A24 has another horror hit on its hands, as Talk to Me is finding quick success at the box office. The buzzy Sundance hit was acquired by the indie studio and released into theaters this past weekend, where it scared up $10 million and set A24 up for success. Of course, with box office success comes talks about potential sequels, especially where horror films are concerned. For directors Danny and Michael Philippou, a Talk to Me sequel is absolutely on the table.

The film's conclusion is slightly open-ended, leaving things open for a sequel if one ever happens. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Philippou twins shared that it'd be hard to turn down a return to that world.

"Part of me is like, 'Yeah, maybe it is done,'" Danny said. "The other part of me is like, 'Oh, my God. Give me a sequel, please.' I've got these set pieces that I'm like, 'Oh, my God, I so badly want to shoot this. This is the coolest thing ever.' So, if A24 came to me and said, 'You know what? We'd like a sequel.' I wouldn't be able to resist. I'd want to do it so bad."

"I guess a question would be, would you continue the story around Mia and those characters, or do you go to another part of the world? That's a debate," added Michael.

Talk to Me Winning at the Box Office

Talk to Me may not have cost very much to produce, but it's already turning into a money-maker for A24. This weekend, the film debuted on more than 2,300 screens across North America and earned over $10 million. That's enough for the second-biggest opening weekend in A24 history.

The only A24 movie to earn more in its opening weekend was Ari Aster's instant horror classic Hereditary. That film earned $13.6 million in its first weekend. Talk to Me doubled its opening weekend projections and looks to be a smash horror hit for A24, even when going up against the biggest movies of the year.

Talk to Me Cast

Talk to Me stars Sophia Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen, Zoe Terakes, and Chris Alosio. Danny and Michael Philippou directed the film from a screenplay the former wrote alongside Bill Hinzman.

The logline for Talk to Me reads: "When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces."

The current box office conversation revolves almost entirely around the massive successes of Barbie and Oppenheimer, but a horror movie with a whole lot of buzz behind it is proving to be the little engine that could after its debut in theaters this weekend. Talk to Me, the chilling film that has been getting a lot of attention since it was shown at Sundance earlier this year, was given a wide release by popular indie distributor and studio A24.

The gamble paid off for A24, as Talk to Me delivered the second-biggest debut weekend in the company's history. Talk to Me earned more than $10 million at the box office this weekend, playing on 2,300+ screens across the country. The only A24 movie to earn more in its opening weekend was Ari Aster's instant horror classic Hereditary. That film earned $13.6 million in its first weekend.

Talk to Me doubled its opening weekend projections and looks to be a smash horror hit for A24, even when going up against the biggest movies of the year.

Talk to Me Is Both a Horror and Drama Film

Ahead of Talk to Me's debut in theaters this weekend, directors Danny and Michael Philippou spoke with ComicBook.com about making sure the characters were always at the center of the film's story.

"We knew that we wanted all the horror to be rooted in character, and we didn't just want a splatter film where people are getting picked off here and there," Michael explained. "We wanted scenes to have the impact that was necessary. We wanted it to be rooted in reality for the film to work as both a horror film AND a drama film."

"We wanted it to be current," added Danny. "We wanted to make something that was modern. Gen Z and the problems they face with social media are just a part of life now. It's a lot of what we understand and where we come from. We came to realize that some of the things we wanted to say worked well in focusing on that."

Talk to Me Cast

Talk to Me stars Sophia Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen, Zoe Terakes, and Chris Alosio. Danny and Michael Philippou directed the film from a screenplay the former wrote alongside Bill Hinzman.

The logline for Talk to Me reads: "When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces."

Netflix sees plenty of changes to its streaming roster each and every month, and August is no exception. In the coming month, Netflix is preparing to add several movies and TV shows to its lineup. Unfortunately, it will also be losing quite a few titles as well. From beloved sitcoms to hit horror films, there are some major titles set to exit Netflix over the course of the next several weeks, beginning with a historical drama in the middle of the month.

The exits in August begin on August 12th, as both seasons of Knightfall make their way off the streamer. The biggest day for exits, however, is at the end of the month.

On August 31st, Netflix will be saying goodbye to hit films like Mean Girls, Paranormal Activity, The Ring, Open Season, and Sleepless in Seattle. It will also be losing all three seasons of the Scream TV series and every season of Sister, Sister.

Everything Leaving Netflix in August 2023

Here's the full list of movies and shows exiting Netflix next month:

Leaving 8/12/23
Knightfall: Seasons 1-2
Leaving 8/14/23
Winx Club: Seasons 6-7
Leaving 8/15/23
Les Mis?rables
Leaving 8/24/23
Jobs
Leaving 8/31/23
A Knight's Tale
If Beale Street Could Talk
InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time
InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler
InuYasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island
The Italian Job
Mean Girls
Moving Art: Seasons 1-3
Open Season
Open Season 2
Paranormal Activity
The Ring
Salt
Scream: Seasons 1-3
She's Gotta Have It
Sister, Sister: Seasons 1-6
Sleepless in Seattle

Netflix's New August Additions

Netflix may be losing some big titles in August, but the streaming service also has quite a few movies and TV shows making their way to its lineup next month. As always, the first day of the month will be the biggest day for new additions. That day will see five Fast & Furious movies make their way to Netflix, along with all four seasons of ABC's Ugly Betty.

Here's everything coming to Netflix on August 1st:

2 Fast 2 Furious
Bee Movie
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Coming to America
Despicable Me
Despicable Me 2
Eat Pray Love
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Friends with Benefits
It's Complicated
The Jerk
Just Go With It
Lost in Translation
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
No Strings Attached
Pawn Stars: Season 14
Poms
Terminator Genisys
Ugly Betty: Seasons 1-4
Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

Disney's new take on the Haunted Mansion is off to a difficult start at the box office. The film debuted in theaters this weekend and faced an uphill battle, going up against the second weekend of record-breaking box office behemoths Barbie and Oppenheimer. With those two movies still commanding all of the big screen attention, Justin Simien's Haunted Mansion is having trouble getting any attention, opening below its already soft expectations.

Heading into the weekend, Haunted Mansion was eyeing an opening between $25 million and $30 million. Sunday's updated estimates, according to Variety, indicate that the new Disney live-action film won't even reach the lower end of that range. Haunted Mansion is currently looking at an opening weekend total of $24.6 million in North America, alongside just $9.1 million internationally.

With just around $33 million globally after one weekend, Haunted Mansion is going to struggle to make back its reported $150 million budget over the course of its theatrical run. There are a lot of factors playing into the muted debut for Haunted Mansion, with Barbie and Oppenheimer's success front and center, but the timing of the release is certainly a head-scratching move. Haunted Mansion is the type of movie that feels much more suited to a fall release, timing its debut closer to Halloween season and not in the middle of a summer blockbuster run. Not only would the theaters be less crowded with other films, but the season itself would make more sense for the movie's content.

Haunted Mansion Sequel Potential

Haunted Mansion's struggles out of the gate don't bode well for a potential second movie, but things could change after this weekend. Elemental recovered from a rough opening to become a surprising box office hit for Pixar, and there's no reason Haunted Mansion couldn't do the same. It could also find big success with home sales or on Disney+. There are paths forward for the potential franchise beyond the box office.

Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien told ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis that there are absolutely ways a sequel can work, and that the film itself leaves the door open for the possibilities.

"It definitely leaves a door open for more and for other spaces where, you know, ghosts might materialize," Simien explained.

Haunted Mansion Cast

LaKeith Stanfield leads and all-star Haunted Mansion cast that also includes Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Hasan Minhaj, and Dan Levy amongst others. Simien directed the film from a script written by Kate Dippold.

Did you see Haunted Mansion in theaters? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!

Earlier this week, Sony announced an updated list of their release schedule, which saw some major films getting pushed back. There were also a couple of movies on the list that have been removed from the schedule altogether, including the Blumhouse movie, They Live. Originally, the film was supposed to be released next month but was recently delayed until August 2, 2024. Now, the film is listed as "TBC" on Sony's line-up.

Blumhouse's They Listen is set to star John Cho and Katherine Waterston and will be directed by Chris Weitz, who is best known for helming About a Boy, The Golden Compass, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The film will also feature Riki Lindhome, Lukita Maxwell, and Greg Hill. The film marks the eleventh collaboration between Cho and Weitz who originally worked together on American Pie. For now, the plot of They Listen is unknown. Jason Blum, Weitz, and Andrew Miano are producing the project while Bea Sequeira, Dan Balgoyen, Britta Rowings, and Paul Davis are serving as executive producers.

When Is Bluhouse Merging With Atomic Monster?

Last year, it was announced that Blumhouse would be merging with James Wan's Atomic Monster.

"I don't have one idea to turn into a horror movie," Jason Blum told The New York Times. "Not one. I built a business by recognizing great ideas from other people." Wan added, "I have so many ideas - so many ideas - more than I can handle by myself...It really allows me a bigger canvas to paint on, if you will. Universal is very supportive of filmmakers and brilliant at marketing. To have partners that trust you, that believe in you, that goes a long way." The outlet added that Wan has ambitions to expand their partnership beyond horror films and extend into horror video games plus "podcasts, live events and perhaps merchandise."

Last month, Blum told The Wrap the merger was "dangerously close" to closing.

Sony's New Release Schedule:

• Gran Turismo (Columbia Pictures) - August 25, 2023
• Untitled Bad Boys Sequel (Columbia Pictures) - June 14, 2024
• Untitled Venom Sequel (Columbia Pictures) - July 12, 2024
• Madame Web (Columbia Pictures) - February 14, 2024
  
• Untitled Ghostbusters Sequel (Columbia Pictures) - March 29, 2024
• Kraven the Hunter (Columbia Pictures) - August 30, 2024
• Karate Kid (Columbia Pictures) - December 13, 2024
  
• Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation) - TBC
• They Listen (Columbia Pictures/Blumhouse) - TBC
  

How do you feel about these release date shifts? Tell us in the comments!

The first trailer for Saw X has been released by Lionsgate and the latest chapter in the horror franchise has already dropped some Easter eggs. Ahead of the release of the Saw X trailer, the studio revealed the first synopsis for the sequel, confirming that it will mess with the timeline and its events will be set in-between Saw 1 and Saw 2, following Tobin Bell's John Kramer. This key detail, something that the trailer also makes clear, paves the way for Saw X to include franchise Easter eggs referencing the events of the future movies. Let's break down the Saw X trailer Easter eggs below.

Notably in the trailer, Jigsaw is seen sketching out drawings for "The Rake," one of the main torture traps found in the events of Saw III.

The Saw Bathroom is back

As the Saw franchise is want to do, the Saw X trailer also confirms that they will return to "the bathroom" as seen in the original Saw. It's unclear what the context of the scene is, but the franchise will seemingly be adding another wrinkle into the mythology of that gross little room.

The accomplices of Jigsaw return

Shawnee Smith's Amanda Young is confirmed to return for Saw X, and given her haircut, the timeline of being in-between Saw and Saw II is confirmed.

She may not be the only one however as a line of dialogue in the trailer sure sounds like Costas Mandylor as Detective Hoffman, Jigsaw's other apprentice. There's even a sequence in the trailer where someone's hand appears on a character's mouth, seemingly kidnapping them for Jigsaw, which seems like a very big hand that belongs to another person...almost certainly Hoffman.

In addition to Bell and Smith reprising their roles for Saw X, confirmed cast members that will appear in the movie include Synn?ve Macody Lund (Ragnarok), Steven Brand (The Sandman), Michael Beach (S.W.A.T.), Renata Vaca, Paulette Hernande, Joshua Okamoto, and Octavio Hinojosa. Director Kevin Greutert is also returning to the franchise to direct the movie, having previously directed Saw VI and Saw: The Final Chapter in addition to editing six other movies in the franchise.

Lionsgate describes Saw X as follows: "John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most disturbing installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer - only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable," the press release reads. "Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps."

The upcoming Saw X is scheduled for release on September 29, 2023.

The first Saw X trailer has been released, revealing the latest sequel in the horror series. Lionsgate has been trying to get the Saw franchise back to the highest point of the horror genre for quite some time, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the upcoming tenth film in the franchise. Saw X will be arriving in theaters in just a few months, but we have already been getting a few teases from the upcoming film, and we just saw the first poster get released. We also got our first look at the puppet, Billy, who will be coming back to the franchise, as well as Jigsaw actor Tobin Bell. Now, Lionsgate has finally revealed the first trailer for Saw X.

You can check out the trailer below and watch Saw X in theaters on September 29th.

What is Saw X About?

Lionsgate described the tenth Saw film as follows, "John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most disturbing installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer - only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps."

Saw started off with seven installments, beginning with James Wan's (Aquaman) breakout film in 2004, and ending with Saw 3D: The Final Chapter back in 2010. Following its finale, the franchise was put on ice for for quite some time, before taking on two attempts at reboots. Jigsaw (2017) told the story of Kramer's secret first apprentice, who was recruited from the early stages of his wrongdoings before the first Saw. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) revealed a copycat that uses Jigsaw's legacy to begin an era of more twisted games. Both attempts were met with really bad responses, which is why Lionsgate is going back to a fan-favorite director and the franchise star for this newest installment.

Saw X is scheduled to be released on September 29th. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more updates on the Saw franchise as we learn it.

What do you think about the new trailer for Saw X? Are you excited to see Saw X when it arrives in theaters later this year? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!

Haunted Mansion is now playing in theaters, and it's the latest film to be based on an iconic Disneyland ride. The film features a star-studded cast that includes Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Danny DeVito, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Owen Wilson. This isn't Wilson's first time working with Disney as he is also known for voicing Lightning McQueen in various Cars projects and playing Mobius M. Mobius in Marvel's Disney+ series, Loki. However, Disney isn't the only interesting connection Wilson has with Haunted Mansion. The actor also starred in the 1999 remake of The Haunting, which means he has experienced haunted houses before. ComicBook.com recently had a chat with Wilson about Haunted Mansion, and we joked that he probably won't be meeting the same gruesome fate as his character from The Haunting.

