Alam Nyo Ba?

Back in 1968, George A. Romero made his feature directorial debut with one of the greatest horror movies ever made, Night of the Living Dead – and while doing so, he also introduced the world to flesh-eating ghouls that became a new definition for the world “zombie.” Romero, who passed away in 2017, went on to make several more zombie movies over the decades… and recently, his daughter Tina Romero made her own feature directorial debut with a zombie movie called Queens of the Dead (you can read our review HERE). Now that she has gotten her directing career rolling, Romero is ready to move on to her next project – and she told Fangoria that she’s planning a big, gay shark movie called Jawline (or that’s the working title, anyway).

Queens of the Dead

Here’s how Romero described the Queens of the Dead screenplay she wrote with novelist and comedian Erin Judge during another interview with  Fangoria: “It takes place over one night, at the beginning of the dead rising. We find ourselves at a big warehouse party in Bushwick. We’ve got a party promoter for whom everything’s going wrong, and her lead act has dropped out, so she needs to call upon a friend — a retired drag queen — to resurrect his drag, to come and save the night. And it turns out to be a night of many resurrections. And our motley crew of characters find themselves holed up in a Bushwick nightclub, having to decide ‘do we get out of here or do we board the place up?’ And they’ve got to survive the night. It’s about a group of non-fighters finding the survival skills deep within.“

Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow), Margaret Cho (Fire Island), Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story), Nina West (Rupaul’s Drag Race), Jaquel Spivey (Mean Girls), Tomas Matos (Fire Island), Quincy Dunn-Baker (No Hard Feelings), Becca Blackwell (Bros), Shaunette Renée Wilson (Black Panther), Dominique Jackson (Pose), Riki Lindhome (Knives Out), Eve Lindley (Bros), and drag artist Julie J star in the film. George A. Romero’s frequent collaborator Tom Savini and Gaylen Ross of Dawn of the Dead also make appearances.

Jawline

Tina Romero and Erin Judge are also working on the script for Jawline together. Story details are being kept under wraps for now, but they said they envision the project as a cousin to Queens of the Dead in that it will be a “big, gay ensemble” shark movie featuring “beautiful queer people on the beach.” Sure, we’ve seen a lot of shark movies over the years, but have any of them been as gay-themed as Jawline aims to be?

Romero and Judge said that a Queens of the Dead sequel is also a possibility for them, sometime down the line.

Have you watched Queens of the Dead, and are you interested in seeing a Tina Romero shark movie? Share your thoughts on Jawline by leaving a comment below.

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Seven years ago, director Alexandre Aja and producer Sam Raimi teamed to bring us the alligator thriller Crawl, a film that was so entertaining, Quentin Tarantino even named it his favorite film of 2019. Two years ago, it was announced that Paramount Pictures was moving ahead with a sequel, with Aja returning to helm for Crawl 2, which he would also be producing alongside Raimi and Craig Flores… But we never heard much more about the project after that. Thankfully, Raimi has given a hopeful update about the sequel while doing the press rounds for his new hit Send Help.

Crawl Refresher

Aja directed Crawl from a screenplay by Shawn and Michael Rasmussen, telling the following story: When a massive hurricane hits her Florida hometown, Haley ignores evacuation orders to search for her missing father. Finding him gravely injured in the crawl space of their family home, the two become trapped by quickly encroaching floodwaters. As time runs out to escape the strengthening storm, Haley and her father discover that the rising water level is the least of their fears. The film stars Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper.

When Will We Get Crawl 2?

When Crawl 2 was announced, Aja said, “I would say that I never really stopped working on Crawl… After we were done, I kept thinking about all the other great setups that we could create, and it was really an exciting movie to make. So I wanted to really be involved in doing a sequel, and after a few troubled years with Covid and everything, I feel like we are now in a position that, hopefully next year, it might happen. So I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I’ve been lining up so many scenes and stuff, so it’s there. We just have to do it now and get back in the water.“

At the time, it was rumored that Crawl 2 would revolve around a new cast in a new location, this time said to be New York City.

Raimi gave an update on the project during an interview with The Wrap, explaining that the delay was caused by a regime change at the studio. He said, “We’ve been trying to get a go from the studio, and they changed hands, Paramount Pictures did, and now the new group that’s come in I’ve worked with before, the ladies and gentlemen that are great at development, and they’re interested in Crawl 2. That’s all I could really say right now, is now I’ve got a new hope to make it. … It’s a little bit, I think, embarrassing to make an alligator in the basement picture. I don’t know if that’s what their lofty ambitions were but I think there’s a crowd that loves those kinds of films, if they’re well-made and honestly trying to make this suspenseful and scary and get to know the characters, if they’re really trying to do that, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Yes, it’s a B movie but it’s a blast. I really like that kind of picture.“

So do I, Mister Raimi. I’ll choose a B movie over any other option most of the time. I loved Crawl, and would love to see Crawl 2 make it into production.

