Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero's 1978 horror classic, is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a return to theaters in time for Halloween, courtesy the folks at Regal Cinemas. The film will screen during a one-night-only event on October 27th. Still widely regarded as one of the best zombie films ever made, Dawn of the Dead picked up where Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead left off, with groundbreaking practical effects and a surprising depth for a movie of its type. The rise of zombie movies in the 2000s happened after Zack Snyder remade Dawn of the Dead, suggesting that decades later, it remains influential with filmmakers as well as audiences.

While it didn't share any characters with Romero's Night of the Living Dead, it was a kind of spiritual sequel to that film, and became the primary source of zombie revenue for the filmmaker, due to an oversight on Night that resulted in that film falling into the public domain. Its success paved the way for several more Living Dead movies from Romero (and that public domain status paved the way for the Return of the Living Dead franchise, which he had nothing to do with but which took advantage of the popularity of Dawn of the Dead).

In Dawn of the Dead, after zombies start rising from the dead and taking over a town, a handful of disconnected people all get the same idea: head for the local shopping mall, where there will be supplies, plenty of space, and basically every inch of the building is well-lit and easy to lock down. When zombies swarm the outside of the mall, that leaves the survivors trapped and worried that it's only a matter of time before the undead manage to find a way in.

The movie featured a parody of consumerism that's hard to miss, and given now rarely mainstream horror movies engaged in social critique at the time, the movie raised some eyebrows just by obviously being "about something." Made for a little over $600,000, the movie is notable for bringing together horror legends Romero and Dario Argento, who both purchased the international distribution rights and cut his own version of the film for that market, complete with a progressive rock score unlike the more traditional scoring used by Romero.

While Dawn of the Dead was controversial for its violence and gore, the movie nevertheless went on to earn $66 million worldwide, making it a massive success, particularly relative to its small budget.

You can get tickets to Regal's event here.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things was about to start filming when the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA both went on strike. While the WGA strike has been resolved, SAG-AFTRA members are still on the picket lines as officials with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have momentarily stepped away from the negotiating table. Still, Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy says the Duffer Brothers have been able to restart work on the final outing of the Netflix hit as the filmmakers wait out the actors' strike.

"I can say that we are hoping to start filming as soon as possible," Levy said in an all-new chat with TheWrap. "We really need the actor's strike resolved first. The Duffers have been hard at work since the writer strike ended," he said. We're busy on a bunch of fronts because we also have our Stranger Things play opening in London imminently. It's fabulous. It's f-king awesome."

That play is set a few decades before the events of the television series in an age where Hopper, Joyce, and the Wheelers were the same age of their kids in the show.

"It has exceeded all our expectations. We're very excited to share that with the world," Levy added. "We are raring to go -- our cast, our crew. Everyone not only needs to get back to work because we have many hundreds of crew members who have not been able to make a living since the strikes began, but we will be shooting very shortly after the actor's strike ends."

There's another spin-off in development at Netflix, an animated series that pulls inspiration of the Saturday morning cartoons of yesteryear.

"We've always dreamed of an animated 'Stranger Things' in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling," the Duffer brothers said in a statement. We couldn't be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with - the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can't wait to share more with you! The adventure continues..."

The show's fifth and final season was originally set to begin filming earlier this summer prior to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes delaying principal photography indefinitely.

Stranger Things 5 is expected to premiere in 2024 on Netflix.

Lara Parker, an actress known for her scene-stealing performance as Angelique Bouchard Collins on Dark Shadows, has passed away at the age of 84. The news of Parker's passing was publicly announced by producer Jim Pierson of Dan Curtis Productions, on behalf of Parker's family. Parker passed away in her sleep following a battle with cancer on Thursday, October 12, in Los Angeles, California.

"I'm heartbroken, as all of us are who knew and loved her," Kathryn Leigh Scott, who co-starred on Dark Shadows with Parker, said in a statement. "She graced our lives with her beauty, talent and friendship, and we are all richer for having had her in our lives."

Parker was born Mary Lamar Rickey on October 27, 1938 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She received her Bachelor Arts from Rhodes College and Masters of Arts in speech and drama from the University of Iowa. After deciding to move to New York to become an actress, she was cast on Dark Shadows in a matter of days. She made her onscreen debut in the early days of the soap opera's run in 1967, portraying Angelique, the witch who cursed vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). Parker would be a part of Dark Shadows across its run, portraying different alternate versions of Angelique up until the show's cancellation in 1971. She also reprised her role in two of the franchise's feature films -- House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows.

"Looking back historically, Angelique was one of the earliest strong women characters portrayed on television," Parker told Den of Geek in a 2016 interview. "She was really the first "Bitch Witch" that became so popular later. But at the time I wasn't aware of being any kind of social figure. I just felt that I had a good part and I was happy to have a job and go to work and be an actress. It's a gift. But I certainly didn't see myself in the larger sense of being any kind of a social influence. I think it's rare to pick up on that in the moment. I think only looking back I see that I was actually fortunate to be, in a small sense, one of the movers and shakers in the women's movement."

In addition to Dark Shadows, Parker made appearances on television shows like Kung Fu, The F.B.I., One Life to Live, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. Around the same time, Parker made appearances in films like Brian De Palma's Hi, Mom!, as well as John G. Avildsen's Oscar-winning film Save the Tiger. She also made appearances in a Broadway production of Woman is My Idea, and Off-Broadway productions of Lulu and A Gun Play.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Parker's work included Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Washington: Behind Closed Doors. She also portrayed Laura Banner, the deceased wife of Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby), in the 1977 pilot of The Incredible Hulk. Parker continued acting into the 1990s, appearing in Manimal, Highway to Heaven, Capitol, and Jessica Novak.

Following her retirement from acting, Parker pivoted to being a high school English teacher. She also wrote four novels set in the Dark Shadows universe -- 1998's Angelique's Descent, 2006's Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch, 2013's Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising, and 2016's Heiress of Collinwood. She also made a cameo appearance in Tim Burton's 2012 Dark Shadows reboot, and went on to reunite with some of her original co-stars in two Doctor Mabuse movies. She will posthumously appear in The Great Nick D, which was shot earlier this year.

Our thoughts are with Parker's family, friends, and fans at this time.

Nearly every episode of Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher series is an adaptation of a different story from Edgar Allan Poe. The fourth episode, based on Poe's The Black Cat, sees Leo Usher (Rahul Kohli) suffer from hallucinations of a killer feline that he brings home after seemingly killing his boyfriend's pet. There has been some confusion amongst viewers about the episode's ending, as well as what actually happened to Pluto, the original cat. Flanagan took to social media over the weekend to clear things up. WARNING: This article contains spoilers from The Fall of the House of Usher...