"Yes. Well, careful with that assumption," Wilson joked when we guessed he wouldn't be getting decapitated in Haunted Mansion. "Yeah. I don't want to give too much away. But yeah, it was nice to sort of get a chance after experiencing that genre with that movie, to now get a chance to try to make it through the whole story ... To live. Please, root for me."

Does Owen Wilson Believe in Ghosts?

Haunted Mansion takes place in New Orleans, so the cast spent a lot of time in the city, which many believe to be haunted. During our interview with Wilson, we asked about his time in New Orleans and whether or not he believes in ghosts.

"Well you know, I'd been to New Orleans I think twice, always for just kind of a day at a time, where I never really understood why people kind of love it so much," Wilson explained. "And this time, being there for a while, I was like, 'Okay, this is a great city.' There's always the food and the music, but just walking around and the sense of history. And it does feel like you're kind of walking in ancient footprints and you can see why that sort of lends itself to kind of a place where ghosts would like to gather. "

"I do," Wilson replied when asked if he believes in ghosts. "I do. I've kind of been changing my answer, because earlier on it was, 'I'd like to. I've never experienced it.' But I think that there is more going on than meets the eye." He added, "And I like the idea that there's something supernatural. Just that word, 'supernatural.'"

Haunted Mansion is now playing in theaters.

Editors note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG actors' strike.

"Hope is not lost." That's the tagline for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which transports the eponymous American (Norman Reedus) overseas to post-apocalyptic France. But what does it mean? The show's San Diego Comic-Con trailer revealed that French nun Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy) recruits the marooned Daryl, tasking him with delivering 11-year-old boy Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi)... somewhere, for mysterious reasons. "He's ready," Isabelle tells Daryl, "to lead the revival of humanity." Could Laurent be humanity's hope for a cure? Could Daryl's mission have anything to do with the French lab that might have been ground zero of the zombie apocalypse over on The Walking Dead: World Beyond?

Those are questions raised by a new teaser, which ominously states "there is hope" over shadowy images of Daryl, Isabelle, and Laurent. Watch it below.

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Laurent is described as "an 11-year-old boy born just as the hungry ones appeared, he grew up in an abbey protected by nuns, shielded from the violence of the outside world. He seems insightful and wise beyond his years." Along with Sylvie (Laika Blanc Francard), the boy is in the care of Isabelle, described as: "A smart, headstrong nun capable of protecting herself and the people she loves, Isabelle escaped to the countryside when the hungry ones arrived."

"The hungry ones" are, of course, the flesh-eating undead who have been roaming the Earth since the outbreak of a mysterious virus in 2010. The French lab that appeared in a coda ending World Beyond was referenced back in the very first season of The Walking Dead, where CDC virologist Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emerich) remarked that the French were "the last ones to hold out" at the onset of the walker apocalypse, staying in their labs "until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

It was inside that lab that a French woman (Carey Van Driest), revealed to be part of the "Violet" team, downloaded decade-old Wildfire transmissions broadcast by Jenner from Atlanta. When a French man with a gun (Oryan Landa) demands she tell him the whereabouts of the "Primrose" team, she says: "They weren't here when it happened. When you all did what you did."

What that is remains a mystery, but graffiti reading Les morts sont nes icl -- "the dead are born here" -- hints at a potentially man-made origin for the variant cohorts that are faster, stronger, and smarter than regular walkers. "End this? You started this. All the teams," the man said. "Then you made it worse."

But hope is not lost. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres Sunday, September 10th on AMC and AMC+.

This week, a new universe of terror is hitting theaters in North America as Talk To Me has made its way to the West. Created by directors Danny and Michael Philippou, the film focuses on a severed hand that allows those who hold it the chance to get possessed by spirits. Of course, in the hands of rowdy teenagers, things go from bad to worse. We recently had the opportunity to chat with the sibling directors about their upcoming take on Street Fighter, the legendary fighting game franchise.

Legendary has asked the Philippou brothers to take on the task of bringing Street Fighter to the silver screen, though many fighting game fans know that this isn't the first time that the Capcom fights were given a feature-length film. Released in 1994, the original Street Fighter movie saw Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia taking on the roles of Guile and M. Bison specifically. For the upcoming iteration, the Philippous were tight-lipped when it came to which characters might appear.

The discussion regarding the world of Street Fighter, and the director siblings' upcoming film that recreates the Capcom fighting game universe, arose thanks to chatting about the idea of the Philippou brothers taking on a horror franchise. When asked whether they would love to try their hand at creating a sequel and/or reboot for an established horror series, "We'd be too scared to! I think that if we really had that connection with one of the horror franchises, we'd be terrified that we'd screw it up! I would crumble under the pressure!"

Danny added, "We love those movies the way that they are. Taking a route of "let's do these stories our way", we don't think we'd ever do it. If we were offered Halloween or Evil Dead, franchises that we absolutely love, we wouldn't want to recreate them. We'd be scared of letting the fan base down!"

Danny then turned the discussion toward Street Fighter, the upcoming live-action film that will be the second movie to give a fresh take on this Capcom universe, "We are developing Street Fighter, but that feels different to us. There's amazing lore, characters, and world and we're looking to bring our style for action sequences into this universe."

Michael then proceeded to jokingly state that maybe they'd be more interested in diving into action movies than the horror genre, "We'd actually love to lend our takes to action movies versus horror if given the chance *laughs*."

Talk To Me is now in theaters.

The ComicBook Nation Crew recaps Marvel's Secret Invasion Finale, reviews Disney's Haunted Mansion movie, Peacock's Twisted Metal TV series, and the epic conclusion to The Witcher Season 3. We also look at Invincible Season 2's Atom Eve Special, preview WWE NXT's Great American Bash, and dive into this week's biggest comics!

Haunted Mansion Review

In his review of Disney Haunted Mansion (2023), ComicBook.com critic Charlie Ridgley says:

Disney's new take on Haunted Mansion was always going to have its work cut out for it, thanks to the ill will earned from the 2003 film. Some wondered if the attraction was somehow unadaptable without Guillermo del Toro (who was once attached to helm the project). Enter the team of director Justin Simien and screenwriter Kate Dippold, who have made questions about Haunted Mansion's adaptability feel rather silly. Their Haunted Mansion movie is a breath of fresh air for everyone who has grown tired of Disney's lifeless live-action output of late, as well as die-hard Haunted Mansion ride fans who have been begging to see a film actually give the attraction the love it deserves.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Twisted Metal Review

In his review of Peacock's Twisted Metal TV series, gamer/critic Cade Onder said the following:

Twisted Metal is a very charming show that manages to accomplish a lot in its ten 30-minute episodes. There are tons of well-earned laughs, a diverse cast of eccentric characters with fleshed out and unique backstories, and a surprising amount of world-building. It's almost shocking that the show isn't longer, given everything it does and how well it pulls it all off. While there are some areas that suffer, such as the vehicular action scenes, everything else comes together in such a satisfying way that it makes Twisted Metal another very successful gaming adaptation.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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The debut feature film from directors Danny and Michael Philippou Talk to Me has been winning over audiences around the world at various festivals, but with the film now landing in theaters across the country, it's taking hold of viewers. Rather than being an entirely straightforward approach to a horror movie, the filmmakers, who earned a following with their RackaRacka YouTube channel, deliver a number of mysterious and ambiguities in Talk to Me, some of which have left audiences scratching their heads. With Talk to Me out now in theaters, we're here to help clear up some of the confusion about the movie's tragic finale.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Talk to Me

The premise of the movie focuses on a ceramic hand, which is said to have formerly been the appendage of a figure who could contact the dead. Whatever the truth of those claims might be, the hand does effectively allow people to connect with another realm and even allow their bodies to be inhabited by spirits, so long as they're willing participants.

While Mia (Sophie Wilde) and her friends Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Riley (Joe Bird) first seemingly communicate with the other side in a harmless way, when Riley becomes possessed by the spirit of Mia's dead mom, Mia doesn't want the spirit to leave. However, this results in whatever has possessed Riley refusing to let go, even going so far as to intentionally injure its host to the point of leaving Riley unresponsive.

Given how frequently Mia has been communicating with the other side, she no longer even needs the hand to be able to see entities from beyond, and has visions of the nightmarish realm in which Riley has been captured. The spirits Mia sees also claim that they have the power to make Mia believe things that aren't really happening, which includes a spirit impersonating her father, resulting in her seeing her real father and stabbing him in the neck with scissors in a near-fatal attack.

Whether it's her own fractured mental state or because she's genuinely being given messages from beyond, Mia decides that the torment must come to an end. She takes Riley out of the hospital and leads him in a wheelchair to seemingly push him into traffic to end his suffering. Instead, we see that Mia instead is thrown into traffic, but despite her injuries, she gets up and walks back to the hospital.

As Mia walks through the halls of the hospital, she sees that Riley is now responsive and with his family, while also seeing her own father. Despite her bests efforts, Mia can't communicate with her father as he enters an elevator to leave, with the lights slowly turning off in the hospital. Left in the darkness, Mia then appears in front of a group of teens all playing with the ceramic hand she played with earlier, confirming that Mia has died and is now a spirit reaching out from beyond.

The mythology of the film leaves a number of elements about the experience unanswered, such as whether it was Mia who intentionally sacrificed herself to save Riley in the film's finale or if something else intervened, but we're given enough clues to know that Mia has crossed over to the other side, potentially allowing for a reunion with her mother. The nefarious nature of the spirits, though, might mean that Mia was never contacting her mother in the first place and the entire ordeal was orchestrated by malicious figures.

Talk to Me is in theaters now.

What did you think of the film's ending? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Earlier this week, audiences get their first look at The Exorcist: Believer with a trailer for the unsettling new film, but this is just the beginning of the terror, as Halloween Horror Nights confirmed today that the new film will be honored at their Orlando and Hollywood locations. Halloween Horror Nights also revealed that the all-new mazes Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count and Universal Monsters: Unmasked would reimagine the frightening and beloved figures in all-new ways. Stranger Things and The Last of Us will also be honored with pulse-pumping new houses. Halloween Horror Nights kicks off at Universal Orlando Resort on September 1st and at Universal Studios Hollywood on September 7th.

Per press release, "The countdown begins for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood as the destinations announce additional all-new terrifying haunted houses, including The Exorcist: Believer, inspired by the new Universal Pictures film from Blumhouse and Morgan Creek Entertainment, Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count based on the popular USA & SYFY series, and Universal Monsters: Unmasked, inspired by Universal's legacy of iconic cinematic monsters.

"The terror kicks off at Universal Orlando Resort on Friday, September 1st and at Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday, September 7th. Below is a sneak peek at what to expect:

The Exorcist: Believer

• Inspired by Universal Pictures' terrifying new horror film from Blumhouse and Morgan Creek Entertainment (in theaters Friday, October 13th), The Exorcist: Believer haunted house will unleash an entirely new level of terror to Halloween Horror Nights. In this new chapter, guests will be transported to a bustling street market in Haiti, where an innocent purchase of a strange folk doll with three eyes leads to the opening of a demonic portal, the awakening of sinister spirits, and the subsequent disappearance of two 12-year-old girls in the U.S. The girls are found three days later with no memory of what happened to them. After the girls begin to exhibit unsettling behavior, it soon becomes clear that only an exorcism can save them -- and everyone who comes in contact with them, including unwitting guests, is suddenly at risk of losing their souls.

Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count

• Inspired by the hit USA & SYFY series and cult classic films, Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count casts this killer doll as the star of his very own haunted house for the first time. A true sadistic killer, Chucky has been mired in the agony of disrespect he feels from his peers at not being taken seriously. Thus begins his quest to turn his haunted house into a living slaughterhouse by killing every person who enters.
  

Universal Monsters: Unmasked

• Lurking sixty feet beneath the bustling streets of the City of Lights, the dank Catacombs of Paris house a much darker secret. . . The all-new haunted house Universal Monsters: Unmasked takes guests down into the infamous burial grounds where every corner and crevice overflows with millions of skeletal remains and even more sinister secrets. Deep within the Catacombs, Universal's most notorious creatures -- The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dr. Jekyll and his deranged alternate personality Mr. Hyde, and Dr. Jack Griffin, a.k.a. The Invisible Man -- also lie in wait as they bide their time and seek vengeance against guests after the opening of the Catacombs to public visitation. These desperate and dangerous fiends have become filled with a rage toward guests navigating the twisted tunnels of their underground labyrinth home. It is here, in the darkness, where they hunt these trespassers and where the sounds of guests' screams will go unheard.

"Once again, GRAMMY Award-winning musician, SLASH, is collaborating with Universal Studios Hollywood on an original score for the west coast version of the Universal Monsters: Unmasked haunted house."

Tickets are now on sale for Halloween Horror Nights at both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Will you be checking out the attractions? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Slender: The Arrival, and developer Blue Isle Studios is celebrating the occasion by announcing a brand-new game titled S: Lost Chapters. The developer is promising that the sequel will be its "most ambitious and intense horror experience to date," and players can expect to see new mechanics that weren't present in the previous game. There will also be a mix between returning locations as well as brand-new ones, and "a new cast of terrifying beings." Unfortunately, a release date has not been revealed just yet.

S: Lost Chapters was announced alongside a new 10-year anniversary update for Slender: The Arrival, which will be coming in October. The update will feature a major overhaul to the game's graphics, utilizing Unreal Engine 5.2. Readers can wishlist S: Lost Chapters on Steam right here, and a trailer featuring both games can be found below.

While Slender: The Arrival will be getting an upgrade on PC, it's unclear if the game's console versions will see a similar treatment. Following the announcement, a number of the game's fans requested clarification from Blue Isle Studios on Twitter, but nothing more has been revealed. Slender: The Arrival has released on all current video game platforms, including PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, so it would make sense!

Released in 2013, Slender: The Arrival is a survival horror game based on the Slender Man character created by Eric Knudsen. Slender Man began life on the Something Awful forums in 2009, when Knudsen took two black-and-white photos and added in an image of a tall, lanky looking figure in a suit. Knudsen added quotes under both photos, adding a creepy backstory, injecting just enough lore to intrigue readers. As a result, Slender Man quickly went viral, eventually resulting in a live-action movie, a popular YouTube series, and more. Knudsen served as a producer on Slender: The Arrival, but it's unknown if he will be involved with S: Lost Chapters.