While he waits for his chance to make another alligator movie, Aja (who also directed Piranha 3D back in the day) has signed on to make the shark thriller sequel Under Paris 2 for Netflix.

Would you like to see Aja and Raimi get Crawl 2 into production? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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Nine months ago, it was announced that singer/songwriter Charli xcx would be starring in the next film from director Takashi Miike. Now, Deadline reports that the project (simply known as Untitled Kyoto for now) will begin filming in Japan next month – and with the start of production right around the corner, Milly Alcock (Supergirl), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), actres-model-singer Kiko Mizuhara (Attack on Titan) and Show Kasamatsu (Tokyo Vice) have signed on to share the screen with Charli xcx.

Miike and Charli xcx

Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has over 120 directing credits to his name, and it has only taken him 35 years to reach that impressive number. The 1999 release Audition may be the most popular film Miike has ever made. Among his many other credits are Dead or Alive, Ichi the Killer, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Gozu, One Missed Call, The Great Yokai War, Sukiyaki Western Django, 13 Assassins, Yakuza Apocalypse, and Blade of the Immortal. He made a cameo in Eli Roth’s Hostel, and contributed to the Masters of Horror TV series with an episode called Imprint. Showtime found Imprint to be so graphic and disturbing that they refused to air it – which is why the DVD release proudly stated that the movie was “Banned from Cable Broadcast.”

Charli xcx has been working on building up her film acting career, and she’s going about it in a really interesting way. She officially made her feature acting debut with Legendary Entertainment’s remake of the infamous 1978 box office hit Faces of Death, but that sat on the shelf for a while and won’t be released until April. Since working on Faces of Death, Charli xcx has taken roles in the Gregg Araki thriller I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, Romain Gavras’s Sacrifice, Aidan Zamiri’s The Moment, Jeremy O. Harris and Pete Ohs’ Erupjca, and Julia Jackman’s graphic novel adaptation 100 Nights of Hero. By taking on these projects, she has worked alongside the likes of Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Jermaine Fowler, Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Chris Evans, Lena Góra, Will Madden, Emma Corrin, Rosanna Arquette, Rachel Sennott, and Nicholas Galitizine.

Charli xcx is producing the film through her Studio365 banner. Good World Productions, Yumiko Aoyagi Productions, and OLM are also producing, with Alex Peace-Power executive producing. Miike’s longtime producing partner Misako Saka produces on his behalf.

Story

Charli xcx and Takashi Miike crafted the story for the film together, then brought Ross Evans and Yumiko Aoyagi in to write the script. The story follows three best friends who meet up in Kyoto to rekindle their lifelong friendships. What is intended to be a carefree girls trip devolves into a nightmare, unfolding when Katie (Charli xcx) becomes possessed by a violent, tortured spirit (Mizuhara) in the Japanese horror tradition.

Are you looking forward to this Charli xcx / Takashi Miike collaboration, and are you glad to hear that the producer/star is being joined in the cast by Milly Alcock, Norman Reedus, Kiko Mizuhara, and Show Kasamatsu? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Dracula is one of the most adapted stories out there. Every few years, we’re getting another interpretation of the story, and this time it’s Luc Besson’s turn. And if it feels like this movie has had an extremely long release timeline, then you’re not wrong, as the film was released in Europe last summer. We’re now finally getting into US theaters and, while critics aren’t loving it (check out my review here), it has managed to make some money at the box office. Despite being one of many versions of the story, Besson’s version is definitely one of the more unique ones out there (even if it’s more a retelling of Francis Ford Coppola’s version than anything).

I was able to speak with writer/director Luc Besson and stars Christoph Waltz, Caleb Landry Jones and Zoe Bleu about the film. Besson gets into why getting Danny Elfman to do the score was one of the biggest wins for him. Landry Jones and Bleu discuss what they were able to do to help develop their chemistry despite not having many scenes together in the film. Then Waltz gets into whether or not he prefers to do period films or those set in modern day. Given his filmography, his answer may surprise you. Check it out in the video above!

Dracula plot:

When a 15th-century prince (Caleb Landry Jones) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife (Zoe Bleu), he renounces God and damns heaven itself. Cursed with eternal life, he is reborn as Dracula, an immortal warlord who defies fate in a blood-soaked crusade to wrench his lost love back from death, no matter the cost. On the verge of reuniting, Dracula is hunted by a relentless priest (Christoph Waltz), sworn to end his immortal reign.

