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By the time Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil arrived in the early ’90s, the Prom Night franchise had already reinvented itself more than once. But this time, it may have finally gone too far. There’s no returning killer. Almost no connection to the previous movies. And somehow, a movie called Prom Night IV doesn’t even take place at a prom.

The fourth Prom Night movie abandoned nearly everything that connected the series, replacing the familiar teen slasher formula with a bizarre story about a murderous priest, childhood trauma, religious fanaticism, and a whole lot of questionable filmmaking decisions. And believe it or not, there was supposed to be a Prom Night V. It was actually made before being stripped of the Prom Night name altogether. Then there’s the dangerously low budget stunt that nearly burned a man for real.

So what happened behind the scenes? Why did Prom Night keep reinventing itself until there was barely anything left to recognize? And did Deliver Us from Evil finally become one reinvention too many?

What Is Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil About?

For the uninitiated, it’s only right to begin with a plot refresher. Careful, though. You may lose a few brain cells trying to compute this dull, nonsensical tripe. The movie opens at a 1957 prom at Hamilton High School, the same setting as the previous three films and essentially the only connection between the franchise installments.

A couple of horny students, Brad and Lisa, ditch the dance to do the dirty deed in the backseat of Brad’s car. Before they can get very far, however, a manically furious priest emerges from the darkness and slashes Lisa’s throat with a metal crucifix. The priest is Father Jonas, a deeply disturbed religious fanatic who believes he must punish promiscuous teenagers. He promptly kills Brad and sets his car ablaze.

Back at the local church, Jonas explains that he was sexually abused as a child by priests at St. Basil Seminary. His traumatic past has supposedly turned him into a homicidal fanatic obsessed with murdering teenagers he considers sinful.

Jonas soon experiences an apparent religious stigmata, bleeding from his palms in front of the other priests while moaning in ecstasy. Father Jaeger declares him an abomination and sends him to St. George, where he is imprisoned in the church’s bowels for 33 years, strapped to a bed and fed drugs.

Then the movie jumps to 1991. Somehow, Jonas hasn’t aged a day. Inside St. George, Father Collins is assigned to monitor him. Collins is played by Brock Simpson, who appeared in all four Prom Night movies as a different character each time. In the original, he played 11-year-old Nick McBride. In Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, he played Josh, and in Prom Night III: The Last Kiss, he played police officer Larry.

Composer Paul Zaza also worked on all four Prom Night films, while makeup artist Nancy Howe worked on all three sequels.

Meanwhile, a new group of teenagers is preparing for prom at Hamilton High. Meagan and Mark and Jeff and Laura eventually decide to skip the dance and party at a church that has been converted into Mark’s parents’ summer house. Naturally, this brings them into direct conflict with Father Jonas.

How Prom Night IV Abandoned the Franchise

The development of Deliver Us from Evil began shortly after Prom Night III: The Last Kiss was released in 1990. British-Canadian producer Peter Simpson, who had worked on the previous three installments, wanted the series to change direction again. The first Prom Night had been a relatively straightforward teen stalk-and-slash movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. Then Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II introduced a supernatural element that made it feel more like a Carrie-inspired story. That gamble worked reasonably well, with the sequel breaking even at the box office and eventually developing a cult following. Prom Night III: The Last Kiss, however, went in an even more comedic direction.

For the fourth movie, Simpson hired writer Richard Beattie to give the franchise a more “intellectual” and “sardonic” tone. The result was anything but a conventional Prom Night movie.

Director Clay Boris was also an unusual choice for a horror franchise. His previous credits leaned more toward inexpensive action and television, including Quiet Cool, The Gunfighters, Night Heat, Rin Tin Tin: K9 Cops, and T and T. After Prom Night IV, he went on to direct episodes of Tropical Heat and Highlander: The Series.

Simpson later admitted that his original vision for Deliver Us from Evil hadn’t worked out as intended, and he blamed himself for choosing Boris.

The Making of Prom Night IV

Norstar Entertainment provided a Canadian $1.5 million budget, with principal photography beginning in February 1991. The movie was filmed in Toronto, including locations on Yonge Street, while Valley Halla Estate in Rogue Park was used for the main party house.

