Twenty-five years ago, long after the Cold War gave us an entire generation of giant monster movies; a crew met out in the middle of the desert (or the town of Perfection, Nevada) to make Tremors. On a budget of about $11 million, director Ron Underwood helped created one of the coolest and most original monster movies in years. A young, fresh out of the awesome 80’s Kevin Bacon played Valentine “Val” McKee, and Fred Ward was his slightly older, slightly wiser partner Earl. Together, they find themselves in the middle of a mess, when giant underground creatures dubbed”Grabboids” with tentacled tongues that pull their victims in swarm the town. With the help of a rag tag crew, including a young pretty seismologist Rhonda (Finn Carter), and married gun nuts Burt and Heather (Michael Gross & Reba McEntire), they defend the town from these creatures, while spouting hilarious one-liners from a script from the duo of S.S. Wilson & Brent Maddox. The movie holds a special place in my heart as well as the hearts of young 80s kids yearning for some fun scares. The special effects hold up and the Grabboids were awesome practical monsters, some of the last before Spielberg changed the game with Jurassic Park in 1993, and CG became the way of the future.

Why are we discussing a quarter century year old classic? Because Tremors, complete with Val himself, is returning to the screen… the small screen.

More on this below.

The Green Inferno
Director: Eli Roth
Screenwriter: Eli Roth, Guillermo Amoedo
Cast: Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Sky Ferreira, Nicolas Martinez, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Aaron Burns
Universal Pictures | Blumhouse
Rated R | 121 Minutes
Release Date: September 25, 2015

Finally, after two years of waiting, Eli Roth‘s The Green Inferno has reached theaters. Roth burst onto the horror scene back in 2002 with the low budget Cabin Fever, about a group of friends whose fun small town weekend is ruined by crazy local hillbillies and a flesh eating virus. His offbeat sense of humor and gross-out effects signaled that he was a force to be reckoned with. Then came 2005’s Hostel, and its superior 2007 sequel which garnered notoriety and helped coin the phrase “torture porn.” He has since collaborated with Quentin Tarantino (!), and been busy producing horror films and TV projects.

In 2013, Roth completed The Green Inferno, his tribute to his favorite movie – Ruggero Deodato’s notorious 1980 Cannibal Holocaust. That film caused such a stir that director Deodato was arrested on suspicion that he actually killed his crew, and had to demonstrate scenes in court. It is still banned in parts of the world. A squabble between film distributors left Roth’s pet project in limbo, until Blumhouse Productions swooped in as saviors and here we are.

Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions has made a successful business of turning low-budget horror films into box office gold. But his latest project pairs him up with M. Night Shyamalan. The Visit marks the first time that the two have collaborated on the project, with a couple more projects to come. In the film, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and younger brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) say goodbye to their mother as they board a train and head deep into Pennsylvania farm country to meet their maternal grandparents for the first time. While everything appears to be comfy and cozy, when night falls, strange things happen to their Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), and they discover a terrifying secret that may end up killing them.

We had the chance to talk to Blum about the movie, the Blumhouse business model, and working with Shyamalan for the first time. Check out the interview below.

The Visit marks M. Night Shyamalan‘s cinematic return to tense thrillers. In the film, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and younger brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) say goodbye to their mother as they board a train and head deep into Pennsylvania farm country to meet their maternal grandparents for the first time. While everything appears to be comfy and cozy, when night falls, strange things happen to their Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), and they discover a terrifying secret that may end up killing them.

We were offered the chance to sit down with other journalists to talk to the film’s director about how working with the concept of found footage changed his directing style, working with the young leads, the conscious decision to use theater actors over recognizable ones, and much more.

The name M. Night Shyamalan is associated with a few things, most notably “twists” and as of late “bad movies.” Well considering his Fox drama Wayward Pines was a critical and commercial success, and The Visit perfectly fits with Blumhouse’s horror films on a frugal budget, the filmmaker has seemingly bounced back from a couple of down years. With The Visit completely finished, the film has been making the early screening rounds and has been met with rave reviews. As such, Shyamalan is eager to get back to work, once again with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions for another horror film on a frugal budget.

This time he would be reuniting with an actor who he has worked with a couple of times in the past. According to new reports, Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to reunite with Shyamalan for an all new horror flick. More on this story below.