Alam Nyo Ba?

The killer tomatoes are back, and they’re coming for your streaming devices. The fifth film in the cult Attack of the Killer Tomatoes franchise, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence, is now available on VOD, following its theatrical release. A new trailer has also arrived to celebrate the movie’s home release. Check it out in the embed above!

Directed by David Ferino, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence brings the horror comedy franchise into the age of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. If you want to know whether this new batch of killer produce is worth your time, I already had the chance to find out. Read my Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence review here. I gave the movie a 7/10, calling it a welcome return for the franchise and saying that fans of goofy comedies (especially longtime Killer Tomatoes fans) should have some fun with it.

Watch Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence at Home

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence is now available to watch at home through VOD, with digital rental and purchase options available through platforms including Amazon/Fandango at Home, Apple/iTunes, and Google Play, as well as participating cable and satellite providers. The film’s official website has the current list of places where you can rent or buy the movie.

The new VOD release follows a limited theatrical run that began in August and expanded into additional U.S. markets during September. Now, the killer tomatoes are ready to invade homes everywhere.

What Is Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence About?

Here’s the official synopsis:

A young biotech prodigy develops a revolutionary genetically engineered vegetable designed to solve humanity’s problems. But when the experiment spirals out of control, it unleashes a new generation of killer tomatoes, setting the stage for another outrageous chapter in the long-running cult franchise.

The Killer Tomatoes Are Back

The original Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was released in 1978 as a low budget parody of monster movies. The film became a cult hit and eventually spawned three live-action sequels: Return of the Killer Tomatoes in 1988, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back in 1991, and Killer Tomatoes Eat France in 1992. The franchise also expanded into an animated television series, a Nintendo game, and plenty of merchandise. And if you’re looking for an early movie appearance by George Clooney, you can find one in Return of the Killer Tomatoes!

After more than three decades of dormancy, the killer tomatoes finally returned with Organic Intelligence. The new film even brings back John Astin as Professor Gangreen, the mad scientist who has been associated with the franchise for decades.

Who Stars in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence?

Along with Astin, the cast includes:

• David Koechner
• Eric Roberts
• Catherine Corcoran
• Daniel Roebuck
• Dan Bakkedahl
• Myrna Velasco
• Vernée Watson
• Paul Bates
• Zachary Roozen
• Samantha Bailey
• Noor Razooky
• Tom Arnold

The film was directed by David Ferino and produced by Michael Polis and Roger M. Mayer, with original franchise filmmakers Costa Dillon and Steve Peace also involved.

The movie is rated PG-13 for language, some violent content and suggestive material.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Heads to New York Comic Con

The killer tomatoes aren’t finished with the convention circuit, either. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence will have a presence at New York Comic Con, which runs October 8 through October 11 at the Javits Center in New York. Fans can find the franchise at Atomic Toybox’s Booth #1771, where the Killer Tomatoes will be part of the Tenacious Collective. The booth will feature Organic Intelligence merchandise, including plush, jackets, hats, posters, art prints, and the debut of a New York-themed T-shirt.

The film’s team is also planning a panel at L.A. Comic Con during Halloween weekend.

So, if you’ve been waiting more than 30 years for another movie about homicidal tomatoes, the wait is finally over. Read my full Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence review here, and let us know what you think of the new trailer in the comments below.

The post Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence unleashes new trailer as the film hits VOD appeared first on JoBlo.

Joe Bob Briggs has spent more than four decades telling us what he thinks about movies, and now he’s giving fans a chance to hear him read his own words. The legendary drive-in movie critic is narrating an audiobook edition of Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In, based on the updated and expanded Dark Horse Books edition.

The audiobook is scheduled to be released digitally on December 15, 2026, with pre-orders now available through Joe Bob Briggs’ official website. The DRM-free audiobook will run for more than 14 hours and will feature Joe Bob reading his original drive-in columns, movie reviews, fan letters, and replies.

Joe Bob had this to say about having to read all of this stuff out loud.

“People have been asking me to read my own book for decades, mainly because many of them can’t read. Now you can hear every high-body-count review, every drive-in total, and every crazy fan letter exactly the way it was meant to be experienced. … Stuff you wrote 40 years ago can be DANGED EMBARRASSING when you have to say it out loud. I resisted the urge to edit my youthful silliness, though, so this is crude OG Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-in.”

Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In Audiobook Release Date and Price

The Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In audiobook is scheduled for digital release on December 15, 2026. Pre-orders are currently available exclusively through Joe Bob Briggs’ official website. The pre-order price is $25.99. The audiobook is DRM-free, meaning buyers will be able to keep it and play it in the audiobook app or player of their choice.

The audiobook is based on the updated and expanded edition of Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In that Dark Horse Books recently released. That edition brought Joe Bob’s original writing back into print while adding material that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years.

What Is Included in Joe Bob Briggs’ Audiobook?

The audiobook contains the complete, unabridged version of the expanded edition. That means listeners will get Joe Bob’s original columns for the Dallas Times-Herald, his reviews of classic and obscure genre movies, fan letters, and his famously unfiltered replies.

The book collects the writing that helped establish Joe Bob as one of the most distinctive voices in movie criticism, so it’s only fitting that Joe Bob narrate the audiobook himself. His television career has always been built around the idea that the way he talks about movies is as entertaining as the movies themselves. Now you can take the drive-in with you.

Joe Bob Briggs’ Last Drive-In Era Is Coming to an End

The audiobook announcement arrives at an interesting moment in Joe Bob Briggs’ career. Earlier this year, Shudder announced that The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs would be coming to an end as a regular series. However, the streamer commissioned additional specials that will continue airing through the end of 2026.

