On this week’s episode of Collider Nightmares (August 22, 2025) Clarke Wolfe, Perri Nemiroff, Jon Schnepp, Mark Reilly will discuss the following:
FRESH MEAT
After months of positive buzz coming from the teaser trailer for directorAdam Wingardand writerSimon Barrett’slatest,The Woods, this weekend at San Diego Comic Con it was revealed that the Lionsgate release wasactually a sequel to the 1999 independent hitThe Blair Witch Project. The new movie is simply titledBlair Witch.
Not really a horror film but hailing from writer/ directorTi West, the filmmaker who brought youHouse of the DevilandThe Innkeepers’slatest is InA Valley of Violence, a violent-Western-dark comedy starringEthan HawkeandJohn Travolta. Produced by Blumhouse, the film will hit theaters this Octoberand fans have recently been treated to the first trailer.
AfterAlienscelebrated its 30th anniversary this weekend at Comic Con, fans are growing even more excited forRidley Scott’slatest, the sequel toPrometheustitledAlien: Covenant. StarMichael Fassbender, who has returned to work with Scott on the sequel, recently previewed the films tone,telling Collider’s own Frosty what fans can expectfor the movie, saying, “ It’s much scarier thanPrometheusbut it’s got the same sort of scope ofPrometheus. It’s kind of got more of the sort of thriller, imminent disaster feel that Alien had, so it’s kind of a beautiful meeting of both of those films. I’m really excited to see it, I think it’s gonna be super scary number one and then again with the massive scope of Prometheus… Once it starts and the ball starts rolling, it doesn’t let up. It’s really gonna bring chills to the cinema.”
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!
Stranger Things has become Netflix’s latest phenomenon. While a second season of the fan favorite following the kids of Hawkins, Indiana has not been officially announced as greenlit,The Duffer Brothersand their producers have been discussing a follow up to the series like it’s a done deal.Shawn Levy, who directed episodes alongside The Duffers, recently told /Film, “The answer is yes and yes. We definitely are hopeful to go several more seasons. And the plan is to continue with this set of characters while introducing a few critical key new ones next season. So I’ll just say that a lot of the big mysteries get answered at the end of Season 1, but we are very much kind of unearthing new problems and questions that merit future stories and future investigation in the most enjoyable way. So we are in love with our cast and our characters. The Duffers also told Variety that they have a “30-page document” explaining and outlining “The Upside Down” in more detail.
This week at Comic Con it was announced thatRihannawould be playing the iconic role of Marion Crane, originated byJanet Leigh, inAlfred Hitchcock’sPsychoon the fifth and final season ofBates Motel. Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin said they wanted wanted to thrust the iconic role into a contemporary spotlight and redefine it in a meaningful and exciting new way. They also heard Rihanna was a fan of the show, and since they were huge fans of hers, it was the perfect collision of creativity and fate.
Trailers were in no short supply this past weekend at Comic Con, and bothThe Walking DeadandFear The Walkingdead both posted quick looks at their upcoming seasons. WhileThe Walking Deaddidn’t show muchby way of new footage – not surprising considering the cliffhanger season six ended on earlier this year –Fear The Walking Deadpainted a pretty clear pictureof what was to come on the back half of season two. This includes introducing a new character, Luciana, played byDanay Garcia. Described as a “bad-ass soldier within her group,” the character may prove to challenge the audience’s relationships with the walkers, in that she sees them as the next step in human evolution, and perhaps she isn’t terribly scared of the undead. It won’t be a tame second half of the season, though, with showrunnerDave Ericksonsaying, “We’re going to see a level of violence and intensity in the second half that we haven’t seen before.”
JUMP SCARES
Earlier this month we saw a first look atBill Skarsgårdas the infamous nightmare creature, Pennywise the clown. In addition to weighing in on the make up, I’d like to put it to the panel: after a series likeStranger Thingscame to Netflix, where by all accounts the creators were given creative freedom to tell their story exactly how they like in addition toTrue Detective’sCary Fukunaga’svery public split with New Line over creative differences, is it at all possible for this movie to live up to audience expectations?