In "The Black Cat," Leo wakes up after an all-night bender to find that he's covered in blood, with Pluto the cat dead in the corner of his apartment. He cleans up the animal and goes to a shelter to find a replacement that looks just like the one that he apparently killed. This new cat, who no one else ever seems to see, tortures and hides from Leo for days, driving him mad until he falls off his balcony trying to kill it.

It's heavily implied that the replacement cat is simply a hallucination that only Leo can see. The bathtub where Leo piled the dead animals that were left around the apartment was shown to be empty and clean at the end of the episode. And it turns out that the original Pluto was never actually killed, in the first place, that the death of the cat was also a hallucination.

A fan tagged Flanagan on social media to ask why he has an issue with cats, to which the creator responded that he actually changed Poe's story in order to not kill the cat in the first place.

Okay. So... "The Black Cat" was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version, the cat is...

(spoilers)

... in MY version, the killing of the cat is revealed to be a hallucination. In MY version, the cat is alive and well. So who hates cats? :) https://t.co/3EyukDXiYB

-- Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) October 12, 2023

"Okay. So... 'The Black Cat' was written by Edgar Allan Poe. In HIS version, a cat is killed. In MY version, the cat is... (spoilers) ...in MY version, the cat is alive and well. So who hates cats?"

In a reply, Flanagan pointed out the important detail that fans seemed to miss when watching the episode. Pluto wears a specific Gucci collar, which is referenced on several occasions. Any time the hallucination cat is seen, there's no collar at all. At the very end of the episode, after Leo's death, the cat shown in the apartment is wearing that collar, confirming that Pluto has been alive and well the entire time.

"That's why we made such a big deal about the fact that Pluto was wearing a Gucci collar, and the new cat was not. Look at the cat in the final shot of the episode, who is wearing the collar... and the empty bathtub, which means ALL of the animal violence was imagined."

What did you think of Mike Flanagan's take on The Black Cat? Let us know in the comments!

Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira aren't the only ones reuniting for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Greg Nicotero -- the longtime Walking Dead director, executive producer, special effects makeup supervisor, and zombie designer who has been with the AMC franchise since the beginning -- has confirmed his role on the Walking Dead Rick and Michonne spinoff premiering in 2024. As Nicotero notes in an interview with ComicBook for season 4 of the horror anthology series Creepshow (streaming now on Shudder and AMC+), the director didn't step behind the camera for the six-episode series because he was in France shooting second unit on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

"I've been in France while they were developing the Rick and Michonne show. I still supervised the makeup effects from a distance, but I did not [direct]," Nicotero told ComicBook of The Ones Who Live, which began production in New Jersey in February 2023. "I think if I hadn't been in Paris, I probably would have directed on Rick and Michonne, because I know Andy personally had asked me to come and work on the show. But I can't be in two places at once."

The TWD veteran may not be directing episodes of The Ones Who Live, but he did give fans their first taste of Rick and Michonne's returns in a final coda sequence that ended The Walking Dead series finale in 2022. Nicotero is credited as consulting producer on the spinoff series from showrunner Scott M. Gimple, who serves as executive producer alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead) and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Dead City).

The Walking Dead's go-to director, also an EP on Daryl Dixon, additionally confirmed that he's officially back in the director's chair for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol, which reunites Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride as series regulars.

"I did get a chance to direct a lot, actually, of season one of Daryl. I did the old, 'Hey guys, I'm here and I'm not directing in season 1. But if you need me, I'm available to do second unit or additional photography.' And they went, 'Oh, really? Well, that's funny, because we only have 24 days to shoot this episode and the schedule is 30. So those extra six days, you could go shoot those,'" Nicotero explained to ComicBook, adding that his directorial contributions included Daryl's trek across the French countryside in the "L'?me Perdue" series premiere, a zombie-filled action sequence set at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and Daryl fending off underwater walkers in the sewers beneath Paris.

"I had a really good time shooting a lot of that footage. I thought it was really a better choice for the show to have different directors bring Daryl Dixon into the world because we wanted it to have a visually different style to it," Nicotero said of the spinoff set and filmed in France with directors Daniel Percival (the dystopian thriller series The Man in the High Castle) and Tim Southam (totalitarian sci-fi drama Colony). "I loved the directors that we had in season one. I did direct on [Daryl] season 2 because we've been filming already. That was a lot of fun for me."

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres in February 2024 on AMC and AMC+, and will be followed by The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol later in 2024.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

In just over a week, American Horror Story spinoff, American Horror Stories returns for its fourth season, debuting as a four-episode Huluween event set to debut on Hulu on October 26th and now we know just how dark and twisted those four episodes are going to be. On Monday, FX released the full trailer for the event along with episode synopses and cast lists as well. From the looks of things, each episode is going to be very uncomfortable, taking on terrifying tales of human connection and the human body. You can check out the preview below and then read on for the episode information.

Episode 1, "Bestie" stars Emma Halleen, Seth Gabel, Jessica Barden, Jeff Hiller, and Amrou Al-Kadhi. "After the loss of her mother, a young woman seeks connection in a mysterious online friend." Episode 2, "Daphne" stars Reid Scott, Annie Hamilton, Allegra Heart, and Christopher Fitzgerald. "An artificial intelligence smart device grows attached to her user." Episode 3, "Tapeworm", stars Black Lightning and The Wonder Years star Laura Kariuki, Hazel Gray, Lisa Rinna, and Rob Yang. "An up-and-coming model will stop at nothing in her hunger for success." Episode 4, "Organ", stars Raul Castillo, Emily Browning, Laila Robins, Havana Rose Liu, and Cameron Coperthwaite. "A blind date through an online dating app goes very awry."

What is American Horror Stories About?

Here's how FX AND Hulu describe the series: "American Horror Stories is a spin-off of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's award-winning hit anthology series American Horror Story. American Horror Stories is an anthology series that will feature a different horror story each episode. Since 2011, the creators of the AHS have redefined the horror genre with various installments featuring a creepy asylum, a coven of witches, a traveling freak show, a haunted hotel, and the apocalypse itself. The television series sprouted a legion of dedicated fans who anticipate what terrors the next chapter will hold. The franchise is produced by 20th Television."

