Hey there, horror friends! We all hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday if you are here in the US — otherwise we hope your regular Thursday was great, too.

This week in Horror Happenings we’re looking forward to some upcoming scary films that will be making their premiere in 2016, as well as a major franchise that has had a lot of news circulating recently. Let’s get to it!

Sundance Film Festival Announces Nine Midnight Movies for 2016

Over the years, the Sundance Film Festival has become one of the most respected and renowned festivals for independent cinema. While surefire Oscar contenders emerge from Park City, Utah every year, their midnight selections are also some of the best genre offerings anyone could ask for ranging from horror to comedy. New classics like The Babadook, Saw, The Blair Witch Project, and The Descent have all bowed at midnight, and this year’s slate has got me intrigued including world premiere’s of Rob Zombie’s 31, Under the Shadow, Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers, and SpectreVision’s The Greasy Strangler.

We were among the first outlets to announce that Zombie would follow up The Lords of Salem with his crowdfunded feature 31. After running a very successful campaign, details have been kept pretty quiet, with Zombie teasing fans with quick glimpses of deranged clowns wreaking havoc on kidnapped carnies the morning after Halloween. The Greasy Strangler has also been quietly discussed by SpectreVision producer Elijah Wood at Q&A’s and such, but details have also been scarce. All signs point to twisted based on what little we know and it should be interesting to hear the initial reactions out of the fest. Finally, Kevin Smith is no stranger to Sundance having his feature debut Clerks purchased after a screening at the festival by Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein. Now, his latest collaboration with Tusk co-stars Justin Long and Johnny Depp, Yoga Hosers, will premiere this coming January as well.

The complete list of the nine films are below. To find out more about each selection and the Sundance Film Festival, head over to their website.

31 / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Rob Zombie)

Antibirth / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Danny Perez)

The Blackout Experiments / U.S.A. (Director: Rich Fox)

Carnage Park / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Mickey Keating)

The Greasy Strangler / U.S.A. (Director: Jim Hosking, Screenwriters: Jim Hosking, Toby Harvard)

Outlaws and Angels / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: JT Mollner)

Trash Fire / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Richard Bates Jr.)

Under the Shadow / United Kingdom, Jordan, Qatar (Director and screenwriter: Babak Anvari)

Yoga Hosers / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kevin Smith)

Tom Cruise in The Mummy? Not So Fast…

Last weekend in Horror Happenings, we told you about the first official update on the reboot of the Universal Monster universe that we’d heard in a long time. Shortly after, rumors swirled that Universal was heavily courting Angelina Jolie to star as the Bride in a new Bride of Frankenstein movie. Then perhaps an even bigger rumor started that announced the studio also wanted Tom Cruise to lead the charge in Alex Kurtzman’s modern day adaptation of The Mummy that would be the first in the new series.

That rumor was quickly put to bed with Deadline reporting that scheduling conflicts would make it impossible for Cruise to participate in a big way in the film. However, some are speculating that he could wind up playing Van Helsing–sort of a Nick Fury for the monster universe–and be involved in some way throughout all of the films. Only time will tell, but for now, consider this one to be put to rest.

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Feature Image Credit: RobZombie.com

Clarke Wolfe writes Horror Happenings for Nerdist every Sunday. You can follow her on Twitter @clarkewolfe.