Movies
[Slamdance ’12] Review: ‘Ghoul’ An Above-Par Adaptation With An Unusually Rich Plot!
Chiller TV’s made-for-TV production, Ghoul, premiered last week at the Slamdance Film Festival. Yesterday we announced that it had an air date for Friday, April 13th. And today we have a review!
John Marrone writes in from Slamdance, “As so often explored by Moderncine creations such as ‘The Girl Net Door’, ‘Offspring’, or ‘The Woman’ – what worse beast is there, than man? Genre crawlers looking to see a corpse eating beast or rape scenes in the tunnels beneath the graveyard should take note – this is not a hard-R film… With children engaging problems that would traumatize adults, and an acoustically driven soundtrack by Sean Spillane, Ghoul feels very much like a less offensive version of something between ‘The Woman’ and ‘The Girl Next Door’.”
Click here for the full review.
Brian Keene’s Ghoul is based on a horror novel of the same name, which follows a group of young friends who risk their lives to stop a rash of disappearances in their town. Directed by Greg Wilson and penned by William M. Miller, the adaptation stars Nolan Gould (“Modern Family”). Wilson also directed Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door. The feature is part of Chiller’s new original productions. The film was produced by MODERNCINÉ’s Andrew van den Houten (The Woman, The Girl Next Door) and Robert Tonino. 
We learned earlier this week that “Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller is no longer the showrunner of A24 and Peacock’s Friday the 13th TV series “Crystal Lake,” with A24 choosing to “go a different way with the material.” What does that mean? It means A24 is still planning on bringing a Friday the 13th series to life, but the overall vision will likely change.
Kevin Williamson (Scream, Sick) had been on board to write an episode of the “Crystal Lake” series, and Williamson took to Twitter today to tease some of those original plans.
Williamson writes, “Bummin’ hard, so sorry I won’t be a part of what would have been an epic Bryan Fuller show. Your pilot was so beautifully realized. A gorgeous portrait of a mother unraveling in her grief. Not to mention bloody horrific!”
He adds, “I was so looking forward to our hour long chase episode!“
Kevin Williamson is of course known for writing incredible slasher movie chase sequences, including the ones seen in the original Scream and Scream 2, as well as I Know What You Did Last Summer and last year’s Sick. It’s hard not to imagine how cool an hour-long Friday the 13th chase episode could be in Williamson’s hands, but alas, it’s not happening anymore.
The silver lining? Williamson is directing the next installment in the Scream franchise.
The director of Cube, Splice and several episodes of “Hannibal,” Vincenzo Natali also took to Twitter this weekend to give us a taste of the “Crystal Lake” series we’ll never see.
Natali tweets, “I have read the first two episodes. Bryan Fuller’s Crystal Lake was well on its way to becoming another Hannibal-level reinvention that was simultaneously beautiful, sad, poetic, funny and horrifying. I mourn its passing.”
A24 and Peacock are now searching for a new showrunner for the series. Stay tuned.
Peacock had given the project a straight-to-series order in 2022, with “Crystal Lake” being described as an “expanded prequel” to the original Friday the 13th franchise featuring both Jason Voorhees and his mother, Pamela Voorhees. Original Friday the 13th final girl Adrienne King had even signed on for a recurring role in the planned A24 television series.
Bummin’ hard, so sorry I won’t be a part of what would have been an epic Bryan Fuller show. Your pilot was so beautifully realized. A gorgeous portait of a mother unraveling in her grief. Not to mention bloody horrific! I was so looking forward to our hour long chase episode!
— Kevin Williamson (@kevwilliamson) May 11, 2024
I have read the first two episodes. @BryanFuller’s Crystal Lake was well on its way to becoming another Hannibal-level reinvention that was simultaneously beautiful, sad, poetic, funny and horrifying. I mourn its passing. https://t.co/ob0kF4MQHM
— Vincenzo Natali (@Vincenzo_Natali) May 11, 2024
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