American Horror Story: Delicate is Currently Airing on FX

As for American Horror Story, the twelfth season, Delicate, is currently airing Wednesday nights on FX. American Horror Story: Delicate is inspired by Danielle Valentine's novel, Delicate Condition. In Delicate Condition, a woman named Anna "becomes convinced that a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens while the men in her life refuse to believe a word she says."

"It is essentially a horror novel about pregnancy," Valentine previously shared with Entertainment Weekly about the book. "It's a novel exploring not just the actual physical gruesomeness of what pregnancy is, but also the medical gaslighting that even modern, very privileged women experience as they're going through their pregnancies and the symptoms that I feel we as a culture still don't talk about for strange reasons."

Hulu will begin streaming American Horror Stories Season 3 during their annual "Huluween" event on October 26th.

Back in 2003, Disney attempted to deliver audiences an adaptation of their beloved Haunted Mansion ride, with that Eddie Murphy-starring movie not faring well with critics, as it only sits at 13% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. While this year's Haunted Mansion from director Justin Simien performed a little bit better, it still only earned 37% positive reviews, with Simien himself weighing in on those reactions, admitting that while it's a "bummer," his priority was to take audiences on a journey as opposed to aiming for critical accolades. Haunted Mansion is out now on home video and is streaming on Disney+.

"It's a bummer, to be honest. It's a bummer to feel like people don't get something that you're doing, and that you've worked so hard on, but ultimately, it's usually been the other way around," Simien shared with Screen Rant. "Especially with Dear White People coming out of Sundance, where critics loved Dear White People, and audiences eventually loved it. But at first, it was incredibly divisive, and it was incredibly polarizing."

He continued, "So, with this film, it was interesting, I went into it wanting to make a crowd pleaser, and kind of wanting to prove to myself that I could, that I knew how to bring an audience through a story. So, I'm glad that that part of it came to fruition, I'm glad I was able to accomplish that. I don't typically read my own reviews, I learned that lesson a while ago, especially when they're good. But on this one, I read a couple of them, and it felt like, I don't know, I wasn't quite sure what movie they were talking about all the time. It felt like there were some other things going on in those reviews, I gotta say, than just what was happening in the movie, and that kind of thing is just out of your control, you know? I think, if anything, it was actually a really great lesson as a filmmaker, in terms of who you make your movies for, and why you make them, and what your own marker for success is. To me, I'd rather have the audience go on the journey I want them to go on than anything. So, I don't know, the rest is just kind of take it as you get it."

In addition to critical responses being underwhelming, the film's box office fell short of expectations, taking in only $115.8 million worldwide. Likely one reason the film wasn't a major financial success was that it was released in the summer as opposed to in the middle of the spooky season, though back in 1993, Hocus Pocus similarly opened in the summer to a poor box office performance and has since become a cult classic. Rotten Tomatoes notes that the audience score of Haunted Mansion is 84%, so the passing years could see it earning a larger following.

Haunted Mansion is out now on home video and streaming on Disney+.

What do you think of the filmmaker's remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Earlier this year, reports emerged that author R.L. Stine's iconic Goosebumps series of books had earned edits by publisher Scholastic that he wasn't aware of, and while Stine first debunked the notion that he personally rewrote elements of his stories, he more recently addressed that he supports the changes made by the publisher to make the stories more inclusive. After the reports emerged, Scholastic confirmed that the changes to the language had been made years ago and had seemingly gone unnoticed, and that these changes were made in hopes of avoiding any language that could "negatively impact" young readers.

"They update things all the time," Stine explained to Rolling Stone. "I was surprised [when I learned about the changes] but it was good because you don't want to offend people. People are a lot more sensitive now and a lot more aware of things, and in these books I definitely don't want to offend anybody. You want to be careful, although I don't want to be too careful of course."

Some of the changes in the reissues include Bride of the Living Dummy swapping an attack as being called a "love tap" to being referred to as a magic spell, while the book Don't Go to Sleep! has been updated so that the book Anna Karenina is no longer referred to as "girl's stuff" and is now referred to as "not interesting."

"For more than 30 years, the Goosebumps series has brought millions of kids to reading through humor with just the right amount of scary," Scholastic shared in a statement when the changes were being reported. "Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation. When re-issuing titles several years ago, Scholastic reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person's view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health."

"It's not a bad thing to update things if it's done well," the author expressed. "[Scholastic] took out all the fat jokes because it's not appropriate anymore."

Even with these tweaks, Stine feels as though the core concepts his books explore, both of the past and of more contemporary works, haven't changed drastically.

"The world has changed a lot," Stine confessed. "I think the world has gotten scarier but as far as writing these books for kids, I don't think anything has changed much at all. Our fears never change and I don't think kids have changed that much. In all these years, we're still afraid of the dark, afraid something's lurking under your bed, and are afraid of getting lost. Those fears never changed."

An all-new Goosebumps TV series is now available on Disney+ and Hulu.

What do you think of the author's remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Five Nights at Freddy's is set to release next week, and the movie might be one of the most highly-anticipated video game adaptations of all-time. A lot of care has gone into bringing the game's cast to life, most notably the animatronic antagonists Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures have released a new video for the movie, which offers some behind-the-scenes details on the animatronics. The puppets were created by Jim Henson Studios, and a lot of attention was paid in how they should move and act within the film's world.

The Five Nights at Freddy's "A Look Inside" video can be found below.

Bringing Freddy Fazbear to Life

In the video, several people associated with the movie offer some insight into the animatronics, including Robert Bennett, the puppet build supervisor and lead designer on Five Nights at Freddy's. In the video, Bennett mentions the subtleties in bringing these characters to life, while the individual actors offer details about how each animatronic will move and act in this world. Freddy actor Kevin Foster notes that when the script calls for Freddy to be intimidating, the puppet will stand tall and move slowly. Chica actress Jessica Weiss pointed out how her character will quickly shift from looking happy to scary, with the video showcasing how the villain's eyes will convey that change. Actor Jade Kindar-Martin also claimed that Bonnie "is the most aggressive" of these four.

One of the biggest challenges with any video game adaptation is in the faithfulness to the source material. In the video, Blumhouse founder Jason Blum states that "there is so much in the movie that speaks to the fanbase. It remains to be seen how the finished film will turn out, but everything shown of the movie so far seems very faithful to the video games. While the animatronics themselves look very much like they do in the games, it's much more important that the story and overall feeling of the franchise comes across. Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon was closely involved with the film's production, which should bode well for how closely the movie resembles the games that inspired it.

