While the rest of us were perfecting our Javier Bardem getups from “The Counselor” and heading out into the cold, murky night for Halloween thrills, a number of similarly-themed announcements landed as well, promising a slasher franchise headed for reboot status, a first look at a horror pilot from the director of “Splice”, and an new release date and poster for a delayed exploitation pic.
DVD label Shout Factory took the Halloween opportunity to announce a forthcoming Blu-ray release of the 1983 slasher flick “Sleepaway Camp”, but that’s not the only news on the matter; Deadline reports New Line exec Jeff Katz has optioned remake rights on the film from the three main rights holders and filmmakers–writer/director Robert Hiltzik, producer Michele Tatosian, and actress Felissa Rose. Rose starred in the original picture as Angela, a bullied teenager at summer camp who encounters a bigger threat when a killer starts murdering her fellow campers. The franchise essentially ran itself into the ground with subsequent installments (a tepid 2003 effort, “Return to Sleepaway Camp”, wasn’t released until 2008 on DVD), so this is likely one reboot that won’t face too much resistance from happening.
Director Vincenzo Natali (“Splice”) on the other hand has stayed fiercely devoted to original content, and remains a rarity on the horror landscape even when his films fail to wholly excite. His most recent work starring Abigail Breslin, “Haunter,” left us rather cold, but a new anthology series on looks to let Natali try his hand in a half-hour format alongside a slate of different directors. “Darknet” follows “snippets of people’s lives being interrupted by vivid instances of unexpected violence or shocking strangeness,” and you can watch Natali’s pilot episode online now down below (via Indiewire). “Splice” producer Steve Hoban will direct the second episode while other helmers include Brett Sullivan (“Orphan Black“), Rodrigo Gudiño, and newcomer Anthony Scott Burns. The series begins airing on Canada’s Super channel and the website darknetfiles.com on Jan. 24th.
We first caught a NSFW glimpse of “Nurse 3D”–the exploitation horror starring “Boardwalk Empire” actress Paz de la Huerta–back in 2011, and not much has been heard from the project since, aside from the annual nipple teaser to remind us that it’s still around. Now, its distributor Lionsgate has decided to release a new, slightly tamer poster (via Hitfix), as well as finally settle on a release date for the film of February 7th, 2014, when it will hit select theatres and also VOD. Directed by Douglas Aarniokoski (“The Day”) and scripted by David Loughery (“Star Trek V: The Final Frontier“), the plot follows de la Huerta as a nurse who uses her lurid charms to draw “dishonest men” to their deaths; finally, after a two-year buildup, it seems we’ll only have to wait a while longer to see exactly what those fates entail.