Are you a fan of Slender: The Arrival? Do you plan on checking out the game's sequel? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

Back in 2017, Universal Pictures aimed to kick off a new franchise of Universal Monster reboots with The Mummy, but that approach stagnated after that debut installment. Instead, the studio found more success with reimaginings of iconic figures, which includes Renfield, an adventure that explored Dracula's faithful servant. While the movie earned mixed reactions from audiences and critics, director Chris McKay teased that there might be plans in store for a possible continuation of the narrative. Whether those ideas will ever come to a fruition is yet to be seen, as it will likely depend on how the film performs in the home video market.

"There are choices that we made to suggest that there's a world of vampire hunters out there," McKay revealed to SYFY WIRE. "It would not be a huge leap to suggest that Van Helsing would [still] be out there."

Fans have seen Dracula on film dozens of times, but with Nicolas Cage bringing the Prince of Darkness to life for this version of the story, it was Cage's performance that was arguably the standout component. Even if the vampire might have been defeated by the end of the movie, McKay also detailed how it would be possible for the character to return.

"Renfield's going to cement those bits with holy water and then spread them out presumably around the world," McKay explained of the film's finale. "But inside each of those cells, Dracula is still alive, and may eventually come back together."

The concept came from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who previously teased the possibility of expanding the world.

"I think there's a lot of potential there," Kirkman shared with ComicBook.com earlier this year. "I've been saying I'm a comic book writer, so that's kind of how my mind works. I'm always thinking about where the story goes next, where the next issue is how you pay off the cliffhanger. I certainly have ideas. There's a lot of opportunity to expand different explorations of different characters that are in Renfield and also the larger world that Renfield takes place in. We'll just have to see if the movie does well enough to justify it."

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of Renfield.

Would you like to see the film get another entry? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Talk To Me is a horror film that centers on a detached hand that allows those who hold it to be taken over by spirits. In the new movie, the supernatural appendage finds its way to the hands of high schoolers that use the item as a party trick, recording one another for social media when they're taken over by ghosts. With the movie arriving in North American theaters this week, we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to talk with directors Danny and Michael Philippou about their spooky new universe.

Talk To Me was picked up by A24 for theatrical distribution around the world, focusing on a horror story that adds elements of social media and the next generation in its runtime. Using quite a few allegories, the horror movie has plenty of creepy spirits and horrific elements that have garnered positive reviews from critics. With the hand itself clearly having some wear and tear, the sibling directors clearly have some history in mind for the appendage.

Michael Philippou started the conversation by confirming that they were aiming for Talk To Me to work both as a horror and a drama when all was said and done, "We knew that we wanted all the horror to be rooted in character, and we didn't just want a splatter film where people are getting picked off here and there. We wanted scenes to have the impact that was necessary. We wanted it to be rooted in reality and for the film to work as both a horror film AND a drama film."

Danny then chimed in by emphasizing the need for realism in a horror film fit to bursting with supernatural creatures, "We wanted it to be current. We wanted to make something that was modern. Gen Z and the problems they face with social media are just a part of life now. It's a lot of what we understand and where we come from. We came to realize that some of the things we wanted to say worked well in focusing on that."

Starring Sophia Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen, Zoe Terakes, and Chris Alosio, Talk To Me is described as follows: "When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces."

Talk to Me lands in theaters on July 28th.

Saw X has begun unveiling its marketing campaign, and after getting the ominously frightening new poster for the latest SAW film, we are now getting a new promotional image that shows that one of the franchise's biggest mascots is back, as well!

There's old Billy the Puppet, one of the Jigsaw Killer's go-to scares/diversions when either luring a victim into a trap or inviting police investigators or other parties to participate in his "games."

Jigsaw Is Back

Billy the Puppet making an appearance is fitting, as one of the biggest things helping to distinguish Saw X is the fact that it will see actor Tobin Bell will be returning to the screen to play Jigsaw again. Saw X will actually be set between the events of Saw and Saw II; the director of Saw VI and Saw: The Final Chapter, Kevin Greutert, will direct this latest chapter.

What Is Saw X About?

According to the press release from Lionsgate Pictures:

John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most disturbing installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw's most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer - only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through devious, deranged, and ingenious traps.

"We have been listening to what the fans have been asking for and are hard at work planning a movie that Saw aficionados and horror fans alike will love," Saw producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules wrote in their own press statement. "And part of that is giving the reins to Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, which is still one of the fans' favorites in the entire series."

Saw originally ran through seven installments, starting with James Wan's cult-hit breakout indie film in 2004, and culminating with Saw 3D: The Final Chapter in 2010. Following that endpoint, the franchise was on ice for years through the 2010s, before taking two stabs at reboots. Jigsaw (2017) followed Kramer's secret first apprentice, recruited from the early stages of his "games" before the first film. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021) saw a copycat use Jigsaw's legacy to start a new era of twisted games. Both attempts met with middling to lesser success - hence why Lionsgate is going back to a fan-favorite director and the franchise star for this latest installment.

Saw X has a release date of September 29th.

Gravitas Ventures has released a poster and release date for Slotherhouse, a horror-comedy about a killer sloth. With a tagline that menaces audiences to "die slow," the monster/slasher mash-up is coming in August, with planned theatrical and digital releases matching up. The movie pits a group of sorority girls against a sloth -- one which at first they think is just a friendly pet, but quickly -- okay, maybe "quickly" is the wrong word here -- becomes an existential threat to everyone around it.

If the idea of a small, cuddly, lethargic killer feels to you like the polar opposite of Cocaine Bear, you aren't alone -- and that's part of where the comedy comes from.

"Slotherhouse is a movie that embodies the reckless abandon genre films can bring to the table. It scratches the sloth itch we didn't know we had! Our team is thrilled to work on a project that really goes for it, claws and all," Nick Royak of Iconic Events Releasing told Variety in a statement.

You can see the poster here:

According to Variety, who first released the trailer, Slotherhouse "tells the story of college senior Emily Young, who aims to be voted president of her sorority. When she adopts an adorable sloth, she realizes the animal can serve as the house's new mascot and help her win votes, dubbing the animal Alpha. The new pet is a beloved addition to the sorority house until a series of deaths point toward the sloth as the prime murder suspect. The film becomes a survival story of sisters versus sloth as the girls wonder if they can make it out of Sigma Lambda Theta alive (sloths, of course, are not known for being fleet of foot)."

Slotherhouse was written by Bradley Fowler and the story comes from the minds of Fowler and Cady Lanigan. The film stars Lisa Ambalavanar, Sydney Craven, Olivia Rouyre, Kelly Lynn Reiter, Bianca Beckles-Rose, Andrew Horton, Sutter Nolan, Grace Patterson, Milica Vrzi?, Annamaria Serda, Rudi Rok, Tiff Stevenson and Stefan Kapi?i?.

Slotherhouse is produced by Cady Lanigan, Bradley Fowler, Mark David, Dan Lanigan, Patrick D. Gillespie, Jason Sada, David Albert Pierce, Michael J. Weiss, Milan Todorovi?, Ryan Gibson, Joe Price, Matthew Goodhue, Jason C. Henry, and Victoria Matlock Fowler.

Slotherhouse will be released on August 30 in North America and internationally.

The 27th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is in full swing and ComicBook.com is covering this year's events and the many genre films making their world premiere. We're kicking things off with some quick-fire reviews for three of the first films to premiere, ranging from a werewolf movie, Larry Fessenden's Blackout, to an atmospheric horror film in the forest, Lovely, Dark, and Deep, and to the quirky sci-fi parody The Becomers. Here are three quick reviews for some of the films from this year's Fantasia.

Blackout

Indie favorite Larry Fessenden digs into the long-awaited horror subgenre that fans have been waiting for him to tackle, the werewolf movie. While many fans may come at this wondering how it will compare to his 1997 cult vampire movie Habit, the stark differences between the two are perhaps what best define it. Since Habit was a film that embodied a specific scene in New York City, Fessenden pushes Blackout to the inverse in almost every way, setting the film in a small rural town while making the lead its monster rather than the victim of it.

Alex Hurt stars as Charley Barrett, an artist trying to reconcile his life with a former girlfriend, whose father just happens to be employing racist scare tactics to continue his local building projects. Horror fans will quickly note the name of the town, Talbot Falls, as a callout to Lon Chaney Jr.'s character from Universal Studios' 1941 classic The Wolf Man. It happens early enough that one might think they're in for a slew of werewolf Easter eggs, but luckily this is more of a guiding light than the start of everyone pointing at the screen like Leonardo DiCaprio.

As Blackout unfolds, not only does it become clear that Charley is a wolfman like in that classic movie, but that Fessenden's take on the material is a modern reinvention of that specific story. How does a man with a life in front of him grapple with his unconscious actions and becoming the thing that tears apart his community? Bodies continue to pile up, and the film never shies away from continuing to dip its toes into the same stylistic areas that director George Waggner did with The Wolf Man.

This is where Blackout stretches itself a little too thin, however. If it was just about Charley grappling with his actions and dissecting the idea of a wolfman in a modern context, that could be enough, but Blackout has more on its mind. The subplot about a racist developer trying to drive out his enemies from the town is a clear commentary on modern politics in more ways than one, but in the end, it takes away from the film more than it adds additional layers to it. Classic horror fans will like what they see, though, along with anyone that has an affinity for Fessenden's style. By giving itself two giant pastures of narrative to explore, however, each with their own respective themes, the movie bites off more than it can chew.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Fresh off starring in 2022's Barbarian, actor Georgina Campbell returns to horror with another stylistic movie with wild houses and social isolation. Written and directed by Teresa Sutherland, Campbell stars as Lennon, a young woman who has finally achieved her dream of becoming a park ranger in the isolated corner of a major national park, one where people continue to go missing and are never to be seen again. What becomes clear as the movie continues, however, is that the woods aren't the only thing hiding something and that Lennon's secrets will come to reckon with what is lying within the trees.

It's nearly impossible for a movie that is set in the mountains and forest to do much about how it will be compared to The Blair Witch Project, but with Lovely, Dark, and Deep, Sutherland seems to know this comparison will be made and employs the imagery in ways that continue to keep you guessing, while still harkening back to the woods-tromping horror that fans have seen before. Unlike the films in that series, though, Sutherland's movie takes big swings with nearly every act change, redefining itself into a new kind of horror movie every 30 minutes. What begins as a movie about the isolation and uncertainty of the woods gives way for a different type of horror in the second act and then something even more strange in the third.

These changes would be easier on the audience if they actually lent themselves to a larger resolution on what is going on in the film. Naturally, it's fine for movies to leave certain things of the plot a mystery, the unknown will always leave a larger footprint than a full explanation, but by expounding on what's going on in these woods without offering a resolution keeps the whole thing from feeling wholly satisfying. That said, there is plenty of tense, moody filmmaking throughout, so if woodsy horror vibes are your bag, this could work.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Becomers

Writer-director Zach Clark's latest is a hilarious sci-fi romp. Central to the story are body-swapping aliens, who land on Earth and do their best to blend in while stealing the faces of humans and seeking out their mates. Trouble for them, of course, is that they happen to come to Earth during the politically volatile moments of the initial coronavirus pandemic. It's difficult enough for an alien to navigate the nuance of human life, but then when you add the uncertainty of a worldwide pandemic and the lingering threat of terrorism from disgruntled sects, it's even more difficult.

Though the larger relationship of the aliens is defined by narration in the movie, provided by Sparks' leadsinger Russell Mael, the film is anchored thanks to its performances. Actor Isabel Alamin is the host for the lead alien for the opening act of the movie, doing some heavy lifting as the being learning to speak our language while also working to understand the social constructs in place, as well as how they've been redefined by the pandemic. A shift occurs later, wherein Molly Punk takes over as the lead alien (it will happen again with actor Keith Kelly as well), but all three do great work by bringing to life a being that is in the wrong body.

The built-in humor of The Becomers is not only present in how they try to blend in with life on Earth and with other humans, but the fact that they find themselves in some of the wildest possible scenarios, ones that aren't actually that far-fetched in a modern context. Clark's script is not only hilarious, he brings a visual flair to the entire thing that adds depth to the storytelling, always making you question what you might be seeing and where potential threats might linger. It's a hoot, and fans of indie films that make big swings are going to be excited by it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Saw franchise is about to hit a huge milestone. The first Saw film was released in 2004, and the tenth installment is heading to theaters and will reach screens about a year before the franchise turns 20. This September will see the release of Saw X, which wrapped filming back in February. The movie is set to feature the return of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw and fans recently got a look at his highly-anticpated return. Now, a new poster is teasing more terror in the upcoming movie.

"Welcome back to the game. #SawX - only in theaters September 29," the official account for Saw shared on Twitter. You can check it out below:

Welcome back to the game. #SawX - only in theaters September 29. pic.twitter.com/3Hd8mZUU6s

-- Saw (@Saw) July 26, 2023

Bell's return for Saw X was teased at the end of Spiral.

"We were talking about putting Tobin in up until the last day of filming," Spiral director Darren Lynn Bousman previously told ComicBook.com. "There was a constant struggle with us and I think we all went back and forth on it. It was a hard thing because the minute you put Tobin Bell in the movie, it becomes 'Saw 9.' If you think about Jigsaw or some of these other films, he had like two minutes of screen time and that was it."

"I killed him in Saw III, I killed him 16 years ago, so to keep finding clever ways to bring him back in, I didn't want to do a disservice to this film," he continued. "No one can compete with Tobin Bell, you can't, he is Jigsaw and there's no way to live up to what he brings on-screen, so I didn't want to f-ck with it, I didn't want to do it. It was, I felt, a disservice to this film and previous films to try to do that."

What Is Saw X About?

Currently, the plot of Saw X is mostly a mystery, but Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures recently teased that the upcoming installment will delight fans with "new twisted, ingenious traps."

"We have been listening to what the fans have been asking for and are hard at work planning a movie that Saw aficionados and horror fans alike will love," Saw producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules wrote in a previous press release. "And part of that is giving the reins to Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, which is still one of the fans' favorites in the entire series. More details will be revealed soon."