As you’d expect from a low-budget horror movie, the production recycled some of the franchise’s previous locations and footage. Interior shots of the 1957 prom were reused from Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, while establishing shots of Hamilton High came from The Last Kiss. Even the exterior used for Meagan’s house had previously appeared as Alex’s home in Part III.

For the most part, the shoot went smoothly. But one sequence nearly turned into a genuine disaster.

The Prom Night IV Stunt That Nearly Went Very Wrong

The movie’s climax finds Meagan battling Father Jonas before locking him inside a woodshed and setting it ablaze. Because Prom Night IV was made on such a small budget, Nicole de Boer later recalled that standard stunt safety procedures weren’t exactly a priority. According to de Boer, the director instructed her to dodge Jonas’ fireballs before striking the stuntman with a shovel.

“He [Jonas] throws a fireball at you; you jump to the left. He throws another, you jump to the right. Then he comes at you, and you hit him with the shovel. Hit him for real; he is padded.”

They began filming as planned. De Boer dodged the fireballs and struck the stuntman with the shovel. Then the stuntman, still on fire, suddenly began waving his arms and moving toward her. De Boer responded by hitting him with the shovel again. The director yelled “Cut!” and De Boer was then informed that the stuntman’s frantic waving wasn’t part of the scene. He was signaling that something had gone seriously wrong and that the fire needed to be extinguished immediately. Fortunately, the stuntman was fine.

Still, it’s one hell of an anecdote from a movie that otherwise has very little going for it.

Father Jonas Is One Weird Horror Villain

Father Jonas is easily one of the strangest villains in the Prom Night franchise. At various points, he falls from two stories and survives, apparently doesn’t age for 33 years, displays supernatural-looking abilities, and appears to share a psychic connection with Meagan. The movie never adequately explains any of it.

One of the more memorable kills comes when Jeff searches the attic for Laura after she has been murdered. Jonas puts Laura’s severed scalp over his own head to make Jeff believe he’s looking at his girlfriend before leaping out of the darkness, kissing him goodbye, and crushing his skull with his bare hands. It’s an effective enough horror image, but it raises even more questions. Is Jonas possessed? Does he have supernatural strength? Is he simply incredibly strong? Prom Night IV never bothers to give us an answer.

The movie also gives Jonas’ backstory an uncomfortable and poorly developed thematic connection between his childhood sexual abuse and his hatred of sexually active teenagers. Rather than creating a compelling portrait of a damaged villain, the film mostly leaves us wondering what the hell it’s trying to say.

There’s also an awkward sequence in which Laura attempts to seduce Meagan before revealing that the whole thing was apparently a joke to determine whether her friend is gay. Whatever the intended effect, the scene has aged terribly.

The Movie Barely Connects to Prom Night

Perhaps the strangest thing about Deliver Us from Evil is how little it has to do with the movies that came before it. There is no returning killer, no continuing storyline, and barely any connection to the previous three movies. The prom itself isn’t even really part of the story.

There is, however, one bizarre acknowledgment of the franchise’s history. While riding in a limo before the dance, Jeff raises a toast to Jamie Lee Curtis. Why? Your guess is as good as ours.

Curtis starred in the original Prom Night, so the reference is presumably intended as a wink to the franchise’s history. But considering how thoroughly Prom Night IV ignores everything else about the series, it only makes the decision more bewildering.

Mark Brings a Gun to a Knife Fight

If Father Jonas is the strangest part of Prom Night IV, Mark may be the character most deserving of a special award for terrible decision-making. After Mark and Meagan discover Jeff and Laura’s burning, crucified bodies, Meagan tries to call the police while Mark finds a gun in the house.

When Jonas suddenly appears and Meagan runs away, Mark has a gun. What does he do? He runs upstairs. Jonas has a knife. Mark has a gun. Mark never points it. He never fires it. He apparently forgets that he has it.

Eventually, Jonas stabs Mark in the foot, and Meagan finds the gun after Mark drops it. There are bullets on the ground nearby, creating yet another bizarre question: Was the gun unloaded? Did Mark never check it? Did he somehow fail to notice the ammunition? It’s a spectacularly dumb sequence in a movie that is already asking its audience to suspend an enormous amount of disbelief.