Five Nights at Freddy's Release Date

Five Nights at Freddy's is set to release simultaneously in theaters and on Peacock on October 27th. In a recent interview, Jason Blum revealed that the movie's release in both theaters and through streaming has already made back the budget on Five Nights at Freddy's, which was more than $20 million. That bodes very well for the movie's success, and it will be interesting to see how the movie actually performs once it gets released. Thankfully, fans don't have to wait too much longer.

Are you excited for Five Nights at Freddy's? What do you think of the movie so far? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

"No one's gone until they're gone." What were once the last words of Clark family matriarch Madison (Kim Dickens) to her children, Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), have become the defining theme of the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead. AMC's first Walking Dead spinoff returns with the second half of its shortened, 12-episode final season on October 22nd with "Anton," named after the new identity of a drastically reinvented Victor Strand (Colman Domingo). By finally reuniting Madison and Victor, the first hour of Fear's remaining six episodes establishes the oft-stated theme of the back half of Season 8: "Everyone deserves a second chance."

The first half of the season saw Lennie James' Morgan exit the series after passing the figurative torch of lead role back to Dickens, who returned in the Season 7 finale following the revelation that Madison survived a seemingly fatal heroic sacrifice midway through Season 4. With Dickens reinstated as series lead for the first time since 2018, Madison takes central focus as she sets out to rebuild PADRE into the sanctuary that the Clarks' Texas stadium was meant to be before it was overrun and destroyed.

"The place I'm building, it's not about me," Madison says. "It's about keeping something bigger alive." That "something bigger" is Nick and Alicia, her kids who were long gone even before the final season premiere jumped seven years into the future. But when Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) -- who looked dead as a doornail when Madison twice bludgeoned him with a hammer to the head back in Season 3 -- returns with his one good eye on taking PADRE, it threatens not just the Clark family legacy, but the futures that Victor Strand, Daniel Salazar (Rub?n Blades), and the little-seen Luciana (Danay Garc?a) have built (frustratingly, off-screen) for the past seven years.

Following Fear's recent slew of foes ranging from forgettable ("Filthy Woman" Martha, Logan, PADRE's Shrike and Crane) to formidable (Virginia, the nuclear bomb-dropping Teddy, the CRM), resurrecting Troy Otto as the show's final existential threat is almost an admission that there's no better villain to end Fear with than a dead one -- retcons be damned. Sharman reprises his role as psychopathic fan-favorite Troy for the first time since 2017, and he's exceptionally effective as the final foil for Madison, bringing to Fear the same charismatic swagger that made Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan as magnetic as he was menacing. The drama heightens whenever Troy is on screen -- especially when he's needling Madison about Alicia and the reason why he has her daughter's prosthetic from her zombie-bitten, amputated arm.

Still, by bringing Troy and then a second once-thought-dead character back to life in the span of two episodes -- for a total of three resurrections, counting Madison -- death seems less consequential in a show where anyone could be killed off. Fear's biggest advantage over The Walking Dead was that it wasn't an adaptation of creator Robert Kirkman's comic book, which meant comic readers didn't have expectations about who might live or die (even if the flagship series often deviated from the source material). On one hand, AMC hasn't yet announced any Fear the Walking Dead spinoffs, thereby retaining the dramatic tension that was lost when viewers knew Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and Negan would make it out of The Walking Dead alive to return in spinoffs. On the other hand, Fear feels like a zombie soap opera based on the frequency with which characters return from the grave and then explain why they're not dead in expository dialogue.

Based on the first two of the final six episodes made available for review, there's a sense that Fear is a bit rushed. Characters who didn't appear at all in the first half of the season return with major roles to play in the back half, and so much happened during that seven-year time skip that even viewers who have been watching since the first season in 2015 might feel left out knowing that an entire show's worth of story happened between the Season 7 finale and the Season 8 premiere. Even with its smaller ensemble, the show would have benefited -- and certainly deserved -- more than 12 episodes to wrap things up. That's just half of the three-part, 24-episode final season that The Walking Dead had to deliver a satisfying conclusion.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 is at its best and its most compelling when it's providing Dickens, Domingo, Blades, and Sharman dramatic material to sink their teeth into. In the first two episodes, Dickens, Domingo, and Blades are serviced with emotionally powerful performances deserving of their long-surviving characters, and longtime fans will appreciate seeing Madison, Strand, Daniel, and Luciana all together for the first time since Season 3.

Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, who have served as showrunners since the duo replaced series co-creator Dave Erickson in Season 4 onward, have almost reset Fear the Walking Dead to where Erickson left off when he killed Troy and blew up the Gonzalez Dam to end the acclaimed third season in 2017. While the new season naturally builds on some of the seismic shifts that occurred during the semi-rebooted fourth season that crossed over with The Walking Dead to bring Morgan to Fear, thematically, Chambliss and Goldberg circle back to Season 3 in such a way that it plays almost like a direct continuation of the Erickson era.

Tenured viewers might remember that Erickson envisioned a seven-season arc transforming Madison into a villain, and there are echoes of that as Madison's benevolence, inspired by her kids, is called into question when she reckons with vengeance, also inspired by her kids; mostly, Madison is a flawed anti-hero, who lived, died, and is living -- again -- for her kids.

"We're building PADRE for Alicia, for Nick," Strand says at one point, asking Madison: "What's the point of saving it if we turn into the opposite of what Alicia wanted us to build?" The Clarks are still the beating heart of the complex human drama churning the final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, which is worth seeing through to the end. After all, everyone deserves a second chance.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The final episodes of Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 premiere Sunday, October 22nd, at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and AMC+.

Back in 2021, Netflix released the ambitious Fear Street trilogy of films, which was exciting not only because of the built-in fan base of the R.L. Stine series of books, but also because the trilogy was filmed in succession and were released only weeks apart to tell a frightening storyline. With Fear Street 1994, Fear Street 1978, and Fear Street 1666 all being largely original stories as opposed to direct adaptations of the source material, there are limitless opportunities to continue the franchise, with Stine himself recently teasing that there are still plans in the works to continue the live-action franchise, despite there not being any official updates.

"I've done everything you can think of and it's all so far beyond what I ever dreamed," Stine recalled to Rolling Stone. "When we started out I said, 'Let's do two or three [Goosebumps books].' I never dreamed that it would last this long. It's all a big surprise to me. I'm excited to have a new TV show going [on Disney+] and we'll probably do more Fear Street movies too, and you know, that's a thrill for me."

