent. He will be a rebel no matter what, even if it means not eating flesh as a zombie. The man is the ultimate contrarian.

I did feel as though we don’t get enough of Kimberley Crossman’s Medina, as she’s gone from the film for large chunks and largely away from Brodie. That’s too bad, as they were such a linchpin with the first film, and they have such a fun chemistry together. Medina is off with another musician, Jesse Dead, who is the epitome of a douchey rocker. But as much as Deathgasm was about their love story, this second film is really about Brodie finding himself and becoming his own person. Jesse is the opposite of Brodie, as a musician who is motivated to succeed, yet is an awful person to be around so there’s an interesting parallel there.

The occult and metal music go together like peanut butter and jelly, and Deathgasm 2 really takes advantage of that. The score is all very metal, and it helps to keep the energy up at all times. Brodie’s ultimate goal is to win a battle of the bands-style competition, which brings in even more metal acts to spew their satanic music. There are even some really fun cameos from famous metalheads GWAR and Trivium‘s Matt Heafy. So, whether you’re into horror, comedies, or metal, there’s enough to latch onto. There’s even a very random cameo from former WWE superstar Braun Strowman AKA Adam Scherr, where he says his wrestling catchphrase.

Whether it’s Dead Alive, Housebound, or even What We Do In The Shadows, there’s just something special about how horror comedy is made in New Zealand. They manage to always nail the tone, never over-explaining the jokes, and focusing on entertainment over everything. There are some fun meta moments, with the characters interacting with on-screen graphics and even breaking the fourth wall. They strike just the right balance, and it never overstays its welcome.

If you’re going to put Goremageddon in your title, then you’d better deliver some solid gore. Thankfully, the kills are practical and look incredible, with plenty of blood and guts, calling back to the early days of Peter Jackson. There’s a whole sequence with a glory hole that had me wincing with each new participant. And I’m never going to look at a pencil sharpener the same way again.

On a technical level, Deathgasm 2 always impresses and never lets its lower budget hamper it. The world is living and breathing, and the scope never feels too small. I will always appreciate the classic “animated lightning” that was so prominent in the 80s and ’90s, so it’s nice to see it utilized throughout. We need that brought back in more films.

I absolutely loved getting to experience more of the Deathgasm world again, as this style of horror-comedy has always appealed to me. Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon is able to recreate the magic of the first, without missing a beat. While Medina is underutilized, Dion and Zakk’s zombie forms provide such a hilarious dynamic, allowing the story to push forward naturally, while avoiding needless side tangents. I love these characters and could spend ten more movies with them. Metal and horror make for such a wonderful marriage, improved even further by the humor that never takes itself too seriously. This is downright hilarious, nasty, and one of the most fun times I’ve had with a film this year.

Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon releases to theaters in the US and Canada on September 29th, 2026.

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Mike Flanagan isn’t thinking about Carrie as a one-and-done story. The filmmaker behind The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, and The Fall of the House of Usher has revealed that he has a three-season plan in mind for his new Carrie show, which brings Stephen King’s classic horror story to life as a TV series for the first time.

That doesn’t mean Prime Video has ordered three seasons. The streamer currently has the first season, consisting of eight episodes, arriving on October 7. But if Flanagan gets his way, Carrie could become a three-season story.

“In my dream scenario, I think it’s three seasons,” Flanagan said in a new interview with Collider at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I think Carrie has a wonderful three-step arc. It’s a trilogy, really.”

That’s an intriguing statement considering how familiar the basic story of Carrie is, but Flanagan has already made it clear that he isn’t interested in just remaking what Brian De Palma did with his classic 1976 adaptation of the concept.

Mike Flanagan Sees Carrie as a Trilogy

Flanagan was asked about the long-term roadmap for Carrie and what the ideal number of seasons would be if he could snap his fingers and make it happen. His answer was three.

The filmmaker emphasized that the team has been focused on making the first season work rather than planning too far ahead. He said they put all their energy into making sure this first season works and didn’t allow themselves to spend too much time thinking beyond it. Now that the series is finished, however, Flanagan admitted that he has a larger vision for where the story could go.

For now, Flanagan isn’t revealing anything about the potential three-season structure. He didn’t explain what each season would cover.