How Prom Night IV Ended the Franchise

The movie ends with Father Jonas apparently surviving and opening his eyes in the back of an ambulance. At the same time, Meagan opens her eyes. The implication is that the two now share some kind of psychic connection. It’s a cheap attempt to set up another sequel, but Prom Night IV performed so poorly that the franchise effectively ended there.

The movie received only a brief theatrical release in Canada in December 1991 and in Buffalo in February 1992. It subsequently went straight to video in the United States and internationally. The movie currently holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

But here’s where the story gets even stranger.

There Was Supposed to Be a Prom Night V

Had Prom Night IV performed better, the franchise likely would have continued with a fifth installment, and the movie that was intended to become Prom Night V actually exists.

In 1994, Peter Simpson produced a low-budget slasher called The Club. The movie was originally titled The Club: Prom Night V. Unlike Deliver Us from Evil, at least The Club actually takes place at a prom.

The story follows students attending a prom inside a Gothic castle, where a deranged guidance counselor played by Kim Coates stalks and murders them after time briefly freezes.

The movie had virtually nothing to do with the previous Prom Night films, but that apparently wasn’t enough to stop it from being developed as the fifth installment.

The Club also stars J.H. Wyman, who played Mark in Prom Night IV. Here, he plays protagonist John Rotman, leader of the titular club. Wyman replaced Corey Haim, who was fired only two days into production.

Ultimately, producers dropped “Prom Night” from the title for its U.S. release. Some international territories, including Japan, retained the Prom Night name for video distribution. So depending on where you watched it, The Club was either an unrelated 1994 slasher or the fifth Prom Night movie. Welcome to the wonderfully bizarre history of this franchise.

Nicole de Boer Is the Best Thing About Prom Night IV

For all its problems, Prom Night IV does have one genuinely strong asset: Nicole de Boer. As Meagan, de Boer provides the movie with an effective Final Girl. She brings vulnerability and sincerity to a character who could easily have disappeared into the film’s otherwise ridiculous plot. Her performance becomes particularly sympathetic when Meagan talks about feeling overweight and inadequate, while her confrontation with Father Jonas gives de Boer an opportunity to physically carry the movie’s finale.

It’s no surprise that de Boer went on to have a solid career after Prom Night IV. She later appeared in Cube, played Ezri Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and starred as Sarah Bracknell Bannerman in The Dead Zone. If there’s one reason to seek out Prom Night IV, it’s Nicole de Boer.

What Happened to Prom Night IV?

Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil was an ambitious attempt to reinvent a franchise that had already reinvented itself twice. Unfortunately, the movie abandoned so much of what made Prom Night recognizable that there was almost nothing left connecting it to the series beyond the name, Hamilton High, and a few scattered references.

The decision to abandon the prom setting, discard the previous storylines, introduce a completely new killer, and steer the series toward a bizarre religious horror premise proved to be too much of a departure. The result was a fourth installment that effectively killed the franchise.

And yet, the story of Prom Night didn’t quite end there. The Club was developed as Prom Night V before the title was removed, leaving us with one of the strangest “almost sequels” in slasher history.

So that’s what happened to Prom Night IV. The franchise kept reinventing itself until there was barely anything left to recognize, and Deliver Us from Evil was finally one reinvention too many.

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!

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25 years after Donnie Darko first arrived in theaters, writer/director Richard Kelly still isn’t completely satisfied with either existing version of his cult classic. Kelly recently revealed that he hopes to eventually release a third cut of Donnie Darko, and surprisingly, the filmmaker says this new version would lean more toward the original theatrical cut than the divisive 2004 Director’s Cut.

During a Reddit AMA, Kelly was asked which version of Donnie Darko he prefers. His answer suggests that the story’s evolution over the past quarter-century has changed how he views the two existing cuts.

“I am not satisfied with either version, honestly. The Director’s Cut was meant to lay the groundwork for the much bigger universe explored in my sequel. If there is a third version of the film it would lean closer to the Theatrical Cut now that I have written the sequel novel…”

That sequel novel is a major part of Kelly’s current plans for the Donnie Darko universe, and it could ultimately lead to much more than just another version of the original film.

Richard Kelly wants a third Donnie Darko cut

The original theatrical version of Donnie Darko was released in October 2001 and gradually became one of the most popular cult movies of its era. The film initially struggled at the box office, but its audience grew through midnight screenings, word of mouth, and its eventual international success.