Saw X is hitting theaters on September 29th.

The first Haunted Mansion reviews are beginning to materialize. Disney's second adaptation of its classic theme park attraction has screened for critics, who have rated the 2023 version (49%) higher than the 2003 version (14%) on Rotten Tomatoes. Reactions are mixed: professional reviewers are praising the ensemble cast -- highlighting the performance of leading man LaKeith Stanfield, who plays a tour guide haunted by his wife's death -- but criticizing the film for lacking the spirit of the theme park ride. So, is Haunted Mansion filled with ghoulish delight? Or is this re-do best left in regions beyond?

"Haunted Mansion finally gets the adaptation the beloved ride has always deserved -- a fun, scary, and surprisingly emotional time at the movies," writes Charlie Ridgely in ComicBook's spoiler-free Haunted Mansion review. "It may not be a groundbreaking cinematic achievement like Gore Verbinski's first outing with Jack Sparrow [in Curse of the Black Pearl], but it's certainly Disney's best live-action movie since Pirates of the Caribbean wrapped up its initial trilogy."

Directed by Justin Simien (Dear White People), Haunted Mansion follows a single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) as the newest residents of the mansion filled with 999 happy haunts. With help from Ben (Stanfield), they consult a priest (Owen Wilson), a medium (Tiffany Haddish), and a historian (Danny DeVito) to rid their home of troublesome spirits -- including the nefarious Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto). See more review excerpts below.

The Associated Press: "This version is worlds better than the Eddie Murphy disaster, but it's not really fun, spooky or engaging enough to make much of an impression beyond the moment ... The main problem is that Haunted Mansion strains to make coherent sense out of the disparate parts of the ride -- the paintings, the seance table, the dance hall, Madame Leota -- while also trying to tell a sincere story about grief and catharsis. Wasn't the song about grim grinning ghosts coming out to socialize?"

Rolling Stone: "A corporate I.P. Easter-egg hunt posing as a movie, this horror-comedy raids the House of Mouse's resident spoooooky ride's signature bits while nudging your ribs as aggressively as (in)humanly possible. Even for die-hard Disney fanatics, it's still about as fun as waiting endlessly in line for something permanently closed for repairs ... Haunted Mansion doesn't have one-tenth of the wit or imagination of that decades-old attraction. You will, however, definitely feel like you've been taken for a ride in the worst possible way."

Entertainment Weekly: "If Barbie, based on a doll, is a movie with powerful commentary on the patriarchy and existential dread, then Haunted Mansion, based on a Disney Parks attraction, is a meditation on the crippling power of grief and suicidal ideation. Or at least, it wants to be. But Disney tries to have its cake and eat it too, inducing tonal whiplash in Katie Dippold's otherwise emotionally resonant script. For every breakdown by Stanfield poised to move audiences to tears, there's a wry aside from Wilson or an intrusive one-liner from Haddish."

TheWrap: "Simien's Haunted Mansion is a wondrous blend of horror and comedy, tinged with emotional resonance in its story of grief and how we try to connect with those we've lost. Anchored by a phenomenal performance by LaKeith Stanfield and a solid ensemble, Haunted Mansion is a worthy take on the ride and a sleeper hit for families looking to find a fun summer film."

Empire Magazine: "Twenty years [after 2003's The Haunted Mansion], ignoring the warning bells sounded by big-ticket items like Tomorrowland and Jungle Cruise, Disney greenlit this Haunted Mansion, which is neither a sequel nor a remake but throws together the same set of ingredients. Talented cast, CGI phantasms all over the show, open-mouthed comedy, Easter eggs for theme-park obsessives, needlessly complicated supernatural mystery, and an air of being in too much of a hurry to deliver on a promise of shivers."

AV Club: "If a reference-fest is what you want, Muppets Haunted Mansion did it better. If it's a story with actual escalating tension you seek, the 2003 film has superior pacing. Haunted Mansion (2023) looks real pretty, with the best CG money can buy, but primarily feels like the most calculated of corporate products. Frequent Paul Feig collaborator Katie Dippold seems to have been ordered to shoehorn as many references as possible into the script--including weird plugs for the likes of CVS and Burger King--rather than telling a coherent tale."

Daily Beast: "Haunted Mansion is just as busy, corny, and predictable as its 2003 iteration--as well as destined to swiftly pass into the cinematic afterlife that is both convenience store bargain bins and cluttered streaming platform libraries. One week after Barbie demonstrated that established properties can be cleverly translated to the screen when auteurs take bold chances with their material, Haunted Mansion proves that such inspired efforts remain anomalies. Written by Katie Dippold with the same humorlessness as her 2016 Ghostbusters script, Justin Simien's horror-comedy bears no plot relation to its ancestor, which would be welcome news if not for the fact that the story it concocts is equally groan-worthy."

Los Angeles Times: "Because no effort has been expended to make any of this even remotely scary -- there are only so many times you can watch Stanfield dodge a flying CGI axe -- you might at least hope for a belly laugh or two, or at least a few decent jokes."

Disney's Haunted Mansion opens in theaters July 28th.

Anthony Mackie is in the driver's seat in Twisted Metal, Peacock's adaptation of the hit PlayStation video game franchise. The half-hour live-action TV series stars Mackie (Captain America: Brave New World) as John Doe, a motor-mouthed, amnesiac milkman who competes in the ultimate contest of wreckage and devastation: the demolition derby known as Twisted Metal. When the mysterious Raven (Scream's Neve Campbell) hires Doe to deliver a package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a car thief named Quiet (Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Stephanie Beatriz), he'll have to outrace, outlast, and outgun savage marauders in winner-take-all car combat.

Below, find out how to watch Twisted Metal online.

Where to Watch Twisted Metal TV Show Without Cable

The Twisted Metal series premieres Thursday, July 27th, exclusively on Peacock. To watch, you'll need to subscribe to Peacock Premium ($5.99/month with ads) or Peacock Premium Plus ($11.99/month without ads).

What Time Is Twisted Metal on Peacock?

Peacock typically premieres new episodes at 2:01 a.m. PT / 5:01 a.m. ET.

How Many Episodes in the Twisted Metal TV Series?

Twisted Metal consists of 10 episodes, each with a runtime of 30 minutes.

What Is Twisted Metal Rated?

The Twisted Metal TV show is rated TV-MA for mature audiences.

What Is the Twisted Metal Show About?

Based on an original take by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland) and written by Michael Jonathan Smith (Cobra Kai), Twisted Metal "is a high-octane action comedy about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland," per the official description. "With the help of a badass axe-wielding car thief, he'll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck."

Twisted Metal Cast

The series stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, Stephanie Beatriz as Quiet, Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Agent Stone, All Elite Wrestling star Samoa Joe as Sweet Tooth, and Will Arnett (The Lego Batman Movie) as the voice of Sweet Tooth.

Twisted Metal Series Reviews

Twisted Metal currently sits at 68% approval from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Writes Cade Onder in ComicBook's spoiler-free Twisted Metal series review, "The Twisted Metal TV series seems to prove that The Last of Us was not a fluke for PlayStation Productions, a new production company designed to faithfully adapt the console-maker's vast library of franchises to television and film. While Twisted Metal is very different from The Last of Us, the new Peacock series maintains the DNA of the IP that fans hold dearly while making it accessible to a new audience. This may come as a bit of a surprise, as some were put off by the marketing to the show, but it manages to make itself an appealing new offering for Peacock subscribers and a show mostly worthy of the branding it represents."

Where Can I Play Twisted Metal on PlayStation?

Twisted Metal (1995) and Twisted Metal 2 (1996) are now available to play on PS4 and PS5 for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers ($9.99 each when purchased separately). Also available is Twisted Metal: Black (2001) for PS4 ($9.99).

New episodes of Twisted Metal premiere Thursdays on Peacock.

Things in Hollywood might be on ice for now, but movie industry legend Jamie Lee Curtis showed up at Comic Con International in San Diego last weekend to promote Mother Nature, a comic book adapted from a screenplay she had toyed with making as her feature directing debut. The graphic novel, which hails from Curtis with Karl Stevens and Russell Goldman, will be published by Titan Comics, who brought the creative team to San Diego to show off early print copies.

The plan, at least as of now, is to bring Mother Nature to life as a Blumhouse movie soon, with Curtis directing. It centers on a young woman who, after her father dies in an industrial accident, becomes an eco-terrorist, lashing out against the irresponsible actions of the company that orphaned her.

"I don't know about all of y'all, but I have a really dark imagination for somebody who doesn't like violence," Curtis told ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis. "And have you ever seen one of those hydraulic scissor lifts? Every time I see one, I think, 'Wow, I have a dark idea: what if you're like a Mafia guy and you're trying to get somebody to talk about something, and you put them cross-ways in the scissor lift and then move the button and start to compress it?' And then when things start to get a little...tense, that guy's going to talk?"

Curtis then showed off a sequence in the comic, in which that exact scenario played out. Other preview pages from the series have shown similarly violent and gory deaths, suggesting that Mother Nature has a bit of a Final Destination energy to it.

Titan's description of Mother Nature reads, "Nova Terrell who, after witnessing her father die in mysterious circumstances on one of the Cobalt Corporation's experimental oil extraction projects, has grown up to despise the seemingly benevolent company that the town of Catch Creek, New Mexico, relies on for its jobs and prosperity. The rebellious Nova wages a campaign of sabotage and vandalism against the oil giant, until one night she accidentally makes a terrifying discovery about the true nature of the 'Mother Nature' project and the long-dormant, vengeful entity it has awakened that threatens to destroy them all."

The review embargo for Disney's Haunted Mansion reboot has lifted, and the film has debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with its first score. Unfortunately for those hoping to see the movie lauded as a critically-acclaimed outing, the Justin Simien feature is "Rotten." As of this writing, 59 critics have submitted reviews for the picture, with just 53-percent of them voting in favor of the movie. Though most critics appear to have liked the film, it's still below Rotten Tomatoes' threshold of the 60-percent rating required to receive the "Fresh" badge, and a far, far cry from "Certified Fresh."

ComicBook.com's Charlie Ridgely is one of the critics that filed a positive review in support of the movie, applauding it for being both faithful to the city it's based in and the amusement park ride it's based on.

"Unlike the 2003 take on Haunted Mansion, Simien and Dippold's version actually makes great use of the New Orleans setting. Whether it's as a tool to get more supernatural elements into the story or to focus on the city's stunning architecture, New Orleans is made to be a part of this film down to its very foundation," Ridgely writes in his review, which you can read in its entirety here.

He adds, "The design of the actual house takes its nods from that architectural style, as well as the Disneyland ride, allowing it to feel like something both spooky and tactile. It would've been easy to simply make a few random rooms that are supposed to exist in a creepy old haunted house, but Haunted Mansion's design team clearly put a lot of love and effort into creating something that would feel different than what we've seen on screen before."

Who's all in Disney's Haunted Mansion reboot?

As you may now expect from today's Disney reboots, Haunted Mansion is a who's who of Hollywood superstars. Members of the film's ensembles include LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Hasan Minhaj, and Dan Levy amongst others.

Haunted Mansion lands in theaters on July 28th.

Disney has had something of an inconsistent track record when it comes to turning the company's iconic theme park attractions into feature films. Pirates of the Caribbean is a beacon of success, launching a franchise that spanned five films and took in billions at the box office. Then there's a made-for-TV take on the Tower of Terror, a pandemic-era Jungle Cruise movie that largely flew under the radar, and a Country Bears movie that most Disney fans choose to forget. And of course, there's The Haunted Mansion, the Eddie Murphy-starrer that was released in the same year as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but ended up with a much different legacy.

The Haunted Mansion wasn't a disaster at the box office, but its reception from both critics and fans that gives the film a bad reputation. It's a comedy that isn't very funny, set in a mansion that isn't all that haunted, providing very little connection to the iconic Disney attraction that so many have come to love over the years. Disney's new take on Haunted Mansion was always going to have its work cut out for it, thanks to the ill will earned from the 2003 film. Some wondered if the attraction was somehow unadaptable without Guillermo del Toro (who was once attached to helm the project). Enter the team of director Justin Simien and screenwriter Kate Dippold, who have made questions about Haunted Mansion's adaptability feel rather silly. Their Haunted Mansion movie is a breath of fresh air for everyone who has grown tired of Disney's lifeless live-action output of late, as well as die-hard Haunted Mansion ride fans who have been begging to see a film actually give the attraction the love it deserves.

Disney's new Haunted Mansion tells an original story filled with original characters, but steeped in the lore of the ride itself. It centers itself around two different journeys: the grieving widower Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), a historical tour guide with bitter feelings towards the idea of ghosts, and the single mother-and-son duo of Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and Travis (Chase Dillon), who recently moved into the titular mansion. Gabbie and Travis soon discover that the new house is definitely haunted, but a parade of hitchhiking ghosts makes it impossible for them to leave or have any peace. They're forced to stay, so they start looking for help getting the hauntings under control. That help comes in the form of Ben, who has ties to the paranormal, an adventurous priest (Owen Wilson), a seemingly confident medium (Tiffany Haddish), and an eccentric historian (Danny DeVito). Together, they set out to determine what's wrong with the house, but the evil and nefarious Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto) gives them more trouble than they bargained for.

Like many of the best ghost stories out there, Haunted Mansion deals head-on with the issue of grief and what it means to survive when you lose someone or something you love dearly. That core connection to the supernatural is something that 2003's The Haunted Mansion sorely lacked. Just because something is "family friendly" doesn't mean it has to avoid the topics of death and loss altogether, a fact that Dippold's script both understands and embraces. This allows the movie to be the comedy Disney has been asking for - that a wide range of audiences will want to see - without abandoning the spooky spirit that so may adore from the ride itself.

Even if Haunted Mansion wasn't based on an existing Disney attraction, it achieves the perfect balance of comedy, adventure, and horror that Simien is aiming for. There are some genuine scares in this movie (especially at the beginning), which will satisfy everyone who hoped Haunted Mansion would skew into horror territory. It's also a film with an emotional core - leaning heavily on Stanfield - that happens to be relentlessly funny throughout. When it comes to the humor itself, the cast couldn't be more game. Everyone in this lineup is hilarious in their own right. Haddish and Wilson are obvious standouts but it's DeVito that really delivers the biggest laughs of the entire film.

