Mr. and Mrs. Halloween have been enjoying the fun and sun of the summer season, and a lot has happened in the horror and Halloween community since we celebrated Halfway to Halloween. To catch you up on all the latest, here’s our summer Halloween and horror news round up. So grab a tall drink by the pool, and let’s get scary.

MOVIES

This summer, horror fans have been treated with the release of several new movies. We’ve spent the last few weekends at the local movie theater seeing new studio releases including The Shallows, The Conjuring 2, and The Purge: Election Year.

The Shallows was a breath of fresh air to the shark vs. man/aquatic horror subgenre that we’ve been dying for over the last few years. With excellent shark shots, a compelling lead performance from Blake Lively, and a scene stealing seagull, The Shallows plunged us right into the deep end of summer movie season and is the perfect film to get you in the mood for sun, surf, and terror.

The Conjuring 2 is exactly what you might expect it to be: familiar, filled with great scares, and a rival in comparison to the original. With James Wan back in the director’s chair and leads Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as the lovable, real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring 2 delivers more scares in the style of the first film and one hell of a terrifying demon nun.

The Purge: Election Year was an awesome time at the movies to say the least. The franchise continues its tradition of taking an intriguing concept to the next level with each installment and showing audiences how each group in our society would be impacted by such an event. We get another group of empathetic characters fighting against all odds to survive the annual Purge Night, but this time there’s a political component that closely mirrors the current political situation in our country. It’s filled with some excellent scares, haunting masks, and thought provoking ideas about politics, violence, and national pride.

In addition to the summer blockbusters, we caught some new streaming releases and reminisced with some old favorites.

We finally got to see The Invitation, a new film from Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body). This movie will reel you in and keep you guessing until the end. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters with suspect motivations, The Invitation will raise your suspicions and anxiety to an all time high as tension builds from the beginning until its chilling end. The movie also arouses ideas about our relationships with others and how we behave in extreme situations while still trying to conform to the social norms and etiquette expected in our society. An added bonus: The Invitation was recently added to Netflix.

Another Netflix offering we enjoyed was Manson Family Vacation from director J. Davis. Although I went in knowing very little and kept expecting it to turn into a horror film, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t what I expected, but it is definitely worth your time. Manson Family Vacation showcases genuine performances from Jay Duplass and Linas Phillips. Their characters’ unexpected understanding and empathy toward one another is a refreshing take on the brotherly dynamic and showcases the powerful bond and unconditional love we should all have for our family.

To honor the annual phenomenon of Shark Week, there was the obligatory shark movie marathon with Jaws, Jaws 2, and Jaws 3D. There’s never a bad excuse to revisit those classics. We still haven’t given Jaws 4: The Revenge a second viewing since childhood, but it’s on the list. We closed out the weekend with aquatic horror favorites, The Reef and Deep Blue Sea.

In celebration of the Fourth of July, we couldn’t help but put on our personal summertime favorite, I Know What You Did Last Summer. It’s got all of the summer staples: the beach, fireworks, and parades. Plus, you can’t beat that chase scene with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Doing our part to honor our American independence, we rewatched The Purge and The Purge: Anarchy. Inspired by the third installment in the franchise (The Purge: Election Year), it was inevitable that we’d revisit the first two films that introduced us to the world of the purge. Both films hold up and director James DeMonaco raises the stakes and expands upon the initial concept with each new film. We’re optimistic and look forward to future sequels since these films seem to only be getting better.

MOVIE NEWS

There’s been announcements for two new franchise installments coming in 2017: Saw: Legacy and Insidious: Chapter 4.

The first image of the new Pennywise from the the It remake was posted online. The film is set to be released on September 8, 2017.

Blumhouse gave us some extremely exciting news with the announcement of a new installment in the Halloween franchise. The best part? John Carpenter has officially signed on as a Creative Consultant and Executive Producer for the project. When asked about the upcoming sequel, Carpenter said: “Halloween needs to return to its traditions. I feel like the movies have gotten away from that… Michael is not just a human being; he’s a force of nature, like the wind. That’s what makes him so scary.”