In 2004, Kelly released Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut, adding approximately 20 minutes of footage while making other changes to the movie’s presentation. The extended version added deleted scenes, visual effects, and passages from Roberta Sparrow’s The Philosophy of Time Travel, the fictional book that provides much of the mythology.

The Director’s Cut remains divisive among Donnie Darko fans. JoBlo’s own Jake Dee argued that the original theatrical version is superior because the Director’s Cut sacrifices much of the mystery and ambiguity that made the movie so compelling. The extended version provides additional explanations for the film’s strange events, while its use of Sparrow’s book and additional visual imagery makes some of the movie’s previously enigmatic concepts more explicit.

Personally, I loved the theatrical cut and felt that the Director’s Cut ruined the movie.

The third cut would restore The Killing Moon to the opening

The Director’s Cut also famously changed the soundtrack. The original movie opens with Echo & the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon,” while the Director’s Cut replaces it with INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart.” “The Killing Moon” is subsequently moved to the Halloween party sequence. Kelly said the third cut would reverse that change.

“If there is a third version of Donnie Darko… I plan to use Echo and the Bunnymen twice. At the opening… and then again at the party sequence (the way it is used in the DC.) The film was choreographed with INXS as the opening song… so I at least wanted people to have a version of the film with it there.”

Donnie Darko‘s sequel novel is the next step

Kelly has spent years working on an approximately 800-page sequel novel titled The Philosophy of Time Travel, which serves as a direct continuation of Donnie Darko. The book is set in the aftermath of the original movie and begins in 1988, following Donnie’s death. The story is presented in a found-document style involving Donnie’s parents, Rose and Eddie Darko, as they attempt to understand what happened to their son and investigate the strange circumstances surrounding his death.

The novel is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2026, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Donnie Darko.

Richard Kelly has bigger Donnie Darko plans

The sequel novel is intended to be the beginning of a much larger continuation of the Donnie Darko story. Kelly previously told Variety,

“I’ve kept in touch with all the cast over the years. I’m fairly certain they’re aware that I’ve been working on all this stuff, everything, and the sequel is so big that this book starts off in the 14 months after Donnie’s death, and then there is much more narrative material that I’ve been developing where the time jumps 28 years into the future, and there’s a lot of really exciting stuff that happens starting around 2015/2016 and onward after that, so that’s where I started with the sequel. This section of the sequel would be animation and then, in theory, should it happen, there would be a gigantic time jump of 28 years or so, and where the actors, should they want to play their roles live and in the flesh, that would be wonderful, too. So we’ll see what happens.”

What is Donnie Darko about?

Released in 2001, Donnie Darko has the following synopsis:

During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days. When Donnie returns home, he finds that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. Is Donnie living in a parallel universe, is he suffering from mental illness – or will the world really end?

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Donnie Darko himself and is joined in the cast by Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Holmes Osborne, Daveigh Chase, Jolene Purdy, Seth Rogen, and Beth Grant.

Will Richard Kelly actually make Donnie Darko 3?

For now, the third cut of Donnie Darko and the potential cinematic sequel remain hopes rather than completed projects. Would you like to see them happen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Marjoe Gortner, the former child preacher who became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Marjoe before launching an acting career that included Earthquake, The Food of the Gods, Starcrash, Mausoleum, and Falcon Crest, has died at the age of 82. Gortner died Friday from complications related to congestive heart failure, his family announced (via The Hollywood Reporter).

His life and career were anything but ordinary. Gortner became famous as a child evangelical preacher, toured the country delivering dramatic sermons, and later allowed filmmakers to document his final revival tour. That footage became Marjoe, a 1972 documentary that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Soon afterward, Gortner traded the revival circuit for Hollywood, signing a contract with Universal Pictures and embarking on a career that took him from major disaster movies to cult science fiction and horror, network television, and plenty of memorable genre productions.

Marjoe Gortner Was a Child Preacher Before He Became an Actor

Born Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner on January 14, 1944, in Long Beach, California, Gortner was introduced to showmanship at a young age. His father was a Christian evangelical minister (the name Marjoe is a combination of Mary and Joseph), and because Gortner was an unusually articulate child, his parents had him ordained as a preacher when he was just 4 years old.

