If anyone can turn Stephen King’s disappointing sequel to The Shining into a decent movie, it’s the director of last year’s surprisingly great Gerald’s Game.
If you’re a huge Stephen King fan (like me!), then you undoubtedly noticed two fairly huge easter eggs in the first trailer for The Dark Tower, which finally — after months of anticipation and growing concern — debuted online early this morning. Those less familiar with the SKU (the Stephen King Universe) may have missed the pair of references to two of King’s most iconic stories, both of which have also been adapted before.
The Chickening played the festival circuit over the past year, totally blowing the minds of audiences at Sundance, Fantastic Fest and more with its completely bonkers and inventive “remix” of footage from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Integrating chicken costumes, silly hats and faces, and the best possible manipulation of Shelley Duvall’s eyeballs you’re likely to see in your lifetime, The Chickening is an ode to insanity that you need to watch immediately.
We live in a world where commercial directors speak (and breathe and live) the same pop culture language as the people they've been hired to peddle all kinds of products to. The result: television advertisements have gotten more clever, more specific, and most importantly, more ready to become instant viral sensations on the internet. A new IKEA commercial, whose release in the chilly weeks of October is no coincidence, cleverly parodies one of the most famous horror movies of all time and it's pretty cool.
What a difference a director makes: the thought of a prequel to 'The Shining' makes us roll our eyes hard, but the thought of Mark Romanek directing a prequel to 'The Shining' makes our ears perk up. If you are going to make a prequel to one of the coldest and weirdest horror movies of all time, you might as well hire one of the coldest and weirdest directors working today...