That balanced tone isn't the only way Haunted Mansion captures the essence of Disney's beloved ride, and the biggest fans of the attraction will likely get the most out of the experience of seeing the movie. From its plot devices to its backdrops, so much of Haunted Mansion is connected to the ride that inspired it. The idea of hitchhiking ghosts "following you home" is a key part of the story in the first half of the movie. The evil forces of the house needing one more soul to add to the 999 that already dwell is essentially what kicks all of the action into gear. Of course, the bride has a part to play and there's an entire sequence set in the stretching room.

This even goes down to small, Easter egg-level nods, like the chair from the first section of the ride being featured in a key scene or the floating candelabra down the deserted hallway. There's even a scene that sends a character on a Haunted Mansion-esque ride, with their chair looking like a "Doom Buggy" as they're sent down the front steps and out of the house.

Around every corner in this big-screen Haunted Mansion you'll find something that ties it to the original attraction, but that doesn't mean you have to be a Disney fanatic to enjoy or even keep up with the movie. All of the nods serve the story and characters in the film, but they never take center stage. They may add to the experience for major Haunted Mansion fanatics, but they never take away from it for anyone else. That can be the trouble with certain IP titles, but Haunted Mansion manages to avoid those pitfalls entirely.

Unlike the 2003 take on Haunted Mansion, Simien and Dippold's version actually makes great use of the New Orleans setting. Whether it's as a tool to get more supernatural elements into the story or to focus on the city's stunning architecture, New Orleans is made to be a part of this film down to its very foundation. The design of the actual house takes its nods from that architectural style, as well as the Disneyland ride, allowing it to feel like something both spooky and tactile. It would've been easy to simply make a few random rooms that are supposed to exist in a creepy old haunted house, but Haunted Mansion's design team clearly put a lot of love and effort into creating something that would feel different than what we've seen on screen before.

The hardest part of a film like this is sticking the landing. You can lay all the pieces out there and include plenty of great nods to whatever inspired it, but actually nailing the third act is a whole different conversation. Haunted Mansion is able to do it better than most. The stories of both Ben and Travis not only directly connect to one another, but they come around to tie into the Haunted Mansion lore aspect of the plot as well. Everything is wrapped up in a nice, satisfying bow, without forcefully scattering seeds for a sequel or spinoff. In today's landscape of IP moviemaking, that's more refreshing than you might realize.

At long last, Haunted Mansion finally gets the adaptation the beloved ride has always deserved - a fun, scary, and surprisingly emotional time at the movies. It may not be a groundbreaking cinematic achievement like Gore Verbinski's first outing with Jack Sparrow, but it's certainly Disney's best live-action movie since Pirates of the Caribbean wrapped up its initial trilogy

Rating: 4 out of 5

Haunted Mansion hits theaters on July 28th.

When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre releases next month, streamers on platforms like Twitch and YouTube won't have to worry about DMCA takedowns. Gun Media CEO Wes Keltner has revealed that the publisher has taken extra steps to ensure that the licensed music can be streamed with the game. This has not been the case for a lot of video games over the years, leading to headaches for streamers. Considering the multiplayer nature of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it's a smart move, as the game will likely hold a lot of appeal to the streaming community.

"As we approach the launch of [The Texas Chain Saw Massacre] I wanted to remind you that the ULA that comes with the game includes music licensing language that protects content creators. What this means is we are granting you the right to STREAM EVERYTHING including the music within the game," Keltner wrote on Twitter. "While there's never a 100% fix to DMCA, this is a few steps in the right direction IMO. It's not perfect, but it was worth the legal fees to get this included. I hope other companies follow. Be the change."

Unsurprisingly, Keltner's comments were well-received by streamers! The move will make it much easier for players to stream Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and that could be a huge benefit to Gun Media as well. Horror games like Phasmophobia have found bigger audiences thanks to streamers on Twitch, so it makes sense for developers and publishers to embrace the model as much as possible. While Keltner mentioned that it cost Gun Media more in legal fees, more streamers playing the game could lead to more viewers deciding to purchase Texas Chain Saw Massacre for themselves!

Releasing on August 18th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre follows a model somewhat similar to Friday The 13th: The Game. However, this time around, the game features a 3v4 model, with three killers and four would-be survivors. The game will release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

How do you feel about this move for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Do you think it will lead to greater interest in the game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

Nearly 50 years after audiences first saw Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil in the original The Exorcist, fans got our first look at the character in today's trailer for The Exorcist: Believer. Like some other horror franchises, the overall mythology of the series has gotten a bit messy over the decades, though director David Gordon Green recently explained what Chris has been up to since we first met her and the impact that first possession of her daughter had on her. Additionally, Green explained how he largely avoided elements from films outside of the original, largely due to not being quite as familiar with them. The Exorcist: Believer lands in theaters on October 13th.

"Her character ended up becoming fascinated by exorcism and studying the rites and rituals of possession throughout culture," Green shared with Entertainment Weekly. "[She] became a bit of an expert. Not an exorcist herself, but renowned for the books that she's written."

Linda Blair played the possessed daughter in the original movie, with The Exorcist II: Heretic exploring what happened to Regan MacNeil in the wake of that trauma. Green confirmed that Blair did come to the sequel's set to serve as a consultant, but avoided confirming whether or not she reprises her role in the movie, though admitted Believer "alludes to her character in a number of ways."

"We were lucky and had Linda as a technical advisor," Green expressed. "She helped us bring excellent performances out of young actresses. It was really valuable having a relationship with her and being able to get her as a part of this conversation."

The Exorcist went on to inspire follow-up films, a prequel (which was released in two different versions), and two seasons of a TV series. The filmmaker's approach to Believer sounds as though it mirrors his approach to his Halloween trilogy, in which he focuses solely on the events of the original installment yet is aware of the love for other entries.

"To be honest, I'm not avoiding any of them, but I don't know them very well," the filmmaker explained of the sequels. "I've seen all of them. I've seen Exorcist III more than any of them. I know that one very well. Say what you will about Exorcist II, but it ain't shy. It is a fearless epic of ideas, but [we're] not necessarily following a character from Exorcist: The Beginning. We're not looking into that. It's not that type of a franchise that needs to check boxes, but I've got two more movies, so maybe I'll find some threads to unravel from one of those."

The Exorcist: Believer lands in theaters on October 13th.

Are you looking forward to the sequel? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is an iconic film and is a cinematic staple for countless movie audiences, but even though it earned tremendous success when it landed in theaters in 1975, it suffered countless setbacks during its development that seemed to spell disaster for the project. While documentaries have previously been made about the subject, the stage production The Shark Is Broken is set to make its premiere on Broadway after having already earned acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and on London's West End. The play was written by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw, with Shaw being the son of actor Robert Shaw, who played Quint in the original movie. The Shark Is Still Broken is set to premiere on Broadway on August 10th.

"I had always loved the film, particularly the scene where the three main characters show their scars and bond, leading into my father's delivery of the famous Indianapolis speech, and the subsequent shark attack," Shaw shared with Entertainment Weekly about developing the play. "Robert was a writer and had rewritten the speech into the one that has become an iconic moment in cinema, not forgetting that he had originally been too drunk to complete it the day before, and had to beg Spielberg to try again the next day."

Much like how he hadn't anticipated writing the play, he hadn't predicted he would portray his father in the production, until he noticed an undeniable similarity.

"One day, when I had a mustache for a part I was playing, I looked in the mirror and Quint was staring back at me," Shaw confessed. "I had read about the troubled times they had on the set, and was fascinated by the three distinctive personalities at different stages in their careers. I wasn't working and I thought I should sketch out an idea for a play, set on Quint's boat, the Orca. Then I felt that it was a crazy idea, and the dangers of attempting to portray my father, warts and all, was too risky to contemplate. It took my friends and family to give the courage to pursue the idea, and when Joseph Nixon and I wrote it, we realized that we had a funny and touching story that was more universal than I had feared."

Shaw is joined in the production by Colin Donnell as Roy Scheider and Alex Brightman as Richard Dreyfuss. Rather than being a linear depiction of all the struggles the production faced, The Shark Is Broken is an homage to the development of the film, its cast and crew, the story itself, and the fans that keep its spirit alive.

"It's a homage to all those who made Jaws such a stunning movie, and to the fans who have kept its flame alive," Shaw detailed. "It is also a poem about the three men who hunted the shark, and to anyone who struggles to create stories that have meaning."

The Shark Is Broken premieres on Broadway on August 10th.

Will you be checking out the production? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

With Halloween 2023 right around the corner, studios are lining up 4K Blu-ray releases of classic horror films with a spooky season launch date. These films include Friday the 13th, Scream 3, Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist. Details about each of these releases can be found below complete with pre-order links.

Scream 3: Wes Craven's 2000 film Scream 3 is now available in 4K UHD in standard, SteelBook, and a 3-movie collection box set. Pre-orders are live on Amazon via the links below. All three options are set to arrive on October 3rd.

• Scream 3 4K Blu-ray - See on Amazon
• Scream 3 4K Blu-ray (SteelBook) - See on Amazon
• Scream 3 4K Blu-ray (3-film Set) - See on Amazon

Synopsis: "The third installment in the `Scream' trilogy is set in Hollywood, where `Stab 3' is being shot, with Gale Weathers and Dwight Riley on set as advisors to Jennifer Jolie. Unfortunately, a killer decides to off the cast in the order of the screenplay and only `Sid' Prescott, now in hiding until the killer tracks her down, can solve the riddle."

Friday the 13th: Sean S. Cunningham's 1980 film Friday the 13th is getting a fancy limited edition 4K UHD Blu-ray release that is touted as an "uncut deluxe edition" with unrated footage. Pre-orders are available here on Amazon now with a release date set for October 10th. The previously released standard 4K Blu-ray is also available here on Amazon.

Synopsis: "A new owner and several young counselors gather to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, where a young boy drowned and several vicious murders occurred years earlier. They've ignored the locals' warnings that the place has a death curse... and one by one they find out how unlucky Friday the 13th can be as they are stalked by a violent killer."

Rosemary's Baby: Roman Polanski's 1968 film Rosemary's Baby is coming to 4K Blu-ray for its 55th anniversary. Pre-orders are available here on Amazon with a release date set for October 10th.

Synopsis: "A young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and odd neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet (Sidney Blackmer, Ruth Gordon). When Rosemary becomes pregnant she becomes increasingly isolated, and the diabolical truth is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth."

The Exorcist: William Friedkin's 1973 film The Exorcist is celebrating its 50th anniversary (and the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros.) with a 4K Blu-ray release that includes restorations of the 1973 Theatrical Version and the 2000 Extended Director's Cut. Pre-orders are available here at Walmart now. It should also be available here on Amazon in the coming days.

Description: "The terrifying and realistic tale of an innocent girl inhabited by a terrifying entity, her mother's frantic resolve to save her and two priests - one doubt-ridden, the other a rock of faith - joined to battle the ultimate evil, always leaves viewers breathless. Winner of two Academy Awards and nominated for an additional eight including Best Picture, this greatest supernatural thriller of all time still astonishes and unsettles like no other movie."

Actor Nicolas Cage has finally come to Dead by Daylight in full now that the character has been released on the live servers. This DLC rollout follows the surprise announcement from months ago that confirmed Cage would be added to the game as a Survivor as well as the update from just a few weeks ago that added him to the test servers first for players to try out ahead of today's update. Cage is indeed DLC and not part of a free update, however, so you'll still have to buy the Survivor if you want to play the Cage-voiced character now.

The Nicolas Cage Chapter Pack only comes with Cage himself plus two additional cosmetics for the character, so it's not quite as full as some of the other Chapters that included things like Killers and new maps, too. It's on the more costly side of Chapters compared to some of the other DLCs that are in the shop right now with the Cage DLC priced at $9.99. For reference, some of the older Chapters cost around $3.99 while the newer ones like the Tools of Torment Chapter typically costs $11.99.

Like other Survivors, Cage also comes with a couple of perks unique to to the character which can eventually be taught to other Survivors. Those perks can be found below, and during his time on the test servers, players grew quite fond of them even if they're not always the most practical of perks.

Dramaturgy

"Activates while you are healthy. While running, press the Active Ability Button 2 to run with knees high for 0.5 seconds and then gain 25% Haste for 2 seconds, followed by an unknown effect (one of the following)."

• Exposed for 12 seconds;
• Gain 25% Haste for 2 seconds;
• Scream, but nothing happens;
• Gain a random rare item in hand with random add-ons and drop any held item.
• The same effect cannot happen twice in a row. Causes exhaustion for 60/50/40 seconds. Can't be used while exhausted.

Scene Partner

"Activates when you are in the Killer's Terror Radius. Whenever you look at the Killer, scream, then see the Killer's aura for 3/4/5 seconds. There is a chance you will scream again, if you do, you will see the Killer's aura for an additional 2 seconds. Scene Partner then goes on cool-down for 60 seconds."

Plot Twist

"Activates when you are injured. Press the Active Ability Button 2 while crouched and motionless to silently enter the dying state. When using Plot Twist to enter the dying state, you leave no blood pools, make no noise, and you can fully recover from the dying state. When you recover by yourself using Plot Twist, you are fully healed instantly and you gain 50% Haste for 2/3/4 seconds. This perk deactivates if you recover by yourself by any means. The perk re-activates when the exit gates are powered."

Those screams aren't a performance...or are they?

A legendary actor enters The Fog in Dead by Daylight: Nicolas Cage. Survive as the iconic actor while donning some of his signature Outfits, now available.

? https://t.co/sB3LZtPL2M pic.twitter.com/wLMAfhuf0v

-- Dead by Daylight (@DeadbyDaylight) July 25, 2023

Nicolas Cage's Dead by Daylight DLC can now be found in the stores of whichever platforms you're playing on.

The Exorcist: Believer has revealed some deeper plot details alongside the official trailer that was released today. As you can read in the full synopsis below (via Blumhouse Pictures), this new story about the evil of demonic possession will be an entirely new take, featuring some very familiar names (and one face) from the Oscar-winning original Exorcist film.

