An archaeologist named Dr. Eric Prince is at the centre of a new Leigh Scott-directed horror re-telling of The Little Mermaid story. While working on a small Caribbean island, he encounters the beautiful Aurora Bey.
Lydia Helen, Jeff Denton and Mike Markoff are among the key cast.
The smile-inducing naming of the doctor aside, I would love to see a high-quality, darker version of Disney’s/Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid story, even if it has to be a horror movie.
Still, something tells me this new version is unlikely to meet all my needs. Yet, I remain curious, partly because I’m drawn in by the sinister quality in Bey’s facial expressions.
What are your thoughts about the new The Little Mermaid movie?
Sean-Michael Argo, Winston Crooke, Wayne Gordon, Manon Laurent, Leigh Scott, Samuel Selman and Dwayne Strawn also star.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of the first scary movies I watched at seventeen, after quitting horror at age twelve because I watched The Omen (1976) and couldn’t sleep for a week due to nightmares.
I had concrete plans never to watch a scary movie again, but my media studies course included a slasher horror movie module, and I had no plans to fail. The only comfort was that all the films we had to see for the course were watched in the daytime during class, meaning there was a good chance I’d be able to sleep peacefully, at bedtime.
Psycho (1960), Anthony Perkins, Paramount Pictures
Fast forward to the present day, before rewatching Psycho, a movie known for starting the slasher horror movie sub-genre, I only remembered two things about Hitchcock’s classic. Firstly, Norman Bates has an unhealthy obsession with his mother. Second, Janet Leigh’s character Marion Crane dies an iconic death that makes showering in a hotel alone a far less peaceful experience than it once was, especially for those with overactive imaginations.
I’d completely forgotten the events that led to Marion ending up at the Bates Motel, a place run by a troubled man and his overbearing mother. No wonder the theme of ‘punishing badly behaved young women’ is a thing in slasher horror films.
Psycho (1960), Janet Leigh, Paramount Pictures
Psycho is very much a classic for a reason. It’s well-written, brilliantly paced and very well-shot and acted. The suspenseful moments were intense, especially considering how unsuspecting the victims were. Composer Bernard Herrmann’s musical score is another noteworthy highlight.
The other bit of good news for me is that Psycho did not lead to nightmares. Additionally,Scream (1996) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), two other slasher films on my course watch list, proved to be more fun, clever and funny than nightmare-inducing scary.
The only unfortunate thing Psycho suffers from is the brief moment of dated special effects at the end.
Lastly…
‘A boy’s best friend is his mother?’ _Norman Bates
Not that mothers and sons can’t be best friends in a perfectly healthy way. But, poor Norman. Poor murderous Norman Bates.
Directed by Jason Yu; new thriller/mystery/horror film Sleep is about a young wife’s efforts as she tries to figure out how to stop her husband’s highly unsettling sleepwalking habits before it’s too late.
For someone who avoids horror films because they usually interfere with my sleep, it’s clearly ill-advised that I’m now interested in a movie in which strange things happen to the protagonist while they’re sleeping.
Part of the appeal is that Sleep was well-received at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, plus the main star is one of the key cast members in Parasite (2019).
Generally, though, this trailer is just too intriguing, and sleepwalking is as awkward as it is interesting. I’d like to find out where this story goes.
Yoon Kyung-ho Yoon Kyung-ho and Erin Nicole Lundquist also star.
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has a brand new movie starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell and Wunmi Mosaku.
Sinners is the name and drama/horror/thriller is the categorisation.
Yes, I’m definitely already scared because of the part-horror categorisation. However, I do love an unexpected turn for a good actor like Jordan, and the intensity of this trailer edit definitely has my attention.
How intrigued are you?
Delroy Lindo, Lola Kirke, Li Jun Li, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Deneen Tyler, Christian Robinson, Theodus Crane, Gralen Bryant Banks, Fabiola Reno, Yao, Russell C. Gibbs, Suzette Lange, Amanda Trumbull, and Ja’Quan Monroe-Henderson also star.
New drama/horror/thriller Never Let Go is the latest from Halle Berry, Anthony B. Jenkins, Percy Daggs IV, Matthew Kevin Anderson and Mila Morgan.
Directed by Alexandre Aja; Never Let Go is the story of a family who continues to be haunted by an evil spirit. Only, now, one of the children has started to wonder if the evil they’ve been told to fear is even real.
Randomly, this trailer made Munchausen’s by proxy come to mind. I’m quite sure Munchausen’s is unlikely to be what Berry’s character is suffering from. Still, her controlling ways have me wondering about the chance that she’s lying to her children because it’s the best way she can think of to keep them alive,
I need to know how her behaviour gets explained in the end. Is she unwell and imagining everything? Are her boys too curious to survive without such prohibitive boundaries?
Whatever the answer, I’m picturing sequels that follow as the boys grow up. Strangely enough, in the next instalments, Berry’s character is a mere memory. I guess I’ve decided that she’s a liar?
What do you think?
Christin Park, Stephanie Lavigne,Cadence Compton, Mila Morgan, Cadence Compton and Georges Gracieuse also star.
