There’s no luck of the Irish this March from Into The Dark, since Emma Tammi’s second directorial invitation is about shapeshifter folklore—St. Patrick’s Day was last year’s edition. With season 2 wrapping its slate, Hulu’s holiday horror anthology avoids any serious double-dipping by ignoring inebriated March madness for a second thematic instance. Adam Mason’s screenplay is more in line with last May’s Delivered (also Tammi), once again jeopardizing a mother-child relationship that’s consciously more heartfelt than other months doused in gore, humor, or approaches less dramatically dire. It’s Tammi’s wheelhouse dating back to The Wind, so why deviate? After a string of franchise lows, Blood Moon brings a little bite back into Blumhouse’s monthly program.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
After a pandemic-forced hiatus, Blumhouse and Hulu’s Into The Dark series returns and, to quote Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, “I miss the misery.” This February, Clara Aranovich’s Tentacles marks the first holiday horror feature-segment since July’s politically paranoid The Current Occupant. Into The Dark offers a tentacular Valentine’s Day tale of lust, mistrust, and rushing into romantic entanglement, written by Channel Zero scribe Alexandra Pechman with a co-story credit to Channel Zero and beyond’s Nick Antosca. So is it a welcome return to streamable monthly frights?
As I said, I miss the misery. Interpret accordingly.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
Last year’s fourth of July segment of Into The Dark was a fireworks display of nightmarish nationalism that distorted the “American Dream.” Gigi Saul Guerrero’s Culture Shock remains an anthology highlight, and frankly, not much across our country’s political landscape has changed since its air-date. If anything? Times are direr, primed for even scarier horror exploitations, but Julius Ramsay’s The Current Occupant doesn’t achieve the same commentary or patriotic frights. At times, we’re asked – purposeful or not – to sympathize with the President of the United States. Not something I’m willing to stomach at the moment.
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Into the Dark is a great idea – a year-long series of horror films, released monthly, with each installment focusing on a different holiday. What could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, lots of things, because the majority of the Into the Dark installments have been disappointing. But the trailer for the latest – The Current Occupant – looks incredibly promising, so fingers crossed the series got one right this time. See for yourself by watching the trailer below.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
In honor of June’s Pet Appreciation Week, Into The Dark’s latest feature has gone to the dogs (strap in, pun haters). From Tragedy Girls and Patchwork director Tyler MacIntyre comes Good Boy, which you might assume summons a canine werewolf (“werewoof”) based on trailer assessments. Not quite the case, as writers Aaron and Will Eisenberg rework butt-buddy comedy Bad Milo but with an emotional support pupper as the protective creature who kills on behalf of its host. It’s humorous, features plenty of “good boy” shots, and carries a certain animal-lover charm that’s properly twisted by blood-stained fur coats.
Also, Judy Greer isn’t shoved into an ancillary role. For this, we Greer stans adore Good Boy even more.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
As Into The Dark’s second season cycles through the calendar anew, it’s becoming apparent which months can withstand multiple cinematic iterations of the same holiday. December? Candy canes and Christmastime cadavers. October? Trick or treat terrorization. May? Chelsea Stardust already dared to question how far a matriarch’s devotion might reach in All That We Destroy, but there are plenty more maternal modifications that can reveal the horrors of motherhood. Emma Tammi’s Delivered, for example, takes a less-graphic frontierswoman’s swing at Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo Inside. More in-line with Tammi’s debut The Wind, which relies on atmosphere over action to sell the inherent fears of reproductive creation.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
While there’s no connective tissue between Into The Dark entries besides holiday jollies, last-last Christmas’ “Pooka” plushie became the program’s unofficial mascot. Blumhouse promotes the deviant plaything’s antics 24/7, including “Naughty Pooka’s” own Twitter profile, so its April resurrection comes with minimal surprise. Alejandro Brugués’ Pooka Lives is part deux in an ongoing saga, were creepypasta culture (retitled “eeriepasta”) rebirths the devil-toy in supernatural form. Think Slender-Man, think Mercy Black, except replace gangly businessmen or scarecrow fables with a pot-bellied, huggable murderer who takes a more freakish rabbit form.
Easter’s celebration of Jesus’ “he is risen!” miracle brings warped religion and forum-chat cultism to Hulu, given how Pooka Lives certainly isn’t satirizing Tax Day or any other monthly event-based sensations.
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Hulu’s Into the Dark has been putting out a new feature-length holiday-themed horror film every month, which is pretty impressive. And now they have their first sequel on their hands: Pooka Lives, a follow-up to Pooka, their first Christmas-themed film. Pooka Lives is definitely not Christmas-themed, though. The truth is, I have no idea what holiday it’s trying to represent. But it does feature Rachel Bloom as a crazy person who creates Pooka and then sets herself on fire, so that’s something. Watch the Pooka Lives trailer below.
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(Blumhouse Television and Hulu have partnered for a monthly horror anthology series titled Into The Dark, set to release a full holiday-themed feature every month. Horror anthology expert Matt Donato will be tackling the series one-by-one, stacking up the entries as they become streamable.)
This is an unpopular opinion, but Blumhouse and Hulu’s Into The Dark series reached one of its pinnacles last March with Treehouse. The maddened “Ides” unleashed pissed-off brujas in an attack against toxic masculinity, which is thematically relevant once again but hardly a tonal comparison point. Brandon Zuck’s Crawlers attempts an extraterrestrial doppelganger riff that takes place during a St. Patrick’s Day bar crawl, hopeful to rattle collegiate gender horrors. Very reminiscent of Dennis Iliadis’ +1 (Plus One) in terms of using the guise of substance fogginess to cover abnormal occurrences, if a bit more dimwitted and comparable to another anemic SYFY special.
Where Uncanny Annie found success in emphasizing teen-gauged sleepover screams, Crawlers struggles to be anything more than mediocre meteorite-bred panic. Not exactly something worth toasting.
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Blumhouse and Hulu’s Into the Dark is still plugging away, bringing you monthly holiday-themed horror. We’re in March now, which means it’s time for the St. Patrick’s Day-themed Crawlers. And nothing says “St. Patrick’s Day” like…uh…aliens, right? Because aliens are invading a small town in Crawlers, and it’s up to three friends to stop them. Watch the Crawlers trailer below.
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