Carrie Is More Than a Remake of the Stephen King Classic

The story of Carrie has already been adapted several times, most famously in Brian De Palma’s 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek. There was also a 2002 television movie starring Angela Bettis and the 2013 feature starring Chloë Grace Moretz. Flanagan believes there’s little point in making yet another version of Carrie unless he can bring something new to the material. His series uses the longer television format to expand King’s story and its characters, while bringing Carrie White into the modern world.

Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie, a sheltered teenager who enters the world of public high school following the death of her father. She has spent most of her life isolated by her mother, Margaret, and suddenly has to deal with school, bullying, social media, and the emergence of her telekinetic abilities.

Prime Video describes the series as a story about kindness versus cruelty and the making of a hero, a monster, or something more complicated. All eight episodes of the first season will premiere on October 7.

So if the first season is designed to expand the world surrounding Carrie, building toward the famous prom sequence, what happens if Flanagan gets two more seasons to continue expanding that world?

Stephen King Is Supporting Mike Flanagan’s Carrie

Stephen King serves as an executive producer on the Prime Video series, alongside Flanagan. Flanagan has also spoken about being able to ask King for his thoughts as he explores parts of the Carrie universe that the original novel only hints at.

Will Carrie Get a Season 2?

That’s the big question. For now, Prime Video has confirmed only the eight-episode first season of Carrie. Flanagan himself seems perfectly aware that a three-season plan means nothing unless audiences actually want to keep watching. He stressed that the team is currently focused on getting through the launch and seeing how the show is received.

That means viewers shouldn’t go into the first season expecting Prime Video to have already committed to a trilogy, but it’s interesting to know that Flanagan has one in mind.

Would you want to watch three seasons of Carrie TV show? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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Do you remember in Escape from New York when we found out how Snake Plissken lost his eye? Or why Hauk had an extra reason for being posted as warden of the New York prison? Or what was happening on the West Coast in 1997? No? Well, that is probably because those details were only expanded upon in the thrilling and now very collectible book version of the movie. Originally published in 1981, the Escape from New York novelization has been brought back into print by Echo On Publications, along with a number of other great movie tie-in books. And no, I don’t mean the book the movie was based on, because that doesn’t exist. I’m talking about the tie-in novel written specifically for the film, and boy, is it a fun one.

So buckle in and forget everything you think you know about the characters and the movie as we look at the Snake Plissken Extended Universe, specifically what the Escape from New York novelization added to an already legendary movie.

Escape from New York Was Already a Classic

When Escape from New York came out in July 1981, it was a smash success, grossing around $50 million from a budget of just $6 million. It was John Carpenter‘s third hit in a row after Halloween in 1978 and The Fog in 1980, so naturally it was time to capitalize on the movie with some merchandise. There was the now-infamous board game from Games Workshop, but there was also the ever-popular tie-in novelization.

We talked about the first three Halloween movie novelizations and how different they could be from the movies, and after rereading both The Thing and Escape from New York, I realized there were enough interesting additions and changes here to make this worth talking about.

How many differences could there actually be? Well, it kind of changes the complexion of the entire story. No big deal.

What Is Escape from New York About?

Escape from New York follows Snake Plissken, fresh off being caught after a bank robbery, as he is brought into the prison state of New York and offered a pretty tough deal. Snake has to go into the prison by himself, find the President of the United States after Air Force One crashes into Manhattan, make sure the President’s tape reaches a summit, and get back out within 24 hours.

That’s all well and good for a badass former soldier like Snake Plissken, except Manhattan is now an anything-goes prison filled with gangs, cannibals, and other threats. Snake also has explosives implanted in his neck and an escape route that is going to be difficult, to say the least. He runs into colorful characters like Maggie, his old buddy Brain, Cabbie, and the infamous Duke of New York, who runs the place. Snake sneaks, barters, gambles, trades, and fights his way through the city, accomplishing his mission just in time.

But when push comes to shove, Snake isn’t about to let a little bureaucracy get in the way of another world war.

And that’s the story of the movie we all know and love. Even some people (not me) think it is inferior to its glossier mid-’90s sequel, Escape from L.A.. Those people are obviously wrong, but that’s okay. Everyone should have a bad take from time to time. Lord knows I do.