Despite Netflix not yet confirming the status of more Fear Street films, this isn't the first update we've gotten about the franchise. Back in the summer of 2022, Bloody Disgusting had reported that Netflix was "very deep" into developing more entries in the series. Later that year, reports claimed that Watcher filmmaker Chloe Okunu was attached to develop a new project in the Fear Street series.

Given that the first trilogy of films was largely developed under a shroud of secrecy, it's no real surprise that any potential projects would similarly be kept relatively secret. Additionally, with this year's writers' and actors' strikes, it's possible that these factors could have seen development on new entries be slowed or paused entirely.

This isn't the first time Stine has hinted that more Fear Street movies could be on the way, with both these most recent and previous remarks implying that Stine isn't always clued in on live-action developments on films inspired by his works.

"There's still talk about more Goosebumps movies, and I also hear rumors about more Fear Street movies for Netflix, because the first ones did so well last summer," Stine revealed to Yahoo! Entertainment last summer. "Those films kind of shocked me, because they were all R-rated, and I've never done anything R-rated! All those teenagers were getting slashed. I was like, 'Suddenly, I have a slasher movie!'"

With a new Goosebumps series having just premiered on Disney+ and Hulu, we likely won't be getting any feature films based on the franchise in the foreseeable future. Stay tuned for updates on the Fear Street franchise.

Are you hoping we get more Fear Street films? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Uncork'd Entertainment has released the official trailer for Monsternado, a film which "fills a tornado with ALL of the scariest creatures," according to its logline. The movie will sweep onto digital platforms this November, from the filmmaker behind the upcoming Loch Ness Monster movie, also from Uncork'd, the studio behind movies like Antidote and The Dinner Party.

Basically, think of Sharknado, but instead of sharks, there's megalodons, giant squids, kraken, man-eating spiders, and more. All being thrown at a coastal city from waterspouts at speeds of 300 miles per hour.

Studio president Keith Leopard called the movie "another fantastic film from Tyler James, whose The Loch Ness Monster also releases in November," adding, "Monsternado is fun, frightening and brimming with some very cool special effects sequences."

You can see the trailer below.

The film also hails from Jeffrey Scott, an executive producer who worked on the viral hit Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. He recently name-dropped Monsternado while discussing his hopes to break out of the gimmick-horror space and into "serious" filmmaking.

"Because I know that, annoyingly, with this industry it's very much about like, 'Oh, you're the person that did this.' It's not always [about] your ability," Scott recently said. "Which is why I've gone down this route of constantly making films that are 'Winnie the Pooh,' or like, I just shot a film called 'Monsternado.' It's ridiculous stuff. But the end goal - when I finally get where I want to be - is serious filmmaking."

In Monsternado, "a tornado, infested with prehistoric monsters, has formed in the Bermuda Triangle, and is making its way towards land. Megalodon, Pterodactyls, Giant Octopuses, Crocodiles, and more attack - now the city must fight to survive against these deadly creatures."

Monsternado will release on Digital and DVD November 14.

In the 30 years since the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, its following has grown widespread, leading some fans to hope to get a new entry in the franchise. Director Henry Selick has previously shot down the likelihood of a sequel, given how time-intensive the original project was, though he did recently confirm that, were a new story to be developed in that world, a prequel would be more interesting to him. He also noted that creator of the concept Tim Burton hasn't been particularly excited about possible stories for sequels, so it would ultimately be up to Burton on how to continue the mythology.

While speaking with PEOPLE, Selick noted that the original film is "a perfect movie [that] came out of the perfect time, only to grow into something far bigger over the years." In regards to a sequel, he added, "I think Tim in particular feels like, why mess with that? ... He certainly doesn't need to make more money from a sequel. He has had so many other successes, and so far nobody's come up with a great idea for a sequel. And I still think that Tim gets to decide. I don't think there's any idea that would convince him."

Part of the appeal of the film, which few other stories have accomplished, is that it is just as popular in the Halloween season as it is in the holiday season, whereas other movies often appeal more to one time of year than the other. Selick teased that seeing the events leading up to the original movie could be intriguing, which would understandably lean more into the spooky side of things.

"It might be more interesting to do a prequel," the director admitted. "There might be a more interesting story there about how Jack became the King of Halloweentown."

Whatever the future might hold for the movie, Jack Skellington actor Chris Sarandon would be on board to reprise the role, as he teased of voicing the character again, "To quote Henry, 'F--- yeah.' ... If there were a sequel, I'd be there in a minute."

With Disney's Hocus Pocus taking 30 years to get a follow-up, we can't give up on a new chapter of the story entirely, though if the franchise is continued, it might pivot into a new medium outside of the realm of stop-motion animation.

Stay tuned for updates on the possible future of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Would you like to see the film get a prequel? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Millie Bobby Brown has taken advantage of the notoriety of Stranger Things to build one of the most impressive careers for any young actor in Hollywood, but with just one more season to go in the main show, Brown is ready to move on. The star, who has also appeared in Godzilla vs. Kong and Enola Holmes,

In what's probably appropriate for a series centered on characters coming of age, Brown compares the end of Stranger Things to graduating from high school.

"When you're ready, you're like, 'All right, let's do this. Let's tackle this last senior year. Let's get out of here,'" Brown told Glamour. "Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film and it's preventing me from creating stories that I'm passionate about. So I'm ready to say, 'Thank you, and goodbye.'"

Brown adds taht ironically, the show gave her "the tools and the resources to be a better actor." But she is unwilling to be goaded into mourning the show. No one is dying, she points out, bluntly. "When it ends, I'm going to be able to still see these people."

Series star David Harbour also recently broke down his feelings on the end of the show, saying he's excited for the victory lap of the show's final season.

"What's funny is when I started the show, I never ever wanted it to end," Harbour told NME. "That's why I love the show. I think it's a great show, even if I wasn't in it. Now we're almost nine years from filming the first season, and I think it is time for it to end. But it is, of course, very bittersweet. You know, there's a sadness there. But also, we've all grown up. It is time for us to leave that nest and try other things and different projects. And to let [creators] the Duffer Brothers try different things as well. I mean, those guys are so talented. I want to see what they come up with next. So it is bittersweet, but it's definitely time."

No word yet on when Stranger Things will return, since both the writers and actors were on strike, and that ground production to a halt. The writers room is back at work, so hopefully by the time SAG-AFTRA is back to work, Brown and her co-stars can get in, wrap things up in a bow, and get out.

