Netflix and Universal were very kind to let me go direct Scream VII and put some projects on hold. Now I'm focused on those. The first is a TV show based in the Universal monster land. It won't skimp on Williamson's penchant for melodrama, either: he compared the project to an adult Vampire Diaries, which we've not really gotten from him before.
The first thing you notice about undertone is how quiet it is; not just in its audio mix, but in how it's shot - primarily steady wide shots that slowly pan across empty rooms, allowing your eyes to frantically scan for something amiss. It's an understated form of filmmaking that allows for the movie's scares to hit all that much harder.
During a junket interview with OutNow, Gyllenhaal explained that the punctuation mark was included to represent the "whole lot of energy" that comes out when the historically muted Bride of Frankenstein is finally allowed to speak. That's all well and good, but to viewers the titular exclamation point is less of a metaphor and more of a golden arrow saying, "This movie is going to be crazy."
In 1974, Tobe Hooper made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a ruthless movie about Leatherface laying waste to an unlucky friend group. It has had a lasting legacy ever since - its production was even dramatized recently in the Ryan Murphy Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story. (The real-life murderer reportedly inspired Leatherface.) In September 2025, the future of the horror franchise went up for sale as multiple companies bid to acquire the rights to the story.
In 2006's Final Destination 3 the disaster is a high-speed roller coaster derailment, narrowly avoided thanks to a premonition experienced by high school senior Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). But as fans know, Death doesn't like being ghosted. One by one, the survivors are stalked and eliminated through elaborately staged "accidents" that turn mundane locations into Rube Goldberg-ian death traps.
I'm talking about Iron Lung, a self-financed film by a beloved YouTuber named Mark Fischbach, who goes by the handle Markiplier, and who has more than 38 million followers to his name. The movie, an adaptation of an indie horror video game, had a budget of approximately $3 million-an amount that Iron Lung has already earned back seven times over, with a box office of $21.7 million worldwide.
We're deep into Strangers lore now, but last girl standing Maya (Riverdale graduate Madelaine Petsch, who surely hoped this was her Neve Campbell moment) continues to scurry about a devout woodland community like a bloodied fieldmouse with resting iPhone face; the masked thrill-killers previously three, now two have now gained ulterior motives for pursuing her. Also present: tatted survivor Gregory (Gabriel Basso, who must have been hoping for more to do) and ever-shifty Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake), whose link to the killers is finally made.
Return to Silent Hill, a live-action film adaptation of Konami's beloved Silent Hill 2, hits theaters later this week. Early reviews for the horror flick are as scary as any monster from the games. First announced in 2022, Return to Silent Hill releases on January 23. It isn't connected to the past two Silent Hill movies, even though it was directed by the first film's Christophe Gans, and is instead a loose adaptation of the PS2-era survival horror classic Silent Hill 2.