The greatness of Escape from New York goes well beyond the plot, even if that plot has been copied dozens of times. A Guy Pearce movie even got sued for being just a bit too much like this all-time classic.

Then you have the cast. Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau, and Lee Van Cleef all play their parts to perfection. Even smaller roles from Tom Atkins and the ever-lovable George Buck Flower add their own zest to the movie.

The music by Carpenter and frequent collaborator Alan Howarth, the cinematography by Dean Cundey, and everything else make the movie about as close to perfect as you can get.

So how do you improve on that? Well, you don’t. But how do you make something this good feel a little new and exciting? That’s where the novelization comes in.

The Escape from New York Novelization

Movie novelizations were a pretty common practice, especially in the 1980s and early ’90s. I remember seeking out these books before I even really understood what they had to offer. I just thought they were cool collector’s items that gave me the opportunity to read the movie whenever I wanted. Little did I know that some of them could add so much more to the story.

Enter author Mike McQuay, who wrote the Escape from New York novelization. The book was originally published in 1981 and became a long-out-of-print collector’s item before Echo On Publications brought it back in 2026. McQuay wrote plenty of other books during his career, including the Matthew Swain and Ramon and Morgan series, as well as books under other names. His career and life were sadly cut short when he died of a heart attack at only 45 years old. He will always be a legend for this novelization, though.

So what’s different? Well, for starters, it’s darker. I know the movie itself is dark, both thematically and visually, but the novel takes it to another level. It has more humor in places, but it is also meaner, more nihilistic, and genuinely more depressing. And that’s saying something for Escape from New York.

The Novelization Makes the World Much Darker

One of the most interesting things about movie novelizations is that they were often written from a screenplay sent over by the studio. That means the author could be working from material that never made it into the finished film. That’s exactly what happens here. The novel expands on the Escape from New York screenplay while incorporating material from earlier versions of the story and scenes that were ultimately cut from the movie. That makes it feel like a slightly different version of the same story rather than simply the movie in book form.

The biggest addition is the state of the world. When Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay, he was reacting to the political and social climate of the 1970s, particularly the Watergate era. The movie already gives us a pretty bleak future. In 1988, crime has become so out of control that Manhattan is converted into a maximum-security prison. The island becomes a no-man’s-land with no guards inside and enormous walls surrounding it.

Then we jump to 1997. The movie gives us just enough information to understand how terrible things have become, but the novel has room to really dig into it. World War III happened. The United States and its enemies agreed not to use nuclear weapons, so they used nerve gas instead. That turned out to be a pretty terrible compromise. Millions died, and the survivors were left dealing with insanity, delusions, and increasingly violent behavior. The West Coast has become almost uninhabitable, eventually setting the stage for the events of Escape from L.A..

Even the movie’s main MacGuffin gets a darker explanation. The tape the President is carrying isn’t simply about a new energy source, as the movie suggests. In the novel, it contains information about a fallout-free nuclear weapon that could give the United States a massive advantage in the global conflict.

So while you can sometimes forget about how bad the rest of the world is when watching the movie, the book keeps reminding you that things are absolutely screwed.

Hauk Gets a Much Bigger Story

The book also expands the characters, especially Hauk and Snake. Movie Hauk is a hardass, but there’s clearly a reason why he was put in charge of the prison. He holds himself together under pressure, chooses Snake for the mission, understands the respect between them, and gives Snake every opportunity to finish the job.

The book gives him even more depth. Hauk is incredibly jaded toward the military and the government. The helicopter scene at the beginning of the movie plays very differently in the novel because Hauk is actually riding in that helicopter. It stops to blow up potential escapees, but Hauk makes sure they receive a warning first.

He also hates many of the cops and guards who work for him because they seem far too enthusiastic about killing people. Many of them are veterans like Hauk who simply can’t hold it together anymore.

The nerve gas has affected Hauk too, although not as severely as others, and that only makes him more disgusted with what the country has done to its own people.

Then the book gives him a much more personal reason for wanting to be the warden of New York. His son is one of the prisoners inside. Hauk had previously gone into the prison looking for him, but eventually gave up. When Snake heads into Manhattan, Hauk asks him to keep an eye out for his son. If this were a video game, that would absolutely be Snake’s side mission.

