Another busy week in horror, and a lot of it felt like things refusing to stay dead. Old franchises locked in return dates and two trailers want you nervous about what’s under the water.
The biggest swings landed early. Kane Parsons is reportedly heading back into the Backrooms for A24 and Mike Flanagan’s Carrie finally opened its mouth. Let’s get into it.
Kane Parsons Is Reportedly Heading Back Into the Backrooms
Kane Parsons has reportedly signed to direct Backrooms 2 for A24, with a formal announcement expected. It would be his immediate next project, pushing back the film he had in development with producer Osgood Perkins. Parsons uploaded the original Backrooms to YouTube at 16, and the feature made him, at 20, the youngest filmmaker ever to land a No. 1 movie. It finished around $394.1 million worldwide on a budget under $10 million, which makes it A24’s highest grossing release ever. No release date, writer or returning cast has been announced.
Flanagan’s Carrie Trailer Finally Talks
Mike Flanagan’s Carrie got its official trailer from Prime Video on Wednesday, and unlike July’s mostly visual teaser, this one lets people talk. It leans on the shower scene, complete with “Why am I bleeding?” and the “Plug it up!” chant, but skips prom entirely. That restraint fits an eight episode series. Flanagan is showrunner and writer and directs four episodes, so he has the whole school year to work with instead of just the final twenty minutes we already know. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White, Samantha Sloyan plays Margaret White, and all eight episodes arrive October 7 on Prime Video.
Godzilla Minus Zero Ends on a Roar Nobody Will Confirm
Toho dropped the full trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki’s return after the Oscar winning Godzilla Minus One. This time humanity has an organized extermination plan, and the IMAX frame physically widens when Godzilla roars. The ending is where the speculation starts: gold lightning, an unidentified roar, and Godzilla falls. Plenty of fans are guessing King Ghidorah, but Toho hasn’t shown, named or confirmed anything, so hold that one loosely. It premieres at the New York Film Festival on September 26, opens in Japan November 3 and reaches North America through GKIDS on November 6.
American Horror Story Throws a Reunion
The new American Horror Story: 13 trailer plays like a greatest hits parade. Constance Langdon, Cordelia Goode, Madison Montgomery, Marie Laveau, Rubber Man, Twisty the Clown and Kai Anderson all show up, and FX hasn’t explained how they end up in the same season. That mystery is basically the whole pitch. Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates are among the returning cast, and Lange’s return is the headline for longtime viewers. The format is changing too, with all 13 episodes running a half hour. It premieres September 24 on FX and Hulu with three episodes.
Josh Hartnett Is on a Very Bad Boat in Netflix’s Below
Josh Hartnett spends the trailer for Netflix’s Below alone on a boat in the North Atlantic while something big moves the water underneath him. He plays Calvin Penney, a fisherman in a struggling Newfoundland community who is also stuck with an unresolved mystery about how his father died decades ago. A creature nobody has seen plus a coastal town with a body count problem puts it in the family tree of The Fog and Jaws. The series shot on location in Newfoundland with local crew and performers. Mackenzie Davis and Charlie Heaton are also in the cast, and all six episodes arrive October 8.
Whalefall Gives Austin Abrams One Hour of Air
Staying in the water. The second trailer for Brian Duffield’s Whalefall is out, and the premise is still one of the most upsetting things on the fall calendar. Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, who dives off California’s central coast to search for his dead father’s remains and ends up trapped inside a sperm whale with one hour of oxygen. Josh Brolin plays his father, Mitt. Duffield, who made No One Will Save You, adapted Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel with Kraus. It’s being sold as a survival thriller, but a man alone in the dark inside something alive while his air runs out is horror to me. It opens only in theaters October 16 from 20th Century Studios.