What Is The Exorcist: Believer About?

Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar(R) nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own.

But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

How Is The Exorcist: Believer Connected to the Original Film?

The most direct connection between Believer and The Exorcist (1973) is in the character of Chris MacNeil, who will once again be played by actress Ellen Burstyn. As the synopsis reads: "For the first time since the 1973 film, Oscar(R) winner Ellen Burstyn reprises her iconic role as Chris MacNeil, an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before."

The Exorcist: Believer Cast & Crew

The Exorcist: Believer "also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela's neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela's friend.

The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray) and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), Danny McBride (Halloween trilogy) and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by William Peter Blatty.

The film is produced by Jason Blum for Blumhouse and by David Robinson and James G. Robinson for Morgan Creek Entertainment.

The executive producers are Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Stephanie Allain, Ryan Turek and Atilla Y?cer. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse/Morgan Creek Entertainment production in association with Rough House Pictures."

Much like he did with his Halloween trilogy, when David Gordon Green was announced as reviving The Exorcist, it was confirmed that he was developing an entire trilogy that aimed to revive the dormant franchise. In addition to today seeing the debut of the trailer for the first part of the trilogy, The Exorcist: Believer, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the next entry into the series, The Exorcist: Deceiver, is aiming to hit theaters in 2025. While Believer will be released in honor of the original film's 50th anniversary, Deceiver is targeting an Easter release. The Exorcist: Believer will hit theaters on October 13th and The Exorcist: Deceiver is scheduled to debut on April 18, 2025.

Like all major productions in Hollywood right now, the actors' strike and writers' strike are halting development on features, regardless of how hotly anticipated they might be. Even though Deceiver might have a release date that's nearly two years away, it's entirely unknown when either strike could be resolved and when it could begin shooting.

The Exorcist: Believer will mark the first time original star Ellen Burstyn will be returning to the franchise, and she's set to return for Deceiver as Chris MacNeil.

Today's trailer premiere included the first details of what audiences can expect from the film's plot.

Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

The film also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela's neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela's friend. The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray) and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), Danny McBride (Halloween trilogy) and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by William Peter Blatty.

The Exorcist: Believer will hit theaters on October 13th and The Exorcist: Deceiver is scheduled to debut on April 18, 2025.

Are you excited for the new movies? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Blumhouse and Universal Pictures have released the trailer for The Exorcist: Believer, the most recent installment in the Exorcist film franchise. The movie is set for a release this fall to mark the 50th anniversary of the original film, and for the first time since 1973, Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn reprises her role as Chris MacNeil, an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before. While The Exorcist is a franchise that has been constantly active in the years since the original, often with little to show for it at the box office, the original remains a classic, and marked the first time a horror movie was nominated for Best Picture.

The movie is being directed by David Gordon Green, credited with revitalizing the Halloween franchise with its recent trilogy of legacy sequels. The hope, obviously, is that Green and Burstyn can bring a similar urgency and energy to The Exorcist: Believer.

You can see the trailer above.

When The Exorcist, based on the best-selling book by William Peter Blatty, was released, it became a cultural phenomenon, changing horror forever, breaking box office records, and scooping up a shocking 10 Academy Award nominations, becoming the first horror film ever nominated for Best Picture.

Here's how Blumhouse describes The Exorcist: Believer:

Exactly 50 years ago this fall, the most terrifying horror film in history landed on screens, shocking audiences around the world. Now, on Friday, October 13, a new chapter begins. From Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green, who shattered the status quo with their resurrection of the Halloween franchise, comes The Exorcist: Believer.

Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar(R) nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own.

But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

The film also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela's neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela's friend.

The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray) and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), Danny McBride (Halloween trilogy) and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by William Peter Blatty.

The film is produced by Jason Blum for Blumhouse and by David Robinson and James G. Robinson for Morgan Creek Entertainment. The executive producers are Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Stephanie Allain, Ryan Turek and Atilla Y?cer. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse/Morgan Creek Entertainment production in association with Rough House Pictures.

The Walking Dead: Dead City aired its "Doma Smo" season finale on July 23rd, and now you can pre-order the complete first season on Blu-ray. AMC's RLJ Entertainment will release the six-episode season as a two-disc set on Tuesday, September 12th. (The complete first season is also available to own now on digital download.) As a bonus feature, the disc version includes The Walking Dead: Dead City Live From WonderCon, a 35-minute special with showrunner Eli Jorn? and series stars Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee) and Gaius Charles (Perlie Armstrong) discussing the Walking Dead spin-off.

See the newly revealed box art below.

The official description: "Years have passed since we last saw Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and the old enemies must now form a tenuous alliance in order to carry out a dangerous mission. Maggie and Negan travel to a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. There they discover a crumbling city, filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York their own -- a world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror. But as the pair moves deeper into the gritty depths of the walker-infested city, it becomes apparent that the traumas of their tumultuous past may prove just as great a threat as the dangers of the present."

The series also stars Gaius Charles (Grey's Anatomy) as New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong, who doggedly pursues a fugitive Negan; Logan Kim (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as Maggie's teen son, Hershel; Mahina Napoleon (NCIS: Hawai'i), Negan's unspeaking ward Ginny; Karina Ortiz (Orange Is the New Black), Jonathan Higginbotham (The Blacklist), and Michael Anthony (The Game) as native New Yorkers Amaia, Tommaso, and Luther; ?eljko Ivanek (Damages) as The Croat; and Lisa Emery (Ozark) as The Dama.

Dead City debuted on June 18th as the #1 season premiere in the history of AMC+ in terms of viewership across all new and returning series -- including The Walking Dead -- with viewership on the AMC cable channel and streaming service AMC+ growing with each successive week to date, according to the network. (Watch The Walking Dead: Dead City series premiere online for free here.)

AMC announced at San Diego Comic-Con this week that The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed for season 2 alongside The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The ComicBook Nation Crew Goes DEEP on "Barbieheimer" weekend, with reviews of both Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie! PLUS, we recap what's going down at Comic-Con 2023, breakdown The Marvels Trailer and Secret Invasion Episode 5, and discuss this week's comics!

Barbie Review

In her official review of Barbie, ComicBook.com's Nicole Drum had the following to say:

Even for these tiny things, Barbie is quite possibly Gerwig's best film to date. It is insightful, hilarious, and packed with thoughtful commentary as well as an incredible amount of Easter eggs and one-liners that will reward audiences of every age and opinion on Barbie, not just on the first watch, but on multiple rewatches. Barbie pulls off the near-impossible task of taking what could have been merely a capitalist IP-driven cash grab and turned it into a celebration of and commentary on culture that gives the audience permission and encouragement to challenge not only everything they think Barbie represents but what the world asks of us mere humans as well so that we never go back into the box again.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Oppenheimer Review

Critic Patrick Cavanaugh had this to say in his official Oppenheimer review:

After a long string of crowd-pleasers that also manage to inject ambitious philosophical and existential components, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan's most intellectual and internal experience in years. It showcases the universality of humanistic struggles without hingeing upon them entirely, while also subtly yet exponentially layering in explicit critiques of global war machines. Despite chronicling events that unfolded 70 years ago, exploring an arms race or being given conflicting information by government authorities and being expected to honor ever-changing ideologies feels immensely contemporary. With Oppenheimer, Nolan orchestrates a talented symphony of performers at the top of their game to explore an overlooked corner of history, treating it with nuance and respect while lesser hands would lean into melodrama. The movie is a tribute not only to the true-life figures who pushed the limits of science forward, but also to those who suffered the consequences of those forward-thinkers' quest for fire.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Principal photography is well underway on Beetlejuice 2, and the Tim Burton feature may have hit its first major roadblock. Friday, the Vermont State Police shared a tweet revealing some props from the set of the highly-anticipated follow-up had been stolen. In addition to a hefty 150-pound statue, the thieves allegedly stole a lamppost complete with a pumpkin decoration.

"We tried saying the name of this stolen statue three times, but it didn't come back! We're investigating the theft of this 150-pound sculpture from the Beetlejuice 2 set in [East Corinth], along with a lamppost topped with a pumpkin decoration," the state police tweet reads. "Call 802-748-3111 with any info."

We tried saying the name of this stolen statue three times, but it didn't come back! We're investigating the theft of this 150-pound sculpture from the "Beetlejuice 2" set in E. Corinth, along with a lamppost topped with a pumpkin decoration. Call 802-748-3111 with any info. pic.twitter.com/3NmKEml1AG

-- Vermont State Police (@VTStatePolice) July 21, 2023

Who's all returning for Beetlejuice 2?

In addition to Burton, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara are all set to return for the sequel. The filmmaker has once again entrusted Danny Elfman with the score, who's already at work on the project. "I love being a fly on the wall when he's shooting. I'll be doing that in a couple of months, as you may know, on another Tim Burton project," Elfman shared with Deadline in regards to collaborating with Burton on both Wednesday and the Beetlejuice sequel. "That is very exciting, to return to that world."

"I said, 'He's not even going to look that much different. That's the beauty of the Beetlejuice makeup. He already looked like he was 150 in the first one,'" Elfman said of Keaton's reprisal of the eponymous ghoul.

He added, "It's perfect, you know? Everybody else has to play the next generation, except for Michael. I mean, he's still like really fit and really active and really on it. And with the Beetlejuice makeup, I can't even imagine it's going to look like he's changed practically at all. So, I can't wait for that."

Amongst the newcomers are Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci. Beetlejuice 2 lands in theaters on September 6, 2024. The first film can be streamed on Hulu.

[This story contains spoilers about The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1 episode 6, "Doma Smo."] "Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way." With those words, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) animosity reaches its climax on The Walking Dead: Dead City. In Sunday's "Doma Smo" season finale, the two end up at each other's throats -- literally! -- after Negan figures out that Maggie brought him to New York under false pretenses. As it turns out, the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) kidnapped her son Hershel (Logan Kim) so Maggie would track down her former foe and bring him "home" to the new Sanctuary.

"We could have done it. We could have saved Hershel. Because you and I together, we made one hell of a badass team," Negan tells Maggie when their truce ends in a fight. "But you know that, don't you? Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way. The fact is, Maggie, it doesn't matter what excuses I give you or how many apologies I offer, you can't get over it. And you shouldn't."

Maggie can't get over Negan killing her husband Glenn (Steven Yeun), but she hesitates to turn him over to be tortured to death. In the end, Negan goes through with the trade, and Maggie and Hershel are reunited. But the homecoming isn't a happy one. Hershel confronts Maggie, blaming the rift between them on her obsessive desire for revenge on Negan.

"I felt like the world kept taking, and kept taking, and I think at some point, I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back. A little piece of it, at least," Maggie confesses. "But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't want to keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan... I'm gonna finish it. So that I can just let it go."

Back in Manhattan, the Croat doesn't want to kill Negan. Instead, he turns his idolized "brother" over to the Dama (Lisa Emery), who wants Negan to lead the island in the inevitable "clash of civilizations" over its natural resources: the dead bodies that the Croat's Sanctuary turns into methane. New York's tribes will be at war with the New Babylon Federation, and she needs a showman to unite the settlements under one rule. "Someone with confidence, fearlessness, charisma. That special, shall we say, political talent. For what is politics if not performance?" Someone like Negan.

Deducing that Negan feels remorseful for destroying Hershel's family, the Dama coerces Negan's compliance -- by presenting him with Hershel's toe. If Negan doesn't do as the Dama commands, she'll harm Hershel and Maggie.

"I think it's the fight we've all been waiting for," series creator and showrunner Eli Jorn? says on AMC+'s The Walking Dead: Dead City Episode Insider. "When Negan has his knife to Maggie's throat, and he drops it, and he steps back, I think that action itself is essentially starting to say to her, 'This is as it should be.' I think he knows that he has to take responsibility. And beyond that, I think there's something in him that fears what he is."

When Maggie exchanges Negan's life for Hershel's, she thinks she's sending him to his death.

"Maggie has tricked Negan. The Croat demanded that Maggie bring Negan to her. Only then she would get her son back. And she has the knife to his throat, and I think there's just a moment where she's realizing, 'Of course I want my son back, but also, how do I feel about turning over this person that I've come to see is maybe not exactly the person I thought he was?'" Jorn? explained. "He helps her put her family back together, and in turn, he will suffer for what he's done."

It's Hershel who helps Maggie realize that her hate for Negan could cost her what she doesn't want to lose: her son.

"Hershel kind of explodes at his mom and calls out the fact that, 'Were you really here for me, or were you really here to punish Negan?' And she's realizing that things are not as black and white as she once thought they were," Jorn? said. "And she has to wonder if what she's done to Negan is right and if it's gonna help any of them heal at all. That's what's going through her mind in that moment - she's kind of wrestling with what she's done to him."

Dead City's first season ends with a split-screen image of Maggie and Negan "sharing a face," which is "the larger metaphor for what's happened in this season," Jorn? explained. "[Which] is these two people who started out so far apart, and in coming together, they've started to understand one another, and they're starting to see that, there is this way out. It's probably a long way off, but it has to be through each other."

The Walking Dead: Dead City has been renewed and will return for a second season on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

In Croatian, "Doma Smo" means "we are home." But the "Doma Smo" season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City is anything but a homecoming for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). After discovering that the runaway Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) is on Manhattan Island, Negan entrusts New Babylon Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) with escorting her back to The Bricks. "I can't protect you and help Maggie. There was a plan," scolds Negan. "Her and I, we come here, we get Hershel, you stay with her people where you're safe. That was the whole goddamn point! That you stay safe."

Negan can't go with her, and Ginny can't stay with him. "I am not who you think I am," he tells her. She finally speaks for the first time since her father's death months ago: "I want you to--" but before she can say another word, Negan does the only thing he can to get her to leave. "I killed your dad," he tells her. "I'm not wanted for robbing a wagon train. I killed five men. And your dad, he was one of them. It's why I tracked you down to the farm. Why I let you tag along, 'cause I knew you had no one. You? You're just a debt that I had to pay. That's it."