Snake Plissken Finally Gets a Backstory

And speaking of our soft-spoken Clint Eastwood impersonator, Snake gets much more backstory and even more emotion. The movie gives us bits and pieces of his history. We know he was the youngest person ever decorated by the President with two Purple Hearts, and we get hints about his military career and the jobs he pulled with Brain.

The novel goes much further. Snake was chosen for a suicide mission called the Leningrad Ruse. He and his team were sent into a battle they were expected to lose so that a double agent could be captured and feed the Russians false information. There were two problems: Snake and his team didn’t know it was a suicide mission, and the Russians saw through the deception. So basically, the entire operation accomplished nothing except getting people killed.

It was also during this mission that Snake lost his eye. Snake survived the battle along with one other teammate, Taylor, but Russian nerve gas was used during the attack. Snake’s goggles broke, and the gas destroyed his eye, leaving him with permanent pain. That goes a long way toward explaining his attitude.

But McQuay doesn’t stop there. Before Snake joined the military, his parents were killed by the prison guards known as the black bellies during a raid. The authorities then froze his family’s assets, helping push him into the military in the first place. This is the kind of backstory that can easily become unnecessary. We’ve seen plenty of prequels and expanded-universe stories that try to explain every little thing about a character when some things are better left mysterious. The Halloween novelizations I covered last year are a good example of that. Here, though, I think it works.

Snake’s history fits the movie’s larger themes about government, authority, war, and betrayal. I’m curious what Kurt Russell would think of all these additions, especially since he had such a major role in creating Snake’s personality and appearance.

The Crazies, Hauk’s Son, and the Missing Scenes

The book doesn’t just add character development. It also restores several pieces of the story that were left on the cutting-room floor. One of the coolest additions involves the Crazies. The disgusting, terrifying people who chase Snake in the movie are even more disgusting and terrifying in the book. One of them has a very specific connection to Hauk.

During the chase, Snake shoots one of the Crazies’ hands off. In the book, he notices that the hand has the word “HAUK” tattooed on it. That’s Hauk’s son.

Snake later gives Hauk some hope by telling him that his son is doing fine and doesn’t need anything. It’s sad and maybe a little hokey, but it gives Snake and Hauk another small connection. Both men are war veterans who have been screwed over by the government, and they understand each other in a way that the movie only hints at.

The novel also opens with Snake and Taylor robbing the Federal Reserve Depository, a sequence that was cut from the finished film. The robbery helps explain how Snake was captured in the first place, while Taylor’s fate gives Snake another reason to hate the authorities.

There are plenty of other additions scattered throughout the book. Snake takes the stairs down from the World Trade Center after landing on the roof and encounters one of the prison gangs. It feels like the movie might have originally been setting up a much larger gang structure, almost something like The Warriors, but neither the book nor the movie goes very far with that idea.

There is also a sterilization room where prisoners are forcibly castrated, and Snake nearly gets taken there before Hauk intervenes. So, yeah. The New York prison is somehow even worse than you thought.

Some of the Book’s Weirdest Additions

Not every addition changes the story in a major way. Some are simply there to show how cool Snake is. When he tries to enter a musical theater club, he scares off a bouncer by showing him his gun. When a woman underground is being passed around by thugs, Snake doesn’t exactly save her, but he does punch one of the guys in the face.

And then there’s the crystal meth. Hauk gives Snake some crystal meth to help him stay awake when exhaustion starts catching up with him. Unfortunately, Snake loses it. So there is no secret chapter where Snake goes on a crystal meth-fueled rampage through New York. I feel cheated.

The book also expands the final car chase. Instead of the Duke being the only vehicle chasing Snake, several cars are involved, leading to a larger pileup and a bigger explosion.

And then there’s Fresno Bob. The movie gives us the famous line about what happened to Bob, but the novel actually tells us. He was skinned alive by the police after being captured. I’m starting to think McQuay wasn’t the biggest fan of law enforcement either.

The Escape from New York Extended Universe

So there you have it. The novel doesn’t necessarily change the story, but it adds a ton of world-building and character development.