Luc Besson’s Dracula Is Now Playing In Theaters.

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Bryan

Everyone loves a good shark movie. Ever since Jaws hit theaters and broke box office records in 1975, it’s been a reliable horror movie genre. Case in point: fifty years later, Jaws is still able to draw in a huge crowd, with it recently dominating the box office over star-studded, newer fare. But, in the wake of Spielberg’s movie, cinemas (and home video) were flooded with Jaws knockoffs, which continue to this day. Here are the best ones:

Z​ombie (1979)

O​k. Already I’m cheating, but I mean . . . come on. This has one of the best shark scenes in cinematic history. During an early scene of the movie, a woman decides to go for a swim in the lovely Caribbean waters when a tiger shark appears. As she hides among some of the terrain on the ocean floor, she quickly finds she is not alone. A zombie has found his way into the depths. As she swims away, the zombie turns its attention to the shark. What ensues is one of the greatest shark fights on film, and it involves a real shark.

M​ako: Jaws Of Death (1976)

T​his movie has a little bit of everything. Vietnam war veterans, evil strip club owners, and telepathic connections to sharks. What more do you need? Sonny is in Vietnam and is saved by a mako shark as he is being stalked by the enemy. He decides he loves sharks and is given a magic medallion by a shaman that lets him telepathically communicate with his beloved creatures. When he moves to Florida, he runs afoul of the owner of a local aquarium and a strip club owner who wants to use sharks in one of his acts. They try to convince Sonny to use his powers to help them, but instead, he declares war on those that try to hurt them. Ironically, for a movie that’s pro-shark, many of the tactics used off screen during filming were cruel, with sharks having had their teeth removed prior to filming.

Great White aka The Last Shark (1981):

This Italian-made Jaws-rip-off was a smash hit. It made $18 million and probably would have made a lot more, were it not for the fact that Universal Studios actually sued the American distributor to have it pulled from theaters. For the longest time, this was unavailable in the U.S, but now you can see the Italian release version, The Last Shark, online. While some may wonder, after seeing it, why Universal sued, part of the reason is the original score the American distributor commissioned for the film. It was very, very closely patterned on what John Williams wrote for Jaws, and isn’t available on any currently existing version of the film.

S​harknado (2013)

The cheesy shark film that started a phenomenon! This low-budget horror film seemed destined to follow the other such films that end up on the SyFy Channel, but this one caught on with audiences who fell in love. There ended up being six of these films made over five years. You don’t need to be in deep water for there to be a shark attack, but in this movie you don’t even need to be in the water at all. A freak weather accident causes a hurricane off the coast of Los Angeles and picks up a load of deadly great white sharks. It drops them on the unsuspecting public as the city is drenched. Finley has to fight his way to Beverly Hills to make sure his family is safe. The cultural impact of this movie immediately made it one of the best shark movies.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Another tale that proves that humans should not genetically meddle with ultimate killing machines in research facilities. Scientists in an underwater laboratory begin altering the DNA of a group of mako sharks. Now they are larger and way more intelligent than they should be. The group funding the project show up to question if it should move forward, but they all end up trapped in the base as a tropical storm rages above. The sharks get loose and begin wreaking havoc upon anyone they lay their eyes on. A fun movie that will have you pumping your fist in the air.

B​ait 3D (2012)

M​ade during the post-Avatar 3D craze, this film tries to make the best use of it by sticking you in a supermarket with sharks. A tsunami hits the coast of Australia, trapping a group of people in a quickly flooding grocery store. Among them is former lifeguard Josh who found a new profession after a shark attack. As they begin to wonder when the storm will let up, they realize that the flooded store has a twelve-foot-long killer shark patrolling its aisles. Now they must figure out how to survive and not become a cleanup in aisle five. This one also had a nice role for the late Julian McMahon in one of his few big screen contributions to the genre.

The Reef (2010)

P​roving that you should never go sailing with your friends. A group sets out for a fun day of sailing when the boat hits a rock. This opens up the bottom of the ship, and the group has to decide what to do. One of them recommends they try and swim to a nearby island as the overturned boat is being pulled out to sea. Then a shark fin appears in the water. As they swim, they are being hunted by a great white shark. They are being picked off one by one by the apex predator as they try to make it to land.

4​7 Meters Down (2017)

S​o not only are you being hunted by a man-eating shark, but you’re also trapped on the ocean floor? Sounds like a nightmare. This is precisely what happens to the two sisters as they go on vacation. They decide to do a cage diving excursion in shark-infested waters, but the cable holding onto the cage snaps. As they settle onto the bottom of the ocean, they see that sharks are starting to appear. Now they only have one hour of air left and can’t leave the cage as the sharks try to wait them out. Can you imagine cage diving and seeing a megalodon just show up like in The Meg 2?

