The return of Michael Myers is just a few weeks away, and one of the studios behind Halloween Kills would like you to be as hyped as possible for that release — along with all its other horror projects that are currently coming down the pipeline. The fact that it’s officially the spookiest month of the year didn’t hurt I suppose. Blumhouse’s BlumFest 2021 spotlighted not just the latest entry in the slasher franchise, but a bunch of other titles, including some brand-new announcements.
First up, here’s “Return to Haddonfield,” a new featurette for Halloween Kills — featuring star Jamie Lee Curtis and other cast and crew members talking about how the new brings back actors and characters from the 1978 horror classic. In a quick clip from the film, we get to see Charles “Sheriff Brackett” Cyphers repeat his iconic “one good scare” line from the original.
Halloween fans can head to Blumhouse’s YouTube channel or Facebook page later today to see a live-streamed introduction (8 p.m. PT) and post-film Q&A with producer Jason Blum and director David Gordon Green (approximately 10 p.m. PT) in conjunction with the movie’s screening at the genre-focused Beyond Fest in Hollywood, CA.
As for the rest of BlumFest, you can check out the stream below; it features a chat with Renée Zellweger about her upcoming limited TV series, The Thing About Pam, which hits NBC in 2022. It’s more true crime than horror but here’s the synopsis: “NBC’s and Blumhouse Television’s The Thing About Pam is based on the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria that resulted in her husband Russ’s conviction, although he insisted he didn’t kill her. His conviction was later overturned. This brutal crime set off a chain of events that would expose a diabolical scheme deeply involving Pam Hupp.” Here are some other announcements from today’s event:
- “The first major collaboration between Tyler Perry Studios and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions,” a thriller called Help that will be written and directed by Alan McElroy (Star Trek: Discovery, Wrong Turn).
- The as-yet-untitled feature directorial debut from John Logan (Alien: Covenant, Skyfall, Penny Dreadful), which will stream exclusively on Peacock.
- A focus on the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” quartet of thrillers and horror movies, Bingo Hell and Black As Night (premiering today on Amazon Prime) and The Manor and Madres (October 8 on Amazon Prime); read Gizmodo’s earlier coverage of the series here, with more to come.
- Premiere dates for writer-director Alex McAulay’s A House on the Bayou (November 19) and director Ali LeRoi’s American Refugee (December 10), the first two films in an eight-film series of “elevated, standalone horror/genre-thriller movies” created as a collaboration between Blumhouse Television and Epix. The films will be day-and-date streaming on Epix and available for digital purchase from Paramount Home Entertainment.
- A chat with director Rob Savage (Host), whose latest film, Dashcam, is currently making the festival rounds.
- And another new movie announcement: “Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell have been cast in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, based on the short story by Stephen King. Production begins this month — Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy producing — and will be available on Netflix globally in 2022.”
Also, not part of BlumFest specifically, but still something very cool to check out this month: Revelations, a new doomsday cult-focused podcast from Blumhouse Television and Vespucci and hosted by our former Gizmodo colleague Jennings Brown, who’s currently at the Gateway. As Deadline reports, “the six-part series tells the story of the Fellowship of Friends, which was founded by Robert Earl Burton, an East Bay schoolteacher who began preaching out of a van in Berkeley in the 1960s before founding the fellowship in 1970 and building it up to around 2,500 members. The group ran the successful Renaissance Vineyard and Winery between 1982 and 2015.” It premieres on October 3 on Spotify.
Halloween Kills arrives in Australian theatres on October 28.