The movie remains an all-time classic and is obviously a much quicker way to experience Snake’s adventure. But the book is absolutely worth your time, especially if you’re the kind of person who loves digging into the weird corners of movie history.

And the Escape from New York universe goes well beyond the novelization. There are board games, a canceled video game, a canceled television series, the long-in-development remake, the never-produced Escape from Earth, Escape from L.A., and several comic book stories.

Marvel published The Adventures of Snake Plissken in 1997. The story takes place between Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. and sends Snake to Chicago after he steals engineered viruses from the Centers for Disease Control. He eventually runs into ATACS, a government robot designed to predict criminal behavior by using Snake’s own personality against him.

Then, in 2003, CrossGen and Hurricane Entertainment published John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles, a four-part comic series set shortly after the events of Escape from New York. Snake heads toward Atlantic City and gets involved in another ridiculous criminal adventure involving a very important piece of American history and a character named Captain Ron. Yes, really.

There was even a planned Escape from Earth sequel that would have sent Snake into space. So, yes, the Snake Plissken Extended Universe is real.

Is the Escape from New York Novelization Worth Reading?

Absolutely. If you love Escape from New York, Mike McQuay’s novelization is more than just a prose version of the movie. It expands the dystopian world, gives Snake and Hauk more detailed histories, restores scenes that were cut from the film, and fills in some of the gaps that Carpenter’s lean screenplay intentionally leaves open.

It’s darker than the movie, occasionally stranger, and sometimes goes into more detail than you probably ever expected from a movie tie-in novel. But that’s what makes it fun. The 2026 Echo On reissue also makes the book much easier to find than it has been for decades.

So if you’ve ever wondered how Snake lost his eye, why Hauk really wanted to be warden of New York, what happened to Hauk’s son, or what the hell was going on with the rest of America in 1997, this is where you find out.

Have you read the Escape from New York novelization? If so, what did you think of it? Let us know in the comments, and maybe I’ll see you again when we look at the wildly different The Thing novelization.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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Horror fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Don’t Breathe 3 is officially in development. Announced during Saturday night’s tenth-anniversary screening of the original film at Beyond Fest, the sequel brings back director Fede Álvarez to write the screenplay, with Stephen Lang and Jane Levy set to reprise their roles as The Blind Man and Rocky. While plot details remain under wraps, the franchise’s return is now officially confirmed.

A Surprise Announcement at Beyond Fest

Beyond Fest’s anniversary presentation took place at the MUBI Theatre at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California. The event featured a high-profile Q&A panel with Álvarez, co-writer Rodo Sayagues, Levy, Lang, and Dylan Minnette (Scream), giving fans a nostalgic look back before dropping the bombshell announcement about the franchise’s future.

Álvarez and Levy’s creative partnership goes back over a decade. The duo first joined forces for 2013’s visceral Evil Dead reboot, where Levy delivered a haunting, pitch-perfect performance as Mia, a young woman fighting both addiction and demonic forces in a remote cabin. Though Álvarez’s take on the franchise was an acquired taste for some, critics and fans alike hailed Levy’s turn as one of the most memorable lead performances in the entire Evil Dead mythos.

A Box-Office Powerhouse Returns

They re-teamed in 2016 for Don’t Breathe, a tense psychological thriller following three young delinquents who break into the home of a blind war veteran to steal a fortune—only to realize too late that their target is a lethal predator. The film became a massive summer blockbuster, opening to $26.4 million domestically and eventually grossing over $157 million worldwide on a lean $10 million budget. The 2021 sequel, Don’t Breathe 2, shifted gears significantly by focusing on the Blind Man as he raises his daughter, Phoenix (Madelyn Grace), while dodging violent figures from his past.

With Levy officially returning for Don’t Breathe 3, the third chapter looks primed to pit Rocky and the Blind Man against each other once more to settle some deadly unfinished business. Exactly how their paths will cross again remains a mystery, but horror enthusiasts have plenty of reason to hold their breath.

The post Don’t Breathe 3 Officially Confirmed: Jane Levy and Stephen Lang to Return appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: Set two years after the events of Godzilla Minus One, another Kaiju wreaks havoc in Japan while the country tirelessly rebuilds, and the Shikishima family once again faces danger as Godzilla reemerges.