Gortner became a celebrity on the revival circuit, delivering highly theatrical sermons across the United States. His family reportedly amassed a fortune from his preaching career, although Gortner later said his father disappeared with the money shortly before his 16th birthday.

Marjoe Turned Gortner’s Life Into an Oscar-Winning Documentary

In 1971, Gortner allowed a film crew to follow him during what he said would be his final revival tour. The resulting documentary, Marjoe, was directed and produced by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The film offered a candid look at Gortner’s life as a traveling evangelist. He explained how he and other preachers manipulated audiences during revival meetings, while the cameras also captured him counting the money collected during one of his performances. Gortner later said he studied Mick Jagger as inspiration for his preaching style, which gives you a pretty good idea of just how theatrical his performances were.

The notoriety surrounding Marjoe helped propel Gortner into another kind of performance career: acting.

Gortner Became a Universal Contract Player

In 1972, Gortner also recorded the album Bad, but Not Evil, which included his versions of “I Shall Be Released” and “Lo and Behold!”

He soon signed a contract with Universal Pictures. His first screen acting role came in the 1973 television movie The Marcus-Nelson Murders, directed by Joseph Sargent. The film served as the pilot for the CBS crime series Kojak, with Gortner playing junkie Teddy Hopper opposite Telly Savalas.

From there, Gortner built a surprisingly eclectic résumé.

Gortner Appeared in Earthquake, Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, and The Food of the Gods

One of his most notable early film roles came in 1974’s Earthquake, the massive disaster movie directed by Mark Robson and featuring an all-star cast that included Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Victoria Principal, and Richard Roundtree. Gortner played Jody Joad, a grocery store manager who becomes a National Guardsman during the chaos.

He followed that with a string of movies that made him a familiar face to genre fans. In 1976, he starred opposite Lynda Carter in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, playing Lyle Wheeler. That same year, he appeared in the disaster/creature feature The Food of the Gods, based loosely on H.G. Wells’ novel, playing Morgan.

He also starred in the TV movie Mayday at 40,000 Feet! and appeared in Acapulco Gold. In 1977, Gortner took on the role of Jessie in Viva Knievel!, the daredevil biopic starring Evel Knievel, and played Digger in the TV movie Sidewinder 1.

From Starcrash to Mausoleum: Gortner Became a Genre Favorite

As the 1970s rolled into the 1980s, Gorton starred as Akton in the gloriously strange 1978 space opera Starcrash, a Star Wars-inspired Italian-American production that has developed a devoted cult following. He also appeared in the 1979 drama When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?, and continued making television appearances.

Then came a run of genre credits that included Mausoleum, Jungle Warriors, Hellhole, The Survivalist, and American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt. Gortner’s filmography is a fun one to revisit.

Gortner Also Had a Busy Television Career

Gortner was equally prolific on television. His credits included Barnaby Jones, Medical Center, Police Story, Fantasy Island, The A-Team, Matt Houston, Whiz Kids, Airwolf, Street Hawk, T.J. Hooker, Hotel, Half Nelson and The Twilight Zone. He even appeared on Laugh-In.

One of his most substantial television roles came on Falcon Crest. During the show’s sixth season in 1986-87, Gortner played Vince Karlotti, a colorful polygamist and faux psychic medium. He appeared in 17 episodes. The role was appropriate given Gortner’s unusual personal history, as he was able to draw upon his own experiences with religious performance and showmanship.

Gortner continued appearing on television and in movies through the 1990s. His later credits included Wild Bill, in which he played a preacher, and The Debtors.

His Genre Legacy Includes Starcrash, The Food of the Gods, and American Ninja 3

Gortner never became the kind of household-name movie star that his early Universal contract might have suggested, but his career became something more interesting: a sprawling collection of cult movies, disaster films, television shows, and genre favorites. His filmography includes everything from the massive ensemble spectacle of Earthquake to the psychedelic space adventure of Starcrash, the giant rat horror of The Food of the Gods, the supernatural terror of Mausoleum, and the Cannon action of American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt.

For genre fans, that’s quite a résumé. And it all came after a childhood spent traveling the country as a celebrity preacher and a documentary that exposed the strange world he had grown up in.