The Black Demon (2013)

This was a surprise hit in the spring of 2023. While this Josh Lucas-led shark flick didn’t get much theatrical play via new distributor The Avenue (they had a solid theatrical hit with Land of Bad), this was a huge streaming hit and a sequel is in the works. While it’s lower-key than a lot of other movies on this list, the setting on a Mexican Oil Rig is cool, and Lucas is a better actor than usual for movies like this.

T​he Shallows (2016)

A​ surfer hears about a secluded beach that is supposed to be the ultimate destination to catch some waves. When she heads out, she quickly finds a shark hunting in the area and attacks her. She ends up on a rock only 200 feet from shore but can’t safely make it back without becoming a shark dinner. As she sits trying to figure out what to do, she realizes that high tide is coming soon and the rock she is safe on will be underwater. A great thriller that is tense throughout.

Open Water (2003)

M​aybe the most terrifying thing about this movie is that it’s based on a true story! It will keep anyone out of the ocean. A young couple books a scuba diving trip in the Caribbean. They have such a great time that they are the last to surface in their group. To their dismay, they find that the rest of their group has left them behind after a botched headcount. The couple is left to float out in the ocean and see that sharks could soon be the biggest problem. This one will make your stomach clench the whole time you’re watching it. Beware.

J​aws (1975)

I​t had to be right? This Steven Spielberg film not only changed the summer movie season forever but also terrified people of getting in the water. Sadly it also caused a worldwide problem when people began hunting sharks due to fear of this movie becoming a reality. Sheriff Brody thinks a shark may be patrolling off the coast of his small town and tries to convince the mayor to shut the beaches down. He refuses to do so because the July 4th weekend would be an economic disaster. Of course, then a giant shark shows up and kills a little boy. A team is assembled to hunt the shark down and kill it, but not before it takes out most of the crew and sinks their boat. A classic film that is worth a watch whenever possible. A classic film that is worth a watch whenever possible. Recently, the movie came very close to topping this box office after its 50th anniversary re-release, so Spielberg’s classic is still pulling in a massive audience.

Jaws 2 (1978)

While making a sequel to Jaws was an act of pure commerce, the first one they did isn’t half bad. This time, a great white stalks a bunch of teens, and despite saving Amity just a few years before, no one believes Brody when he warns them that a shark is on the loose. This benefits from Roy Scheider reprising his role and the classy director of Jeannot Szwarc. That said, the next two Jaws movies are REALLY bad.

Under Paris (2024)

A newer entry into the genre, this Xavier Gens-directed thriller was made for Netflix, and sports a better-than-usual lead in The Artist‘s Bérénice Bejo. It became a global smash hit and is currently their second most popular non-English language original film of all time.

Dangerous Animals (2025)

Sean Byrne’s contribution to the shark genre did something different. In it, the sharks themselves aren’t the antagonists. Instead, the bad guy is Jai Courtney’s Tucker, who runs a shark diving operation that serves as a front for his murders, with him using sharks as his weapons. It’s a cool premise stylishly brought to the screen, with Byrne making sure you’ll be on the edge of your seat throughout, rooting for the heroine to escape from the clutches of Courtney’s wonderfully unhinged villain. You can catch this one on Shudder.

W​hat do you think are some of the best shark movies? Where are the Ghost Shark and 2-Headed Shark Attack fans? Let us know in the comments.

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Chris

This weekend marks the release of the umpteenth adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this time directed by Luc Besson. Already released in Europe under the title Dracula: A Love Tale, the film took a while to reach the United States, largely because Besson is no longer the commercial force he once was—back when his EuropaCorp banner reliably churned out mid-budget action movies that actually made money.

Still, Dracula is performing better than expected at the box office, despite lacking a traditional movie star (Caleb Landry Jones remains largely unknown to mainstream audiences). In fact, it’s on track to post Vertical Entertainment’s biggest opening ever. While it won’t be a blockbuster, its theatrical run is positioning it nicely for a strong streaming debut. And with Nosferatu having been a surprise hit last year, it’s clear there’s still plenty of life left in the old count.

Which Dracula Adaptation Is the Definitive One?

With that in mind, we want to know: which version of Bram Stoker’s immortal tale resonates most with our readers?

Before you vote, a few caveats:

• This is not a list of every Dracula movie ever made—only films that directly adapt Stoker’s novel.
• That means titles like Dracula Untold aren’t included.
• Nosferatu is included, as the silent classic was an unauthorized—but remarkably faithful—adaptation of the novel’s core premise (a claim that also applies to Robert Eggers’ recent remake).

