Yes, watching Zohan is like sucking on a blow dryer with a mouthful of expired tuna, but don’t brush off Scary Madison just yet. That’s the name of Adam Sandler’s new horror label, an off-branch of his production company, Happy Madison, and the first SM film is a thriller entitled Shortcut. The reason why I’d hold out the trash talk for the time being? Shortcut will be directed by Nicholaus Goosen, whose previous film was Grandma’s Boy; a pretty effing assured, laid back and original comedy if you actually saw it. Here’s the plot synopsis: “two brothers come upon a rarely used shortcut in their new town and soon discover the reasons why it’s so rarely used.” Sounds like Pet Sematary with a scary Penguin.

Stars include relative newbies like Adam Seeley, Shannon Woodward and Dave Franco (cameo in Superbad, Greek). Maybe it’s blind faith on my part, but I’m looking forward to what Goosen has in store. Filming commences next month.