Gortner’s Later Years

Beyond acting, Gortner worked as a producer on Circus of the Stars specials and celebrity sports invitationals that raised money for charity.

He was married five times, including a brief marriage to American Graffiti actress Candy Clark. He married his fifth wife, Susan, in 2019.

Gortner’s final years were a long way removed from the revival tents where he first became famous, but his unusual journey from child preacher to Oscar-winning documentary subject to Universal contract player and cult-movie regular remains one of the stranger career paths in Hollywood history.

Marjoe Gortner was 82. He left behind a filmography that was more colorful than the average Hollywood résumé and a life story that was stranger than anything a screenwriter could have invented. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.

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Crystal Lake is almost ready to welcome Friday the 13th fans back to Camp Crystal Lake. With Peacock’s long-awaited prequel series premiering later this month, the streamer has announced a special Camp Crystal Lake experience for New York Comic Con, while star Linda Cardellini has shared a sneak peek at the show’s opening scene.

The Peacock and A24 series will take over Booth 1359 at the Javits Center during New York Comic Con, giving attendees the chance to step into a 1970s version of Camp Crystal Lake. The free experience will run throughout the convention from October 8 through October 11.

And if you can’t make it to New York, Cardellini has provided another way to get a taste of what’s coming. The actress, who plays Pamela Voorhees in Crystal Lake, shared a sneak peek at the opening scene on Instagram ahead of the show’s October 15 premiere.

Crystal Lake is bringing Camp Crystal Lake to NYCC

Peacock’s New York Comic Con experience will transport fans back to the 1970s and put them in the middle of Camp Crystal Lake. The free interactive experience is designed around the fictional summer camp, complete with in-world thrills, photo opportunities, and Crystal Lake giveaways. Attendees will apparently even have the chance to find out whether they can survive their camp counselor orientation.

The experience will be available at Booth 1359 at the Javits Center during the following hours:

• Thursday, October 8: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Friday, October 9: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, October 10: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Sunday, October 11: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Linda Cardellini shares a sneak peek at Crystal Lake

Linda Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason Voorhees and the central character in this new prequel. The series takes place years before the events of the original Friday the 13th, with Pamela dealing with the aftermath of Jason’s drowning at Camp Crystal Lake.

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A post shared by Linda Cardellini (@lindacardellini)

Peacock’s official trailer has already made it clear that Crystal Lake isn’t simply going to retell the original movie. The series is expanding the mythology around Pamela, Jason, and the town of Crystal Lake while setting the story in the early 1970s. Peacock describes it as an expanded prequel to the Friday the 13th franchise.

And we now know from creator Brad Caleb Kane that the series will also address some of the biggest questions surrounding Jason’s origins, although he has promised that the explanations are grounded in reality.

If you want to know what the show is actually like, Chris Bumbray has already seen the first two episodes. In his Crystal Lake review, he praised Cardellini’s performance as Pamela.

Callum Vinson plays young Jason. The series also features William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom.

Brad Caleb Kane, who previously worked on It: Welcome to Derry, serves as creator, writer, and showrunner. The eight-episode first season is directed by Michael Lennox, Celine Held and Logan George, and Quyen Tran.

The series is also leaning into its connection to the original movies, with original composer Harry Manfredini contributing new music for the title sequence and the production returning to Blairstown, New Jersey, a location used for the original Friday the 13th.

When does Crystal Lake premiere?

All eight episodes of Crystal Lake season 1 will premiere on Peacock on October 15, 2026. That means Friday the 13th fans are now less than two weeks away from finally seeing what Brad Caleb Kane and A24 have done with the Voorhees family.

Between the new Camp Crystal Lake experience at New York Comic Con, Cardellini’s opening scene sneak peek, and the first reviews coming out of TIFF, we’re getting a pretty good idea of what to expect. Are you looking forward to Crystal Lake? Let us know in the comments.

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The long-developing horror movie Every House Is Haunted has finally found a new home. According to Deadline, 20th Century Studios has acquired the Sam Raimi-produced project from Netflix, which had previously been developing the movie.

The movie is based on Ian Rogers’ short story The House on Ashley Avenue and already has Don’t Move directors Adam Schindler and Brian Netto attached to direct. The duo will now do their own pass on the existing screenplay by Jason Pagan and Andrew Deutschman.