The Most Iconic Dracula Performances

Over the decades, there have been countless portrayals of the Count, but three performances still loom largest:

• Bela Lugosi in 1931’s Dracula, the Universal Monsters version which defined the character for generations
• Christopher Lee, whose Hammer Films run turned Dracula into a ferocious gothic icon
• Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish, romantic adaptation—an interpretation that clearly influenced Besson’s new film

Each version reflects its era, and each has its defenders.

Vote Now: What’s the Best Dracula Movie?

So, which Dracula adaptation stands above the rest?
Take the poll below and let us know which version you think still rules the night.

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PLOT: A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down.

REVIEW: One thing that always cracks me up about the horror genre is how much a similar concept can just pop up over and over again. It’s more about execution than originality, and it means we can see some pretty similar films from time to time. And it certainly feels like we’ve seen Whistle many times at this point. The film follows a group of high schoolers who discover an Aztec Death Whistle, which summons their future deaths to hunt them down. Cursed object killing teens? Tarot and Wish Upon are just a couple that come to mind. The story is very “been there, done that,” but really, how is the execution? Eh…

One of the biggest issues with Whistle is that there’s nothing to gain from the death whistle. Usually, there’s some kind of positive outcome that makes the cursed object seem appealing. Instead, these characters use the whistle, even though it has no actual positive gain for them. So why on earth do people keep using it?! There’s nothing to gain, and it looks creepy. Don’t put your mouth on that thing! At one point, two of the characters hook up in the midst of all this death, and it undercuts the severity of the situation even further.

Which is too bad because the concept of your future self, inflicting the way you’ll eventually die on you is pretty interesting. They take a pretty Final Destination-y approach with it, with some over-the-top deaths, but this does go decidedly more supernatural. This is more like ghosts haunting people and then killing them in an extremely violent way. I suppose this whistle was lucky that none of these kids were just going to die peacefully in their sleep, or it’d have made for a pretty underwhelming kill.

The characters in Whistle are extremely weak and feel like 90s movie stereotypes. We’ve got the new girl, her loner cousin, two bullies, and two popular girls who have a connection with non-popular kids. Why are there multiple of the exact same character type? It’s mind-numbingly stupid, and, for a film where you’re supposed to care about these people, I was just waiting for their eventual demise. The dialogue is so unnatural and often results in more unintentionally funny moments than anything relatable. It’s grating to listen to these high schoolers talk.

I’ve always liked Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse but they’re not given much to work with here. Their characters fall in love, but it feels very forced and the two have zero chemistry together. It’s nice that the film treats lesbian relationships as everyday versus something to make a grand gesture out of, but there’s no spark there. Nick Frost also shows up as a character who is nothing more than expositional and an easy kill. And I’m not sure if I can ever take a scene seriously when the character is named Horse and people are exclaiming it in terror.

The worst character is easily Percy Hines White’s Noah Haggerty. He’s a youth leader at the local church who is also…a drug dealer? Maybe it could have been handled well, but he’s so over-the-top evil from his first appearance that it’s hard to even take him seriously. His existence just seems to be a way to wrap up something with the ending, with his evilness helping absolve the other characters of any guilt. But, like so many of the people in this film, he’s just a caricature and never feels like a real living human being at any point. Every character is simply a conduit to tell this story, rather than having these events happen to people who actually have some dimension to them.

It’s not all terrible, as there are some great visuals, with The Spiral maze being a real highlight. Director Corin Hardy has an interesting eye, at times. Some of the deaths are very impressive, taking a particularly violent route with the last couple. The car and machinery accidents were particularly brutal and were pulled off well. If the film were more of that and took a little bit more time with the rules of the whistle, it would have had a little more potential. But the rules are terribly inconsistent. One character dies within an hour of the whistle, while others take days. At first, I thought this had to do with the proximity of when their deaths would have occurred, but no. It’s all completely random.

Multiple horror directors are referenced with Muschietti Cigars (for director of IT, Andy) and Mr. Craven (obviously for Wes). I’m sure there were others that I missed, but it’s just another element that makes this feel like a horror film from an earlier decade, as this is such a played-out trope. I really disliked my time with Whistle. Outside of a couple of impressive deaths, this feels like the kind of movie I would have watched on streaming in the 2010s. The characters are downright unlikable, and it’s hard to care about their fates. Every element is so generic, and it’s hard to get invested in a story that feels so half-baked.

Whistle is now playing In Theaters and comes to Shudder later this year.

Whistle

TERRIBLE

3

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