Ginny leaves without another word as Negan sheds a tear. Later, Maggie and Negan scope out the arena where the Croat (?eljko Ivanek) has established his New Sanctuary. Negan is confident he'll be able to work something out with the ex-Savior who idolizes him.

The dysfunctional duo takes to the streets and heads toward the building of billowing black smoke. The one that conspicuously blows smoke at the same time every morning and night ever since Maggie and Negan arrived on the island. He asks Maggie what she thinks Ginny wanted to tell him. But Maggie is a bad liar, and Negan doesn't buy her reasoning that she was trying to talk her way out of trouble.

Maggie and Negan trade glances. In the blink of an eye, Maggie and Negan both go for her knife. He hurls her into a wall, knocking her weapon away and throwing her to the ground. Negan takes off, hopping a rail and walking out over a beam. It's a balancing act as Maggie gives chase, trying not to stumble into the horde of walkers waiting below.

Negan tries to talk his way out of the fight, but she takes a swipe at him with her knife. He overpowers his attacker and almost knocks her off the platform into the undead masses below. Negan yells for her to stop, but Maggie plunges her knife into his shoulder. The scuffle ends with Negan's knife at her throat -- and an order to stand down.

He's figured out that Maggie lied about the circumstances surrounding Hershel's (Logan Kim) abduction. The Croat didn't steal their grain and extort the Bricks for their harvest. The Croat took her son because he wanted Maggie to bring him Negan.

"He wanted me. And for what? Who the hell knows. But whatever that crazy son of a bitch wants with me, I sure as shit ain't gonna like it. You and I both know that much," Negan tells her. "The shit thing is, Maggie, we could have done it! We could have saved Hershel. Because you and I together, we made one hell of a badass team. But you know that, don't you? Maybe some part of you always wanted it to end this way. The fact is, Maggie, it doesn't matter what excuses I give you or how many apologies I offer -- you can't get over it. And you shouldn't."

Before Negan can say another word about Glenn, the Croat's Burazi finds them. With Maggie's knife to Negan's throat, the Croat smiles. It's revealed that the Croat returned to the Saviors' Sanctuary to find it abandoned, and after months of searching the mainland, learned from an ex-Savior "the story of the Widow."

When he learned of Maggie's history with Negan -- "vulnerabilities to be exploited," as the Croat puts it -- he knew that taking Maggie's son was the push she'd need to find Negan and bring him to New York. Doma smo.

At the bank building, Maggie leads Negan inside like a man to the gallows with her knife pressed to his throat. The Burazi lead them to a vault. "Just look after Ginny, will you?" a contrite Negan asks Maggie. "That's all I ask." The door opens, revealing Hershel. He's alive, with hate and anger in his eyes. Negan takes Maggie's hand, still gripped to her knife, and moves it down. He accepts his fate and hands himself over to his fate. The exchange happens as Hershel walks toward Maggie, and Negan toward the Croat. "It's good to see you, kid," Negan says to Hershel, who is quickly enveloped in the arms of his mother.

Back at New Babylon, Armstrong tells his director (Jasmin Walker) that he tracked the fugitive Negan to New York. He made a move to escape, so Armstrong shot and killed him. Negan is dead. A shame: she wanted Negan alive so she could have him executed and strung up to put on display and "make a statement." She not-so-subtly reminds Armstrong that they had eyes on his family -- Marjorie, Bea, and Dessie -- while he was away working to protect their body politic. She reminds him how ethanol comes from corn, which takes up thousands of acres of fields. So what I'd like you to do, Marshal, I'd like you to tell me your story again. And this time, I want you to tell me all about the methane."

In New York, Maggie and Hershel look out at Liberty Island. Their conversation is terse. "All we ever do back home is wait for the next bad thing to happen," the teen grumbles. "If anything, I felt safer back there." Maggie doesn't know what to say to that. He finds the baseball cap that Negan gifted Maggie to give to Hershel, which he sarcastically writes off as "a souvenir for being kidnapped." Finally, Hershel unloads:

"It's like you're obsessed with him. With Negan. With what he did. Getting him back," Hershel tells mom. Maggie protests that she came to New York for him, not Negan. "I'm right here, but you don't see me," he fires back. "It's like my whole life, you've been looking over my shoulder, watching for him, waiting for him. But you never see me." Maggie cries.

In the city, the Croat transports Negan in the back of an ambulance and reminisces about the time he handled the River People "like an actor commanding the stage," with all the swagger of a rock star. "But what is a rock star without his microphone? So, out came Lucille," the Croat says of Negan's barbwire-covered vampire bat. "Then you turned, and you offered her to me. I didn't understand. I'd only just arrived at the Sanctuary. I was nothing. I was broken. But you saw something in me. Not what I was. But what I could become." He grows emotional over the beautiful brotherhood they had at the Sanctuary. The Croat tells his idol that he never should have disobeyed Negan's orders and tortured that girl to death. "I became the threat that needed to be handled," he realizes. "I promise you, that will never happen again."

At the Bricks, Maggie checks in on Ginny, slipping in the room to return her stuffed dinosaur and slipping back out without a word. In Hershel's room, she makes her mea culpa to her son. "For a long time, for most of my life, I felt like the world kept taking... and kept taking and... I think at some point, I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back. A little piece of it, at least," she confesses. "But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't want to keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan... I'm gonna finish it. So that I can just let it go."

In New York, the Croat takes Negan to the Dama (Lisa Emery). "My battles with the tribe, the rats I had to exterminate, that was practice for the war to come. Once we have full control of the island, Dama says a clash of civilizations is inevitable," the Croat says. "So when I told her about all the good you had done, all the people you had saved and protected, she said you are the missing piece." He's giddy like a child, beaming about "mommy and daddy coming together." He's summarily dismissed by the Dama, who marvels at the rock star sat before her. "I heard about your performance at the bank. The taunting, the joking, that extra-but-absolutely-necessary pinch of gruesomeness," she says of his bloody knock-knock joke. "Shock and awe, and all of that. Bravo."

The Dama presents Negan with Armstrong's marshal badge. She explains that the New Babylon Federation will come for their natural resource: the methane that the Croat's Sanctuary produces from corpses. "The island needs leadership. Now more than ever," she says. "Someone with confidence, fearlessness, charisma, that special, shall we say, political talent. For what is politics if not performance?" The tribe has been eliminated, but there are settlements as far north as Harlem. The Dama hands Negan the literal keys to the kingdom. "If we can unite them under one rule, we'll be indomitable. And all of it, that can all be yours again." But first, she needs to be sure that Negan is the man he used to be.

Negan unlocks the small box before him. Inside is a toe. Back at the Bricks, a shoeless Hershel is missing his pinky toe. "My former guest and I had a lot of talks. He told me this story of a man who murdered his father, not just in front of his mother, but him, the unborn baby in her belly," the Dama reveals. "And I could sense in the rest of this story what he himself couldn't. That his father's killer might feel remorseful, responsible for the boy whose family he destroyed."

Maggie makes Hershel's bed and finds his drawings: of New York, of the bank vault, of a woman that Maggie doesn't recognize. It's the Dama. "Of course, he only told me this once he felt safe with me," she explains to Negan. "And here you are, come all this way to save him. As you know, I eventually let him go in exchange for you. But I kept a little piece of him. And I can always go back for more." Negan silently sips his drink. "Make it last," she tells him. "We have a lot to discuss. A lot to plan for."

The screen splits. Maggie and Negan's faces become one as "Slipping Away" by Nine Inch Nails plays. "I keep slipping / I keep slipping away / myself keeps slipping away / tried to save myself / tried to save..." End of season one.

The Walking Dead: Dead City will return for season 2 at AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

No one's gone until they're gone. Daniel Sharman will reprise his role as Troy Otto in the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC announced in a clip that screened during The Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con. While that footage hasn't been released to watch online, the network confirmed Troy will be back from the dead when the Walking Dead spin-off returns with its final six episodes on October 22nd. (Trailers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live did make their way online after the hour-long Comic-Con panel, which we've recapped here.)

AMC made Sharman's return official in a video recapping the TWDU panel in 30 seconds. Watch it below:

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Sharman played Troy Otto until he was killed off in the "Things Bad Begun" penultimate episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 3. The psychopathic son of border militiaman Jeremiah Otto Sr. (Dayton Callie), he was exiled from Broke Jaw Ranch by his brother Jake (Sam Underwood) and buddied up to Nick Clark (Frank Dillane). After it was revealed that Troy led the walker horde that destroyed the ranch, Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) bludgeoned him with a hammer -- seemingly killing him.

But Troy survived. A coda ending the season 8 "All I See Is Red" midseason finale showed a mystery person in possession of Victor Strand's (Colman Domingo) sunglasses and Alicia Clark's (Alycia Debnam-Carey) prosthetic arm as they tuned into a message broadcast by Madison Clark -- who also survived her apparent death back in season 4.

"My name is Madison Clark. If you can hear this message, you are in the territory PADRE once patrolled. PADRE has fallen. They are no longer a threat to you or your children," said a Madison voiceover, broadcasting coordinates to reunite parents whose children have been stolen by PADRE. "We will find you. We will do our best to reunite you with your children. We'll make up for all the damage PADRE did to you."

The Troy-Madison reunion won't be a happy one: footage from the upcoming second half of season 8 shows a hammer-wielding Madison lunging at someone who appears to be Troy.

"It's such a gigantic task to think about bringing all these stories, all these character journeys, not just to a conclusion, but also bringing them full circle," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on AMC's Inside Fear the Walking Dead Final Season Part 1 special. "When we started to think about, 'Where do we want these characters to end up?' It led to the question of, 'Where did they start?'"

Added showrunner Andrew Chambliss, "We wanted to look back at these characters from their very beginnings on this show and look at who they were back then, and who they were now, and we can see how far they've come."

With Morgan Jones (Lennie James) exiting the series in the season 8A finale, season 8B will circle back to season 3 with Dickens' Madison as series lead.

"The theme that kept coming to the front of our minds was just this idea of family. And it all started with Madison Clark," Chambliss said. "She was this matriarch at the beginning of the apocalypse who always wanted to protect her kids, who wanted to create a world where they could be safe. Who wanted to give them something that really didn't exist anymore. It all kind of boils down to the story -- the story we want to tell, the story that we think will bring together all the themes, all the characters, everyone's stories in a way that will feel satisfying. And also feel like it has some real finality to it."

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 returns October 22nd on AMC and AMC+. You can catch up on all eight seasons now on AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

How do you say "sneak peek" in French? The first 10 minutes of the September 10th series premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon are streaming now on AMC+, revealing an extended look at the new Walking Dead spin-off that finds the American Daryl (Norman Reedus) marooned in post-apocalyptic France. More specifically: the Old Port of Marseille in southern France's zombie-plagued Provence region. The sneak peek is now available to watch exclusively over at amcplus.com, where AMC+ subscribers can get early access to new episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon starting Thursday, September 7th.

AMC first released the 10-minute preview, along with the full Daryl Dixon trailer, during its Walking Dead Universe Fan Watch Party panel at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend. The network describes the September 10th premiere: "Months after we last saw him in The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon finds himself transported across the Atlantic to France."

The footage opens with Daryl strapped to a capsized dinghy adrift in the Mediterranean Sea. "You deserve a happy ending too," says a Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) voiceover, an echo of what she told her "uncle Daryl" in The Walking Dead's "Rest in Peace" series finale. After washing ashore, Daryl wanders into the lifeless Mediterranean city. A sign with directions in a language he can't read points him to les ports de Martigues. Daryl is far from home, and there are no signs of life anywhere.

Daryl rummages through a docked boat and scavenges a water bottle, a coat, and a tape recorder that reveals its passengers did not survive their voyage. "19 months at sea. Hoping to stay ahead of this thing. Circled Spain. Nowhere's safe," says the voice of a father, pictured with his wife and daughter. "We'll try Marseille next. Maybe the south of France is good. There's got to be a safe place somewhere. Sue had a heart attack. We had to let her go. I had to... take care of it. Our 10th anniversary would have been in June. Holly keeps crying. She wants her mum back. She wants things the way they were. She wants to go home."

Daryl points a line from Marseille to Biarritz on a map. He records his own message: "My name's Daryl Dixon. I come from a place called the Commonwealth. It's in America. I went out looking for something. All I found was trouble. If I don't make it back, I want them to know I tried. Hell, I'm still trying."

A stranger in a strange land, Daryl treks through the French countryside, over bridges and mountains, until he reaches a dilapidated city. He walks past raffiti reading "pouvoir des vivants," or "power of the living." But there is only death. Daryl forages for food inside an old factory, failing to heed a warning he can't read: "ATTENTION AFFAM?S ICI." Translation: "Hungry here."

Daryl doesn't hear the growling of a lurker: walkers that lie dormant until they can eat the flesh of the living. As the lurker rises, Daryl finds himself surrounded. Using a pole he's fashioned into a walking stick and spear, Daryl impales a lurking walker in the brain and slices another, spilling blackened blood that is acidic.

Daryl fends off the acid-blooded walkers, but one lunges at him and grabs his bare arm, burning his skin with its touch. When his spear gets stuck in a walker's head, he unsheathes his knife and hurls it into the forehead of the last lurker. Daryl sits with his head in his hands, leaving him to question how he got there -- and how he's ever getting home.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres September 7th on AMC and September 10th on AMC.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

In the era of reboots and remakes, Witchboard is the latest in a long line of cult classics to be revisited. Saturday, filmmakers behind the upcoming occult flick took to San Diego Comic-Con to show movie-goers a glimpse of what they'll be able expect from the picture. Featuring breakout Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower in the lead role, Witchboard's first teaser includes a look at film, including its demonic Oujia-adjacent plot.

Joining Bower in the film are Madison Iseman, Aaron Dominguez, Antonia Desplat, and Charlie Tahan amongst others. You can see the trailer below.

"There is a tradition in cinema of great English actors that have the charisma we associate with stardom as well as the acting chops to truly be a chameleon, playing a variety of character types," Chuck Russell previously said of the film and its lead star. "Jamie Campbell Bower is that kind of actor and his time is now."

Russell previously directed A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors, The Mask, and Scorpion King.