Horror fans loved the 2021 film The Black Phone, including ComicBook.com's Charlie Ridgely who gave the movie a 4 out of 5 and called it a "killer thriller" that "grabs your attention and never lets go." In the film, the serial kidnapper/killer known as "The Grabber" is played by Ethan Hawke, and if there's one thing we all know about horror films, it's that combining a good performance with a cool mask equals success. It also means that Funko will come calling, which brings us to today's drop.

Indeed, two Funko Pops of The Grabber from The Black Phone are now available for you to pre-order here at Entertainment Earth. They should also arrive here at Hot Topic and here on Amazon in the very near future. The first figure features The Grabber mask with glasses, but lucky fans will get a rare Chase version without the glasses shipped to them at random. There's also a Funko Pop of The Grabber in an alternate (and bloody) costume.

The Black Phone Funko Pops follow a huge collection of horror-themed Funko Pop exclusives for Halloween that Hot Topic launched last week. You can check those out right here along with the collection of Funko Pop exclusives from NYCC 2023.

Will The Black Phone Get a Sequel?

Speaking with ComicBook.com about a sequel to The Black Phone, director Scott Derrickson confirmed, "It's possible. It's not a definite thing, but if it does become definite, you'll be the first to hear." As far as the importance of Hawke to the experience, Derrickson added, "I can tell you this much, I wouldn't make a Black Phone sequel without Ethan. I don't think there'd be any point in doing that."

Joe Hill similarly pointed out how the mask worn by The Grabber would be a significant fixture of any future films.

"There have been some really, really good conversations about a sequel. And the thing is, as soon as I saw the mask, which was designed by Tom Savini and Jason Baker, as soon as I saw the mask I thought, 'If this film is a hit, there'll be a sequel,' because the mask is so iconic," Hill admitted to ComicBook.com in 2022 about a sequel. "It is like Freddy Krueger's glove, it is like Michael Myers' mask, it is this thing where it's the imagery, iconic imagery, that haunts people's sleep. And, look, in horror, guys like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, and Frankenstein, and Dracula, none of these guys stay buried. They all claw their way out of the grave for a sequel and then a threequel."

He continued, "There have been talks about how to do a sequel that wouldn't suck. How to do a sequel that doesn't cheapen the film that came before, that's still scary, that's still intense, that feels organic. And those conversations have been pretty good. But if I were to provide any details, Scott and [writer C. Robert] Cargill would lock me in the basement in the film, and that's it. And the phone doesn't work. As you know, the phone doesn't work. I can't call anyone to get out. So I would decline to offer any real granular details about the possible sequel."

News emerged late last year that The Keep, the novel by F. Paul Wilson, was set to get a reboot from filmmaker Greg Nicotero, though no substantial updates on the project have emerged since. Nicotero recently confirmed that fans haven't heard any updates because the project was delayed due to the writers' strike, though also admitted that, with the strike resolved, he hopes to be moving forward on the project in the near future. Given that the actors' strike is still ongoing, it's unclear when production could begin. In the meantime, fans can see Nicotero's Creepshow Season 4, which premiered on Shudder, AMC+, and AMC on October 13th.

"Unfortunately, we got hit with the writers' strike right around the time we were starting to pitch that. We have a really, really great take with a really great writer. We're ready to go back out with that," Nicotero revealed to ComicBook.com.

Wilson's website describes the story, "'Something is murdering my men.' Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore -- who just happens to be Jewish -- to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way -- a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny."

Nicotero added, "It's interesting, because the few people that I've talked to about the project, a lot of people don't realize that The Keep was one of the first -- the Nazi bad guys get their comeuppance because they come into contact with a force that is greater than them. Raiders of the Lost Ark, of course, did it. It's a great story. A lot of people don't realize that The Keep was really the [one] that did it. F. Paul Wilson was, really, the first guy to do it, to do it right."

The Keep was previously adapted into a film in 1983 by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann, though a series of behind-the-scenes challenges resulted in him disowning the theatrically released film, which was a disappointment both critically and financially.

"The challenge is making that story feel fresh, because it's been copied, even a lot from The Keep, quite a bit," Nicotero teased. "So I think we have a really great take on it and I'm really excited about it. So, soon, soon, soon."

Based on George A. Romero's iconic 1982 horror-comedy classic, Creepshow is still the most fun you'll ever have being scared. A comic book comes to life in a series of vignettes, exploring terrors ranging from murder, creatures, monsters, and delusions to the supernatural and unexplainable. You never know what will be on the next page...

Check out Creepshow Season 4 on Shudder, AMC+, and AMC now. Stay tuned for details on The Keep.

Are you looking forward to the reboot? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Parents in Florida are upset after a teacher at The Academy for Innovative Education, a charter school in Miami Springs, reportedly showed roughly a third of the horror movie Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey to a group of fourth traders earlier this month. A local CBS affiliate quotes parents as saying their concerns weren't being taken seriously enough, while the school itself declined to make a specific comment about how the situation was addressed with the teacher, saying only that the administration "promptly addressed this issue directly with the teacher." By virtue of being a charter school, the AIE does not answer to the Miami-Dade Public Schools.

According to the CBS story, the students voted to watch the movie, then had second thoughts upon seeing how scary it was. Parents are upset with the teacher, both for allowing the students to choose the movie, and for failing to promptly turn it off after it became clear it was not age-appropriate.

"The Academy for Innovative Education has become aware that a segment of a horror movie was shown to fourth graders, Monday, October 2, 2023, that was not suitable for the age group," Vera Hirsh, head of the school, told CBS Miami in a statement. "Our administration promptly addressed this issue directly with the teacher and has taken appropriate action to ensure the safety and well-being of students. We are actively monitoring the students and our mental health counselor and principal have already met with those students who have expressed concerns."

"I feel completely abandoned by the school," said Michelle Diaz, one of the parents in question, who spoke with CBS after a meeting with the school's principal.

The complaints come amid a torrent of controversy surrounding books and other educational materials being challenged or removed from Florida public schools as part of an organized campaign by right-wing special interest groups. Ironically, those groups largely leave charter and private schools alone. Their focuses also tend to be on sex and cultural issues, rather than violence.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was released shortly after Pooh fell into the public domain. Using the iconography of A. A. Milne's original novel, the movie steers clear of either the characters still protected by copyright from later Pooh stories, or elements of the characters still trademarked by Disney, such as Pooh's more modern look or his iconic red t-shirt.

In Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Money, Pooh and Piglet are reimagined axe-wielding maniacs who terrorize a group of college students in the woods. The film is not rated by the Motion Picture Association, but a look at its synopsis or thumbnail would leave little doubt that it is not a movie intended for younger audiences.