REVIEW: 2023’s Godzilla Minus One shattered new ground, literally and figuratively, as the film secured the 2024 Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the first Oscar win in Godzilla’s 70-plus-year history. Both the fans and the normies praised this film, and to this day, it is arguably the BEST Godzilla film of all time. So, after the success of Godzilla Minus One, a follow-up was inevitable. However, with the bar set so high, was it even POSSIBLE to MATCH it or even come close? Well, I am excited to share with you that Godzilla Minus Zero absolutely lives up to these expectations and then some!

Writer/director Takashi Yamazaki once again delivers a heartfelt story surrounding the Shikishima family, portrayed again by Ryûnosuke Kamiki as Koichi and Minami Hamabe as Noriko, and their daughter Akiko is now 5 in this movie. Koichi, who survived both World War II and Godzilla, is once again asked to put his life on the line as he helps the U.S. military and the Japanese government deal with another Kaiju. Who is this Kaiju? Well… I’m not allowed to say who, but you can watch the trailer and figure it out. (But we will refer to it as THAT KAIJU.)

Also returning is Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda, aka Doc (my favorite character, by the way), who has his hands full once again using science to neutralize the monsters in the movie. Also, I need to point out a welcome addition to the cast, as Masami Nagasawa portrays meteorologist Makoto Aoyama, who is Noda’s right-hand woman. Godzilla fans will recognize her for sure, as she played the Mothra Fairies in both 2003’s Godzilla: Tokyo SOS and 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars.

And without giving anything away, I also want to point out that this movie has three really great, distinct plots going on at the same time. To some, it might sound overwhelming, as Minus One had a single, easy-to-follow plot, but Minus Zero handles it well and will keep you engaged and on your toes.

What makes this movie fascinating as well is how large the film looks, as its budget is reportedly only around $15 million. A LITTLE bit more than Minus One, but it still looks like a $100 million-plus film, even more than Minus One did. Not only is the film shot well, but seeing all the landscapes of city wreckage throughout the film is one of the film’s biggest strengths.

Now, let’s get to the $15 million question. Is Minus Zero BETTER than Minus One? Well, that depends. If you prefer a more cohesive human drama and a more Godzilla-centered movie, you’re going to prefer Minus One. If you want a more balls-to-the-wall Kaiju thriller, then you’re likely going to prefer Minus Zero. But one thing I will assure you: this is absolutely the best follow-up to any Godzilla movie EVER. No matter who you ask.

I feel like, among the Godzilla fans, we like to debate a bunch of pairings of Godzilla films, such as:

Godzilla 1984 to Godzilla vs. Biollante

or

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla to Terror of Mechagodzilla, etc., etc.

Minus One vs. Minus Zero will be debated for eternity!

If Godzilla Minus One is The Godfather, then Godzilla Minus Zero is The Godfather Part II. It could go EITHER WAY! Bottom line, Takashi Yamazaki and Toho went two for two with these movies!

Finally, for the OTHER $15 million question: Did this movie earn its R rating? Yes, Godzilla Minus Zero is the FIRST Godzilla movie EVER to get an R rating. And well… yes, it did. The movie has brief sequences of charred and bloodied dead bodies. But it’s brief, though. Honestly, I think the movie hurt its box office earnings by making it R and not PG-13.

I think the appropriate decision would have been to gloss over those scenes because it would not have hurt the story, the film, or the spectacle. And Toho could release an “unrated” cut on streaming and Blu-ray. But hey, who am I to mess with the artistic direction of the filmmaker? I’m strictly just saying this from a financial viewpoint.

But to wrap this all up, this is my favorite film of 2026. I think it’s very realistic for Toho to win ANOTHER Oscar. Not only should it get a nomination for Best Visual Effects, but we should see it in other categories, including Best Picture and Best International Feature Film!

Godzilla Minus One was a perfect 10, and the follow-up, Godzilla Minus Zero, also deserves a perfect 10. Go see it on the biggest screen possible when it opens in theaters everywhere on November 6th.

I also highly recommend you rewatch Minus One, and it would also be a good idea to rewatch the classic Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster from 1964 before you go see Godzilla Minus Zero.

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