The next one is Joe Bob’s Halloween House Party, which will reunite Joe Bob and Darcy the Mail Girl for a seasonal double feature. The special airs live on Shudder on October 23 at 9 p.m. ET and will be available on demand beginning October 25.

And while the regular series is ending, Joe Bob certainly isn’t disappearing.

Joe Bob Briggs Is Bringing MonsterVision to Comics

Joe Bob and Darcy are also heading into a new medium with MonsterVision Featuring Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy, a new comic book series from Dynamite Entertainment. The first issue is scheduled to hit comic shops on December 23, 2026.

Written by David Avallone and drawn by Edu Menna, the series finds Joe Bob and Darcy hunting monsters together in a “deep-fried adventure” designed to capture the horror, humor, and larger-than-life personality of Joe Bob’s movie-hosting career.

For longtime fans, that title should immediately bring back memories of Joe Bob’s years hosting TNT’s MonsterVision from 1996 to 2000.

Joe Bob Briggs Is Planning a New TV Series for 2027

And then there’s the biggest question: what’s next on television? Joe Bob has already been talking about a new show for 2027.

With The Last Drive-In winding down, he has said that his next series will focus on forgotten films, rather than the beloved horror classics that have become staples of the genre-hosting format. He described the “sweet spot” for forgotten cult movies as 1969 to 1977, pointing toward films that have been overlooked, neglected, rediscovered, or simply haven’t been beaten to death by decades of discussion.

The concept has already been tested through Joe Bob’s live Satan’s Workshop events, where he screened underseen movies and gauged the audience’s reactions as potential material for the new show.

There is no announced network or streaming home for the new series yet, but Joe Bob has made it clear that he’s not finished hosting movies.

Joe Bob Briggs Has Been Keeping the Drive-In Alive for Decades

Joe Bob Briggs made his name as a drive-in movie critic in the early 1980s before becoming the host of Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater on The Movie Channel, which ran from 1986 to 1996. He then took over MonsterVision on TNT, hosting that series from 1996 to 2000.

After an eighteen-year stretch away from television, Joe Bob returned in 2018 with The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The series began with a 13-film marathon that became such a massive event that it crashed Shudder’s servers. That marathon convinced Shudder to turn The Last Drive-In into an ongoing series, and Joe Bob and Darcy went on to introduce audiences to hundreds of horror and exploitation movies.

Even though that particular chapter is ending, Joe Bob’s schedule remains full. There’s the December 15 audiobook, the December 23 MonsterVision comic, the October 23 Halloween House Party, and a new television series planned for 2027. There will also be a Christmas special on Shudder along the way.

Not bad for a drive-in movie critic who has been doing this for more than 40 years.

And now, for the first time, we can hear Joe Bob read his own book. The Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In audiobook is available to pre-order now for $25.99, with digital delivery scheduled for December 15, 2026. Will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In audiobook arrives in December appeared first on JoBlo.

Ryan Murphy has revealed the title of a mysterious new vampire series. The American Horror Story creator says the upcoming project is called Brides of Blood, and it has a personal connection to his family.

Murphy revealed the title while speaking with Vanity Fair about his career and upcoming projects. He also explained that the vampire series is a tribute to his grandmother, who shared his love of one particular horror icon.

“When I was a kid, I was very close to my grandmother, and her two favorite genres were musicals and Dracula,” Murphy said. “I’m making a vampire tale called Brides of Blood, so I can pay homage to my grandmother and what she loved—what we loved together.”

What is Ryan Murphy’s Brides of Blood about?

There aren’t many story details available yet, but Murphy’s comments strongly connect Brides of Blood to the Dracula tradition. Back in August, Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter that his next project would be a vampire story and that he would begin shooting it in Europe in December. He also teased that the series would focus on characters he loves from a book and its movie adaptation.

“I’ve always wanted to do a vampire story and I always wondered why nobody has made a show about these characters I love [from a book and movie adaptation],” Murphy said at the time.

Now that the project has the title Brides of Blood, it seems reasonable to suspect that Dracula’s brides are the characters Murphy was talking about. However, Murphy has not yet officially revealed the show’s plot or confirmed that it will specifically focus on Dracula’s brides.

For now, all we know directly from the creator is that Brides of Blood is a vampire tale with a connection to the characters he previously teased.

When will Ryan Murphy’s Brides of Blood begin filming?

Murphy previously said that he will begin shooting the vampire series in December in Europe. He hasn’t announced a release date, cast, network, or streaming service for Brides of Blood yet. That means there’s still quite a bit we don’t know about Murphy’s vampire project, but the title alone gives horror fans more to work with than we had a couple of months ago.

His current television lineup includes projects ranging from the horror anthology American Horror Story to the historical crime drama Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and the drama All’s Fair. When discussing that variety with Vanity Fair, Murphy said he believes there’s something for everybody. That makes Brides of Blood another interesting addition to an eclectic slate.

For now, we’ll have to wait and see exactly what Murphy has planned. Are you interested in Ryan Murphy making a vampire series? What do you think Brides of Blood will be about? Let us know in the comments.

The post Ryan Murphy’s upcoming vampire series Brides of Blood might be his take on Dracula appeared first on JoBlo.

Jake

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!

The post How Prom Night IV became the sequel that killed the franchise appeared first on JoBlo.

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.

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly wants to release a third cut of the film appeared first on JoBlo.

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.

The post Marjoe Gortner, Earthquake, Starcrash, and The Food of the Gods Actor, Dies at 82 appeared first on JoBlo.

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.

View this post on Instagram

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.

The post Crystal Lake is bringing Camp Crystal Lake to New York Comic Con and Linda Cardellini shared an opening scene sneak peek appeared first on JoBlo.