The original film starred Tawny Kitaen and, despite having a passionate following among '80s enthusiasts, had its ambitions limited by the special effects of the time. Even if that debut film wasn't a breakout success, it would go on to inspire two follow-up films, with the most recent of which, Witchboard III: The Possession, being released in 1995.

A synopsis for the Witchboard remake can be found below.

"Emily (Madison Iseman) and her fianc? Christian (Aaron Dominguez) discover a mysterious Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, as they prepare to open a bistro in New Orleans' French Quarter. A darkness descends over Emily as she becomes obsessed with the board's power of divination and ability to summon spirits. Desperate to help his fianc?, Christian seeks the advice of occult expert Alexander Babiaste (Jamie Campbell Bower). But Babiaste has secrets of his own, including his connection to a modern-day coven of witches. A dangerous game begins as each swing of the pendulum puts Emily's very soul at risk."

Witchboard has yet to set a release date, though the trailer itself says the film will see release in 2024.

This week Lionsgate offered a first look at the upcoming Saw X, confirming details that tangle up the Saw movie timeline even more. According the studio, the upcoming tenth Saw movie (featuring the return of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw) will be dialing things back and be set in-between two different movies in the long-running horror franchise. As the studio's plot synopsis reveals, Saw X will actually be set in-between the events of the original Saw and its first sequel, Saw II. Fans of the franchise will likely know why, but newcomers may be lost why the series is forced to go in this direction. In short, it's complicated but also...easy to understand.

The Saw movie franchise, like so many other horror film series, has made bold decisions that forced it to get creative. One of the biggest narrative choices they made was by killing the franchise's main antagonist, The Jigsaw Killer, in just the third movie. Despite that happening, six more movies in the franchise were produced, five of them featuring Tobin Bell reprising his role as Jigsaw. As a result, the timeline of Saw IV onward makes the entire franchise feel like you're looking at pieces of an incomplete...jigsaw puzzle. Saw X will now make the Saw movie timeline even more complicated.

Saw movie timeline explained:

• Saw (2004) - The first movie is the first chapter in the series, explaining the Jigsaw killer's motives and his first victims. That is until other movies would find themselves taking place before the events of the first movie.
• Saw II - The first sequel seems to take at least some time later as the Jigsaw killer's health has deteriorated drastically compared to the firstm ovie.
• Saw III - The film where the Jigsaw killer finally perishes is where things start to get interesting, with scenes set after Saw but before Saw II.
• Saw IV - Jigsaw now dead the film employed a unique twist to bring back Tobin Bell as the character, it's set simultaneously with Saw III, meaning the two movies take place at the same time.
• Saw V - Jigsaw is still dead but Tobin Bell continues to appear thanks to flashbacks, and his work continues with his proteges.
• Saw VI - The same thing can be said about Saw 6, and in fact elements of it storyline could intersect with Saw X.
• Saw 3D - A bold decision to call a movie the last one considering the future, but once again flashbacks are revealed and the story continues in the present timeline.
• Jigsaw - We're starting to sound like a broken record, but like the three past movies, Jigsaw is partially set in the past and in the present. However in this movie it's used as a twist, with the main "game" followed throughout the movie set before most of the events of the first movie, which isn't revealed until the end of the film.
• Spiral: From the Book of Saw - Though set an undetermined time after the Saw movies, Spiral largely doesn't have much to do with the others despite a passing mention to Jigsaw and a new "game" focused serial killer.

Saw franchise in chronological order

• Jigsaw - Elements of the sequel take place this early in the timeline.
• Saw (2004)
• Saw X
• Saw II
• Saw III/Saw IV - Both movies happen at the same time
• Saw V
• Saw VI
• Saw 3D
• Jigsaw (the rest of the movie, with the reveal of new Jigsaw prot?g? Logan Nelson)
• Spiral: From the Book of Saw

As a result of moving Saw X, the tenth movie, into a very early place in the Saw timeline, the franchise has found itself in a unique spot. The movie can now ignore the events of the last two sequels and the two serial killers roaming about that haven't had an opportunity to appear again. This gives the series what fans really want, more traps with the original Jigsaw, while also continuing its trend of galaxy-brain ideas to keep making sequels.

In addition to Bell reprising his role for Saw X, another franchise staple is potentially back in the mix with Shawnee Smith previously teased to return as Amanda Young. Confirmed cast members that will appear in the movie include Synn?ve Macody Lund (Ragnarok), Steven Brand (The Sandman), Michael Beach (S.W.A.T.), Renata Vaca, Paulette Hernande, Joshua Okamoto, and Octavio Hinojosa. Director Kevin Greutert is also returning to the franchise to direct the movie, having previously directed Saw VI and Saw: The Final Chapter in addition to editing six other movies in the frnachise.

"What a thrill to be reuniting with Tobin," producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules previously said in a statement about Bell's return. "His performance as John Kramer is part of the magic that made this franchise a phenomenon and his character is an active part of this film."

The upcoming Saw X is scheduled for release on September 29, 2023.

Make no mistake about it, but the filmmakers behind Meg 2: The Trench spared no expense when it came to the thriller. After a sizable haul for Warner Brothers in 2018, the highly anticipated sequel has enlisted the help of indie filmmaker Ben Wheatley, who put a whole lot of work into the movie before it even started filming.

"By the time I got to 'The Meg,' I'd done a lot of effects work, and I had an inkling of it. And because of the pandemic, I had an extra six or seven months, so I storyboarded the whole thing, every frame of it," Wheatley said in the latest issue of Total Film magazine. "So when we came to start it, there was a massive amount of prep that had been done. I don't like the idea of these tales of people making it up on the day. I wanted every dollar on screen."

In that same interview, the filmmaker teased a potential threequel, though he didn't want to give away too many details about the follow-up just quite yet.

"The international-ness of it is very interesting," the director detailed. "What's so smart about the first film is that it's not Rush Hour. It's not East-meets-West, 'Oh, we're all confused about each other' ... It's just people working together, and being in an everyday adventure, and the people just happen to come from places all over the world. I think that's good for audiences, and it's a good message as well."

The film is described, "Dive into uncharted waters with Jason Statham and global action icon Wu Jing as they lead a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean. Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival. Pitted against colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes must outrun, outsmart, and outswim their merciless predators in a pulse-pounding race against time. Immerse yourself in the most electrifying cinematic experience of the year with Meg 2: The Trench -- where the depths of the ocean are matched only by the heights of sheer, unstoppable excitement!"

Warner Bros. Pictures and CMC Pictures present Meg 2: The Trench, with Statham and Jing headlining an ensemble cast that also includes Sophia Cai (The Meg), Page Kennedy (The Meg), Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood), Skyler Samuels (The Gifted), and Cliff Curtis (Avatar franchise).

Meg 2: The Trench lands in theaters on August 4th.

All eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead are now streaming exclusively on AMC+. Rival Hulu had the rights to the first seven seasons of the AMC series, but with those rights expiring in June, the show has returned to the network's own streaming service. And during the Walking Dead Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, AMC shared a retrospective teaser (above) to announce that all episodes of the Walking Dead spin-off are available for binging on AMC+. It was also revealed when the remaining six episodes of Fear's eighth and final season premiere on AMC and AMC+: October 22nd.

Titled "The End Is the Beginning," the 90-second retrospective looks back at a journey that traveled from Los Angeles, to Mexico, to Texas, to Georgia. It's a journey that ends with the Fear the Walking Dead series finale slated to air November 26th.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 1

The companion series to The Walking Dead, is set in LA at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 2

Fear the Walking Dead returns at sea, aboard the Abigail, but is water safer than land?

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 3

Families will be brought together in the vibrant and violent region formerly known as the U.S.-Mexico border. International lines done away with following the world's end, our characters must attempt to rebuild not only society, but family as well.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 4

We see the world of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her family through new eyes - the eyes of Morgan Jones (Lennie James), who is joining the story from the world of The Walking Dead. The characters' immediate pasts mix with an uncertain present of struggle and discovery as they meet new friends, foes and threats.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 5

The group's mission is clear: locate survivors and help make what's left of the world a slightly better place. With dogged determination, Morgan Jones leads the group with a philosophy rooted in benevolence, community and hope.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 6

This season explores what has become of the unlikely family once united by a mission to help those in need. After being torn apart by Virginia (Colby Minifie) and her Pioneers, the group is now dispersed across her far-reaching settlements. Morgan's last message at the end of season five implored the group to "Just Live" and this season we'll see what that means to each of them.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 7

Teddy (John Glover) brought about his vision of "The End" when he detonated nuclear warheads across the Texas landscape, but it will be up to those who survived to decide what "The Beginning" will look like. And they'll have to do it in a world devoid of light and hope, where the outside air is just as deadly as the walkers they face.

• Fear the Walking Dead Season 8

The eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead kicks off with the first six episodes following Morgan and Madison's plans to rescue Mo from PADRE, and seven years later -- Morgan, Madison and the rest of the people they brought to the island are living under PADRE's cynical rule. With our characters demoralized and dejected, the task of reigniting everyone's belief in a better world is the person Morgan and Madison set out to rescue in the first place -- a now eight-year-old Mo.

Fear the Walking Dead returns with its final episodes Sunday, October 22nd, on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon finds Daryl (Norman Reedus) marooned in France -- but his first stop is San Diego. AMC showed off a new trailer for the Walking Dead spin-off at its San Diego Comic-Con panel Friday, revealing an extended look at the next series in the Walking Dead Saga (watch it above). Premiering September 10th on AMC and AMC+, Daryl Dixon is set and shot in and around Paris, France, with zombie action taking place everywhere from the French countryside to such landmarks as the Catacombs, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. AMC also announced it's doubling down on Daryl Dixon with an early season 2 renewal.

In The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."

Set to "Clair de Lune," the epic footage shows some of the new Walking Dead Universe characters who will encounter "the American." Among them: the nun Isabelle (The Tunnel's Cl?mence Po?sy), a Parisian member of a progressive religious group; displaced Brit Quinn (The Terror's Adam Nagaitis), a black marketeer who owns the sexy underground nightclub the Demimonde; and French survivors Fallou (Lumumba's Eriq Ebouaney), Sylvie (Reign Supreme's Laika Blanc Francard), and Laurent (newcomer Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) -- an 11-year-old boy born at the onset of the zombie outbreak who, we're told, is destined to "lead the revival of humanity."

"We've been waiting for you," Isabelle tells Daryl, the messenger preordained to safely deliver Laurent across France. Along the way, they're pursued by the shadowy Genet (Paid's Anne Charrier) and her hunter Codron (Savages' Romain Levi) for mysterious reasons.

The new show is largely standalone and "embraces a Stranger In a Strange Land kind of scenario, where we're exploring post-apocalyptic Europe through the eyes of Daryl Dixon," director and executive producer Greg Nicotero previously told ComicBook, referring to Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 novel about a human raised on Mars who struggles to understand customs on an alien world: Earth.

With The Walking Dead series finale ending on a hopeful note -- Daryl rode off on his motorcycle after a hug goodbye to Carol (Melissa McBride), setting off for a potential reunion with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) -- that tone will carry over to Daryl Dixon.

"There was a part of [the series finale] where I smiled a little bit, and that tone kind of makes it into the spin-off a little bit," Reedus previously explained to ComicBook about Daryl Dixon. "And then it goes horribly wrong, like everything on The Walking Dead. It kind of felt like I was going to see what's new out in the world, you know what I mean? Everybody was safe, and I was gonna go see what's out there."

What's out there is deliberately different from The Walking Dead, which ended after 11 seasons and 177 episodes in November. "The tone is much different, the [cinematography is] much different. The lighting's different," Reedus said. "We're in castles, and the storyline has a religious vibe to it. Part of the story is me around a bunch of people speaking French. I'm trying to figure out like, 'Is this gonna be a fight?'"

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres Sunday, September 10th, on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.

Rick and Michonne are the ones who live. During a San Diego Comic-Con panel inside Hall H on Friday, AMC revealed the title of the Rick Grimes and Michonne Walking Dead spin-off starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira is The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The network also released the first teaser trailer (watch it above). Originally developed as a Rick Grimes movie trilogy, Lincoln and Gurira made a surprise appearance at last year's convention to announce that they would reunite in a new series that will be "the conclusion of this story of Rick and Michonne." But Rick and Michonne's love story is far from over.

Premiering with a six-episode season in 2024, the show formerly titled The Walking Dead: Rick & Michonne picks up years after Rick disappeared aboard a Civic Republic Military helicopter and Michonne went searching for the father of her children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor). "I've been out there a long time. I lost someone, years ago," Michonne narrates over explosive footage of katana-sliced walkers and CRM soldiers. "And then things changed. I found out that he's alive."

The red-colored teaser trailer shows glimpses of a blood-splattered, machete-wielding Rick Grimes, who has spent years in captivity working as "Consignee Grimes" at a CRM zombie-culling facility after his fateful helicopter flight with Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). The Walking Dead: World Beyond confirmed that Jadis trafficked Rick for entry into the Civic Republic, a fortified city in post-apocalyptic Philadelphia, after she shuttled him away from his friends and family on season 9 of The Walking Dead in 2018.

The Rick and Michonne spin-off "presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world," according to AMC. "Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead... And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive -- or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?"

Showrunner Scott M. Gimple created the series and executive produces alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Dead City). The Walking Dead Universe veterans Michael E. Satrazemis (Fear the Walking Dead) and Channing Powell (Tales of the Walking Dead) are co-executive producers, while franchise statesman Greg Nicotero -- who directed the Rick and Michonne coda that ended The Walking Dead series finale -- serves as consulting producer.

Gimple has described the series as an "epic and insane love story" that finds the two characters at their most deadly, as evidenced by the brief but bloody first footage.

"These are two people that have been separated for a very long time. They've lived whole other existences and they have to find themselves again, let alone each other. And it's hopefully going to be mind-blowing," Gimple said on The Walking Dead Universe Preview 2022 special. "We see this incredible power couple, but we also see that Red Machete Rick. We see that Michonne who taught a thing or two to the Governor. It kind of goes coast to coast that way between the intimate and the epic and the insane."

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage. Visit our SDCC hub for the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con 2023.