Welcome back to Horror Happenings, friends! Today we have some fun first looks including a trailer and one sheet for the demonic possession frightener The Vatican Tapes and a teaser for A&E’s Damien plus news on John Leonetti’s Manson Family-inspired follow up to Annabelle. Let’s get to it!
Manson-Inspired Horror Flick To Be Directed by Annabelle Helmer John Leonetti
As far as I am concerned, The Conjuring spin-off Annabelle, released in theaters last October and marking the directorial debut of frequent James Wan DP John Leonetti, was a total train wreck. Really, don’t get me started on Annabelle;Â I think it’s a joke save the one inspired sequence in the basement. However, for as much as I did not enjoy the movie, I did think that Leonetti displayed a decent directorial vision for his first feature and I definitely want to see more from him as a director.
Among many of the problems I had with Annabelle, probably one of the biggest was the idea of a dangerous cult being introduced in the 1960s landscape that felt very reminiscent of the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders and the movie failing to do anything of substance with it. As it turns out, apparently Leonetti wanted more to do with that story also since he will now direct Wolves at the Door, a feature film inspired by the Manson Family Murders. Katie Cassidy, best known for her role in Arrow, will play a role loosely based on Sharon Tate and the film is scheduled to begin production later this month.
Here’s hoping with a better cast and a more fleshed-out script, Leonetti will be able to do something compelling with Wolves which is being described as “a home invasion thriller set in the 1960s.” [Editor’s Note: Ugh, that description.]
The Vatican Tapes Gets Official Trailer, One Sheet
Starring Michael Pena, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Dougray Scott and Djimon Hounsou, The Vatican Tapes hits theaters July 24, but this week Pantelion Films has released an official trailer and one sheet for the demonic possession flick. Check them out below!
The Vatican Tapes One Sheet:
First Look At A&E’s Sequel to The Omen, Damien, Hits The Web
Although we don’t see much, hot on the heels of the announcement of an increased order and a network jump from Lifetime to A&E, former showrunner of The Walking Dead Glen Mazarra’s Damien finally got a first look this week. The series will pick up after Richard Donner’s classic The Omen and feature a grown up Damien Thorne grappling with his instincts to fulfill his destiny as the anti-Christ.
Say what you will about reboots and remakes, especially on television, but I think that it makes perfect sense to carry on the story of Damien when he’s all grown up, and doing it over the course of a series is the route to take for all of the political goings on that comes with The Omen series. Plus, my thoughts personally are that after being initially skeptical of Bates Motel, I’ve grown to really love that show and think that there is real potential with Damien. I’ve been wrong before though, and we’ll all see for ourselves in 2016 when the series premieres on A&E.
