Exclusives
Vincenzo Natali Constructs Terror on ‘High Rise’
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend is Vincenzo Natali’s Splice, his highly anticipated sci-fi thriller that looks like a modernized Species. We caught up with Natali (made famous by his mind-bender Cube) prior to the event where he revealed to Bloody Disgusting that he’s developing a thriller that takes place in the “perfect High Rise.” Read on for the scoop.
“Yeah. At certain times, it’s necessary to develop and kind of juggle a bunch of projects all at once,” Natali tells us when asked about future projects. “There’s a whole roster of things, but one thing that’s public knowledge and which is very exciting for me is an adaptation of a J.G. Ballard novel called HIGH RISE.”
“Essentially, HIGH RISE is a book – I guess it was written over 30 years ago – that was very much ahead of its time because it posited a sort of vertical city, a super high rise, where everything you could ever possibly want or need is in the building, and there’s really no requirement to leave at all. And here we are in 2010, at the opening of the Burj building in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest building, which I think in many respects mirrors what J.G. Ballard was writing about. Essentially, the story of HIGH RISE is how that insular society ultimately collapses, and how even in luxurious, beautiful surroundings, human beings are still capable of reverting to the worst kind of savagery. (Laughs) So it’s another feel-good film.”
Sounds very similar to George A. Romero’s themes in LAND OF THE DEAD. I look forward ot seeing what Natali delivers.
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
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