For more information, check out Gregory Burkart’s article on Blumhouse.com.

While you’re there, check out the articles the excellent team of writers over at Blumhouse.com have been churning out. Headed up by Editor-in-Chief Rebekah McKendry, Blumhouse.com is a one stop, comprehensive source for all things scary. In addition to macabre stories from real life, they scrounge the dark realms of the web to find the latest horror news and uncover disturbing (yet undeniably interesting) content so you don’t have to. I’m loosely quoting Mrs. McKendry from a recent episode of their podcast which bring us to…

SHOCK WAVES PODCAST

A few months ago, I was introduced to a GeekNation podcast called Killer POV. Hosted by Rebekah McKendry, Rob Galluzzo, and Elric Kane, this podcast (to be a little dramatic) was life changing. In each episode, they’d discuss the recent films they’d seen and cover a plethora of horror-centered topics. Listening to this podcast made commuting to work significantly more enjoyable and added countless new films to the ever-growing “Must Watch” list. Listening to these guys is like talking with your friends about your favorite horror films… if your friends were all incredibly knowledgable, informed, and articulate.

When they announced that Killer POV was coming to an end, I was bumming pretty hard until they broke the news that McKendry, Galluzzo, and Kane would be returning to host an all new podcast presented by Blumhouse.com entitled Shock Waves.

The new podcast is everything a horror fan could wish for: discussions of both new films and beloved fan favorites, interviews with leaders and innovators in the industry, and a special “Pick of the Week” segment with Blumhouse Director of Development, Ryan Turek (former co-host of The BloodCast). To top it all off, the new show comes complete with badass theme music provided by Greg Burkart of the band CORVO.

If you haven’t listened to Killer POV, you have a lot of quality entertainment ahead, and be sure to subscribe to catch new episodes of Shock Waves and dive into the deep end of horror here.

TRAILERS

There has also been an abundance of intriguing horror movie trailers and news that’s gotten fans excited about all that’s to come in the next few months.

-Don’t Breathe (August 26, 2016)

This horror-thriller is getting a lot of buzz, and you can’t go wrong with horror alum Jane Levy (Evil Dead) in the cast.

–Ouija: Origin of Evil (October 21, 2016)

The trailer for this seems promising, and with Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush) directing, I’m sure this one will have plenty of scares.

-Lights Out (July 21, 2016)

The figure in this trailer seems reminiscent of some of the visuals in The Nightmare, so this film might inspire you to keep your lights on.

-31 (September 16, 2016)

We’ve been waiting on this one for a while. We’re fans of Zombie’s other films, so we’ll be in the theaters on opening weekend for this.

NETFLIX

The streaming service is offering a hefty serving of great horror films this summer. Here are a few titles that have been added over the past few weeks and some upcoming additions we’re excited for:

-Goosebumps (May 11th)

-They Look Like People (May 11th)

-We Are Still Here (May 15th)

–Slasher, Season 1 (May 17th)

-The Unborn (June 16th)

–The Girl in the Photographs (June 30th)

–Scooby Doo (July 1st)

-The Invitation (July 8th)

–Holidays (July 15th)

–The Wave (July 27th)

HALLOWEEN NEWS

In addition to all the horror films we’re looking forward to, there have also been some early announcements about the best holiday of the year.

Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood announced the return of Michael Myers for a haunted house called “Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield” (said to be inspired by Halloween II) at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. The 26th annual Halloween Horror Nights will run on select nights between September 16th and October 31st and will also feature themed haunted houses based on The Walking Dead, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Disneyland resort announced that there’d be a special addition to this year’s Halloween celebration. Each night, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow from Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad will ride through Mickey’s Halloween Party. In addition to this year’s special guest, park-goers can also trick or treat, walk through the Haunted Mansion, ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, and enjoy the “Halloween Screams” fireworks show. Mickey’s Halloween Party will run from September 9th through October 3rd. Tickets go on sale to the general public on July 28th.

What Halloween and horror news is getting you pumped for this year’s Halloween season? Share your updates with us below!

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