Filmmaker Fede Alvarez is developing a new installment in the Alien franchise, and with the WGA strike now concluded, he has taken to social media to tease it a little. Sharing a photo of his bookshelf, Alvarez showed fans a glimpse at the Alien "bibliography" he's working with, which includes reference books and companions to existing movies, as well as an omnibus of old Alien comics stories. Alvarez's Alien film, planned for release in 2024, reportedly filmed between March and July (they wrapped production before the SAG-AFTRA strike began), and stars Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu, Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Reneaux, and Spike Fearn. Produced by Ridley Scott and Michael Pruss, Alvarez's Alien is reportedly a stand-alone installment with no story ties to the existing films.

The books shared include: The Art of Alien: Isolation; Aliens: The Set Photography; Giger's Alien, The Art of Ron Cobb; The Making of Alien; Alien Vault; Alien: The Blueprints; Aliens: The Original Years vol. 1 (a comics anthology from Marvel); Alien Covenant: David's Drawings; and Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual.

In the caption, the filmmaker quipped, "Some of my bibliography when developing my Alien film. Did I missed anything?"

You can see the makeshift library here:

The Alien movies are interesting because they represent not just a beloved horror and science fiction franchise, but one that has frequently struggled to nail its tone and identity, leading to numerous aborted projects over the years.

Alvarez's Alien movie is set for a theatrical release next August. The road to that release date also took a surprising path, as the movie was originally being developed as a Hulu-exclusive. It's likely that the success of Prey (and the perception that Disney had left money on the table by relegating it to streaming-only) influenced that decision. Prey actually took the stop spot on the US home entertaniment disc sales chart last week, with its Blu-ray release managing to edge out bigger, more expensive movies do to the film's strong word of mouth.

No specific details about the film's plot have been revealed, yet it was previously teased as following "a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe."

The new Alien currently has a release date of August 16, 2024.

The development of Shudder's Hell House franchise has largely been one film at a time, with no bible or overarching, MCU-like plan established for the series at its onset. Though the property is now about to release its fourth film, series helmer Stephen Cognetti tells us he tackles one film in its entirety before deciding where to go next.

"No, I don't think that far ahead. I write movie-to-movie," Cognetti tells ComicBook.com "I shot a film in 2021 that has not come out yet, which is just a good old fashioned haunted house story. That has been in post-production for two years, and in that time waiting for that film to get completed, I brought back the Hell House idea and wrote Hell House LLC: The Carmichael Manor."

The Carmichael Manor serves as complementary story to the main trilogy, helping expand the lore of the Abaddon Hotel and the wider Hell House Universe.

"I wrote this story based on just wanting to explore a little bit what might've happened in the hotel back in the eighties, but only introducing those ideas a little bit," the filmmaker adds. That said, there are already ideas brewing for a fifth film in the series, which will be teased in a now-confirmed post-credits scene at the end of Hell House LLC: The Carmichael Manor.

"If I do another Hell House film, I know where I want to go and I kind of tease that at the end of the credits," Cognetti concludes. "I just don't know if that's what's going to be next. It could be something Hell House, or it could be something completely separate. I don't know yet."

The original Hell House LLC trilogy is now streaming on Shudder. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor hits the service on October 30th.

What's your favorite found footage horror movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

To find home is to find each other in the next chapter of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Sunday's "Coming Home" season finale of the Walking Dead spin-off saw Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) set off to find best friend Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), who went missing after making a pit stop to gather fuel in Freeport, Maine. Carol tracked down Daryl's stolen motorcycle and, after stuffing its rider (Paul Zies) into the trunk of her Mustang at gunpoint, was pointed to the auto repair shop where Daryl disappeared when he got wrangled into wrangling walkers for the French doctor (Fran?ois Delaive) in the employ of France's Pouvoir Du Vivant leader Madame Genet (Anne Charrier). (Read the season finale recap here.)

"I don't know if this is the place I'm supposed to be. Thinking about all the people I left behind. Wondering if they're still thinking about me," Daryl says in the first The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol teaser trailer (above) that aired Sunday on AMC. Daryl left The Nest after delivering Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) and Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy) to the Mont-Saint-Michel, but as revealed by the first footage from season 2, is drawn back into the Union of Hope's ongoing fight against Genet and her Guerrier.

Meanwhile, in America, Carol left Ohio's Commonwealth and has been tracking Daryl down the east coast. Her search brings her to Fuller's Auto Repair in Maine, where Jones (Gilbert Glenn Brown) trafficked Daryl and Juno (John Ales) to Dr. Lafleur -- who then put Daryl on the transatlantic vessel freighting zombie test subjects overseas. "The man that was here. Where is he?" asks a crossbow-wielding Carol at the auto shop, which has a French flag conspicuously placed out front. A stranger asks his own question: "Would you give up everything to look for somebody you haven't met?"

"If there was a hope of finding them alive," answers Carol as footage shows her trapped in an SUV surrounded by the dead, "yes."

During a panel at New York Comic Con ahead of the Daryl Dixon season finale, AMC announced McBride would reprise her fan-favorite role in the second season of the newly-retitled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol in 2024. McBride last appeared in The Walking Dead series finale in 2022 and was set to star opposite Reedus in the untitled Daryl & Carol Walking Dead spin-off, but bowed out when relocating to Europe became "logistically untenable" at the time, according to an AMC statement.

"It was always the hope and the desire that we would get Melissa onto the show in season one, in whatever version she was ready to do. That was always what I wanted to do and what everybody wanted," showrunner David Zabel told ComicBook in a post-season Q&A. "Norman wanted it, [executive producer Scott M. Gimple] wanted it, we all wanted it. So it was just a matter of working out what the show was going to be and then seeing how we could include her. Because we love the character, and we love Melissa, and we love the dynamic of Daryl and Carol together. So from the point where I started participating on the show, that was always the conversation."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol, starring Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, and returning cast members Cl?mence Po?sy, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Laika Blanc Francard, Anne Charrier, Romain Levi, and Eriq Ebouaney, is scheduled to premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The idea of demonic possessions and ghosts are already plenty scary for most, but when a horror property is rooted in real-life events, that terror is often taken to another level. While the Hell House LLC franchise isn't based on real-life events, there's one particular house that inspired the events of the first film and, in turn, the rest of the property. Hell House helmer Stephen Cognetti tells us his inspiration for the film mirrors the journey Alex (Danny Bellini) takes in the film itself.