Schindler and Netto’s involvement was first reported earlier this year, when they replaced The Nun and The Hallow director Corin Hardy. The latest development is that the project has moved to 20th Century Studios.

20th Century Studios has acquired Every House Is Haunted

Netflix acquired Pagan and Deutschman’s Every House Is Haunted script in 2021, but the project never made it into production there. Now Netflix has sold the movie to 20th Century Studios, giving the horror project another chance to finally make it to the screen.

Raimi and Zainab Azizi are producing Every House Is Haunted for Raimi Productions, alongside Roy Lee and Andrew Childs for Vertigo Entertainment. Ian Rogers and Starlight Media, which helped kickstart development by optioning the source material, are executive producing.

Schindler and Netto previously worked with Raimi on 50 States of Fright before directing Don’t Move, the 2024 Netflix thriller starring Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock. That movie reached No. 1 on Netflix’s global film chart during its first two weeks on the service.

The duo is also in post-production on Nightwatching, a survival thriller starring Mila Kunis and Corey Hawkins and produced by Ridley Scott.

What is Every House Is Haunted about?

Every House Is Haunted follows an insurance investigator who tries to debunk claims that a couple’s deaths were caused by a haunted house. His skepticism begins to fade when he encounters a psychic and witnesses mysterious occurrences that are much harder to explain away.

There is currently no release date for Every House Is Haunted, and no cast has been announced.

I’ve been waiting for this one for a while, so I’m glad to see it hasn’t disappeared into the haunted house of development hell. What do you think of Every House Is Haunted moving to 20th Century Studios? Let us know in the comments.

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How scary was that haunted house? Was that new horror movie actually terrifying, or were you just pretending to be scared because your friends were watching? There’s now an app for that. Scream Score, a free app created by zoologist and immersive experience designer Heather Doggett, uses a smartphone and compatible smartwatch or wearable to track your body’s biometric response during scary experiences and turn it into a personalized fear score. The newest version is now available on iOS and Android, just in time for Halloween.

So instead of arguing about which friend screamed the loudest, you can actually compare your scores and find out who got the most freaked out.

How does Scream Score work?

Scream Score pairs your phone with a compatible wearable device and tracks biometric responses while you’re experiencing something scary. The app can be used at haunted attractions and while watching horror movies, allowing users to see how their bodies reacted throughout the experience. The app also has a competitive element. Friends can compare their scores, create challenges, and see who handled the scares the best or, more importantly, who turned out to be the easiest person in the group to terrify.

Scream Score has been designed as entertainment rather than a medical device or diagnostic tool.

Why was Scream Score invented?

The idea for Scream Score came from a conversation Doggett had with her then-15-year-old, who wanted to visit an especially intense haunted attraction. That led to a difficult question: How scary is too scary? Doggett decided to see whether the body’s response to fear could actually be measured and turned into something people could have fun with.

“I wanted to give people a way to settle the argument,” Doggett said. “Not ‘Was that scary?’ but ‘How scared did you actually get?’ and ‘How scared are my friends?’”

Scream Score launched in 2024 with a focus on the haunted attraction industry. It has since been tested at haunted attractions around the country and used with audiences watching 28 films at the Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival. The technology has also been demonstrated at events including MidSummer Scream and TransWorld’s Halloween & Attractions Show.

Now you can use Scream Score with horror movies

The latest version expands Scream Score beyond haunted attractions and makes it possible to use the app with horror movies as well. That opens up an entertaining possibility for horror fans. You could watch the same movie with a group of friends, let Scream Score track everyone’s reactions, and then find out who was actually the most scared.

Of course, there’s a potential problem with that plan. If you spend the entire movie watching your smartwatch instead of the screen, you might miss the part that was supposed to scare you. Still, being able to compare your reaction to the same movie with someone else’s could make for a fun experiment. And if you think you’re impossible to scare, Halloween is a pretty good time to put that theory to the test.

What about your heart rate data?

Because Scream Score uses biometric information, privacy is naturally part of the conversation. According to the company, scores are anonymous, and Scream Score does not sell users’ heart rate data. Participating haunted attractions receive anonymous, aggregated information rather than identifying information about individual guests.

