'Reunion': New Horror Movie From 'Ready Or Not' Filmmakers Combines A High School Reunion With A Shape-Shifting Monster
What's scarier than a high school reunion? How about a shape-shifting monster? Those two elements will combine in Reunion, the latest from Radio Silence, the filmmaking collective responsible for Ready or Not, and the upcoming Scream sequel/revival. The film finds old friends coming together for a high school reunion only to have to then deal with a creature that sounds straight out of John Carpenter's The Thing.
Deadline has the scoop on Reunion, a new film from the Radio Silence team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella, with a script by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. If you're not quite sure who they are, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett directed, Villella executive produced, and Busick and Murphy wrote the excellent 2019 horror-comedy Ready or Not. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are also directing the upcoming Scream movie, which Busick co-wrote with Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt. The Radio Silence team has also contributed segments to horror anthology films V/H/S and Southbound.
Scream just wrapped filming, which allows the team to jump into Reunion, set up at MGM. In the movie, "the horrific experience of high school reunions is taken to a new extreme when a group of uninspired old friends become the only hope for survival against an unwelcome shape-shifting creature." That kind of sounds like the teen-centric horror movie The Faculty, where high school kids had to battle shape-shifting aliens – only this time, the kids are all grown-up.
I've enjoyed everything I've seen from Radio Silence so far. Their V/H/S segment "10/31/98" is the best entry in that film, and I really dug their work on Southbound. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett also directed the 2014 horror film Devil's Due, which I'll confess I have yet to see. It has a somewhat alarming 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I'm a fan of these guys so I'll probably get around to checking it out should it ever show up on a streaming service like Shudder.
Based on all their work (that I've seen) so far, it's safe to assume that Reunion will have both humor and horror. And that's a tough combination to crack. There are many horror-comedies, but so many of them fail because they don't understand how to use both genres effectively. More often than not, they lean too far into the comedy side and forget all about the horror. Thankfully, Radio Silence knows just how to strike the right balance, which is why I continue to have faith – and interest – in their upcoming projects.