The app’s current store listings also provide privacy information for the respective platforms. Google Play currently states that the developer does not share data with third parties, while Apple’s listing says the developer reports that the app does not collect data.

Where can you try Scream Score?

Scream Score is currently available as a free app for iOS and Android, with compatibility depending on the phone and wearable being used. Apple devices require iOS 17 or later and a compatible Apple Watch, while Android users can pair the app with compatible Wear OS smartwatches and wearables.

The company is also offering demonstrations throughout the Halloween season, including live and on-camera “measure YOUR fear” demonstrations, appearances at haunted attractions and horror events, and podcast and livestream appearances.

So the next time somebody insists that that haunted house wasn’t scary, or that that horror movie barely made them flinch, there’s a new way to settle the argument. Just strap on your smartwatch and let the fear score decide.

Will you be using the Scream Score app? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Scream Score app lets horror fans measure how scared they really get appeared first on JoBlo.

What do you get when the people behind Aliens Expanded and The Thing Expanded decide to tackle James Cameron’s The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day? Apparently, the answer is Terminator Expanded, a new documentary that aims to take a deep dive into Cameron’s first two Terminator movies, and CREATORVC wants fans to help shape it.

CREATORVC has officially entered development on Terminator Expanded, with Ian Nathan, the writer and director of Aliens Expanded and The Thing Expanded, returning to lead the project. Before production gets underway, however, the documentary team is asking Terminator fans to read the proposed synopsis and provide feedback.

You can check out the Terminator Expanded proposal and submit your feedback through the project’s official website.

What will Terminator Expanded cover?

The documentary will focus specifically on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, exploring how Cameron and his collaborators brought the two movies to life and examining their lasting impact.

The project plans to feature brand-new interviews with cast and crew members who were involved in the making of the movies. But CREATORVC isn’t stopping there. Terminator Expanded will also seek out Hollywood filmmakers and experts in artificial intelligence and computer technology to discuss the ways Cameron’s movies anticipated technological developments that have become increasingly relevant in the real world.

That’s an interesting direction for a Terminator documentary in 2026. The idea of artificial intelligence becoming an existential threat was science fiction when Cameron made The Terminator in 1984. Today, conversations about AI are everywhere, making the franchise’s relationship with technology and its warnings about the future worth another look.

Producer Josh Weiss pointed to the growing presence of AI as one of the reasons the timing feels right for Terminator Expanded.

“The time has never been riper for a trip down the Skynet rabbit hole,” Weiss said in the announcement.

CREATORVC wants Terminator fans involved

One of the more interesting things about Terminator Expanded is that CREATORVC isn’t simply announcing the documentary and moving on to production. The company is asking the Terminator fan community what it should cover. That’s become part of the CREATORVC approach. The company describes its documentaries as community-powered projects, with fans able to contribute feedback on concepts and early cuts during production.

Executive producer Robin Block says the goal with Terminator Expanded is to explore Cameron’s movies in unprecedented detail while looking at their impact on pop culture from a new perspective.

“We’re doing it hand in hand with the fandom, because no one knows this franchise better than they do,” Block said. “Our goal is simple: to make the greatest Terminator documentary ever made.”

Ian Nathan, meanwhile, describes Terminator Expanded as his “boldest, biggest, most challenging documentary yet.”

The Terminator and T2 get the Expanded treatment

There’s no shortage of documentaries about The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but CREATORVC’s projects tend to take the “leave no stone unturned” approach to their subjects.

The Terminator introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seemingly unstoppable T-800 in 1984, with Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese traveling back through time to protect Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton. Cameron followed it seven years later with Terminator 2, turning Schwarzenegger’s machine into an unlikely protector while introducing Robert Patrick’s liquid-metal T-1000. Terminator Expanded will have the opportunity to examine not only how the films were made, but why they have continued to resonate more than three decades later.

And given the subject matter, it seems inevitable that the documentary will have plenty to say about Cameron’s vision of a future where artificial intelligence develops beyond humanity’s control.

No release date has been announced for Terminator Expanded yet, but CREATORVC has invited fans to become part of the process. So if you’ve ever wanted to tell a Terminator documentary exactly what it should cover, this is your chance.

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