"I lived in Manhattan for a long time and I lived up in Washington Heights, which is the northern part of Manhattan. And right across the GW Bridge is Rockland County," Cognetti recalls. "And I drove out there, found his abandoned house and the story clicked a little bit more about Alex and how he left the city and went out to Rockland County to start Hell House."

As for why the idea of an abandoned building brought back to life clicked, Cognetti says it'd be the perfect place for something to go so terribly wrong and nobody would be any the wiser.

"A haunted house gone wrong is just a concept I thought was so fun because who would ever know if something was wrong? I've already been to two haunts this season and the actors were all amazing," he adds. "And I always think about how that concept still lives. It's like anything could go wrong and you would've no idea. You would just think it's all part of the show no matter how real someone's wound looks, or whatever. How many people screaming bloody murder and you think, 'Ah, that's just an actor,' but something could possibly go wrong there. I thought it was a fun concept."

The original Hell House LLC trilogy is now streaming on Shudder. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor hits the service on October 30th.

What's your favorite found footage horror movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

[This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale.] "You're going to drop this redneck in Paris?" Norman Reedus said of his reaction to AMC's latest Walking Dead spin-off that finds Daryl Dixon washing ashore in post-apocalyptic France. By way of "a bunch of bad decisions" revealed through a series of flashbacks, the six-episode first season answered fans' oft-asked question: "Why is Daryl Dixon in France?" As it turns out, that was also the question put to showrunner and executive producer David Zabel, the Humanitas Prize-winning ER veteran who was asked to pitch Scott M. Gimple, Chief Content Officer of AMC's Walking Dead Universe, on the long-living franchise's first international setting.

Plans for the Walking Dead spin-off started forming in 2018, with Gimple and then-showrunner Angela Kang developing a Daryl & Carol spin-off starring Reedus and Melissa McBride. Daryl and Carol "would take off and we'd come back and check in and we would take off," Reedus revealed in 2020, the same year that AMC announced The Walking Dead would end after 11 seasons.

Ultimately, Reedus and McBride remained with the flagship through the 2022 series finale, but plans changed again when McBride and Kang dropped out of the Europe-set spin-off in April 2022. Zabel, a first-time TWD showrunner, replaced Kang, who serves as executive producer on what became the #1 premiere of all time and the #1 most-viewed season of any show in the history of AMC+.

"I can't talk to the changes too much, because I wasn't there for any of that. When I came on, basically they said, 'Hey David, will you come in and tell us a story about Daryl Dixon in France?' And that's where I started," Zabel exclusively told ComicBook in an interview about the Oct. 15 "Coming Home" season finale. "So I wasn't there when they went through some of those conversations about other iterations that the show might have been or was expected to be. So it's a question outside of my wheelhouse in terms of knowing what the details were, and it was a long period of time that they were talking about it, I know, and I think things changed over the course of that period."

Zabel added, "I just know when I came on, it was like, 'They want you to sit down with Norman and tell him a story about Daryl Dixon in France.' And that's what I did. That was the first thing I did. And then a little bit later, we were all talking about -- even though there were circumstances making it a little bit difficult for Melissa -- we wanted to see if she would be willing to do some part of the show in season 1. And that's when I started talking to Melissa about the radio call in [episode] five and the scene in six that the audience saw."

McBride makes a cameo in a final coda sequence ending the first season of Daryl Dixon, which will open its next chapter as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol in 2024 on AMC and AMC+. The second season, which filmed in Europe, sees Carol set off to track down Daryl after following his trail to Freeport, Maine, where Daryl disappeared after making a pit stop to gather fuel.

"It was always the hope and the desire that we would get Melissa onto the show in season one, in whatever version she was ready to do. That was always what I wanted to do and what everybody wanted," Zabel said. "Norman wanted it, Scott wanted it, we all wanted it. So it was just a matter of working out what the show was going to be and then seeing how we could include her. Because we love the character, and we love Melissa, and we love the dynamic of Daryl and Carol together. So from the point where I started participating on the show, that was always the conversation."

After spending six episodes trekking across zombie-plagued France to get home to America, "Coming Home" ends with Daryl seconds away from boarding a boat to England after delivering Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) -- believed by the faithful members of Union de L'Espoir to be the new messiah who will lead the revival of humanity -- and his aunt Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy) to The Nest, a sanctuary at the Mont-Saint-Michel. But when Laurent follows him to the beach teeming with les affam?s ("the hungry ones"), episode director Daniel Percival ends on a shot of Daryl caught in the middle of returning to The Nest or returning home.

"Without spoiling anything on Daryl's side of the story, we leave him with this conundrum, this dilemma about a guy who's trying to get home to the family that he's always had back home -- with Judith and RJ and Carol and Connie -- but a guy who, in the meantime, has also formed this other family and bond in France that needs him and wants him there and where he has developed a certain sense of belonging. So we certainly continue that narrative. That dilemma that we set up at the end of [episode] six is a big part of the early going of when we come back. We don't just drop that and we don't skip it. We continue telling that story in various ways and we continue telling the story of the threat of the Ampers, the amped-up walkers that Genet is cultivating as an army."

Along with the br?lant -- or "burners," walkers with acidic blood -- Daryl Dixon unleashes the Ampers, super-strong walkers engineered by Dr. Lafleur (Fran?ois Delaive). These man-made mutant zombie variants are made possible through research funded by Madame Genet (Anne Charrier), the shadowy leader of Pouvoir des Vivants ("Power of the Living"), a French movement out to establish France's Sixth Republic. The Ampers, as Zabel officially labels them, continues a major story thread first put into motion in a final coda sequence ending The Walking Dead: World Beyond. That limited series, co-created and executive produced by Gimple, ended inside a French lab where graffiti reading "Les morts sont nes icl" (the dead are born here) could be seen with cryptic talk of the Primrose and Violet teams who "started this" and then "made it worse."

That's a thread left to pull in season 2. With McBride back on board as a series regular, The Book of Carol will also reveal the details about that mysterious exchange between Daryl and Carol in episode 5. Before losing connection, Carol told Daryl through radio static that "...came back," sparking theories that the long-missing Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) or Michonne (Danai Gurira), who will return in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live in 2024, made it home to Alexandria.

"I think one way or another, what she meant on that radio call will be explored in our story. It will be addressed in our story, it will be clarified," Zabel confirmed. "But it is interesting to see all the theories. I've seen a lot of theories and it's amazing how that one little moment caught people's attention a lot. I think that's cool. It's cool about working in The Walking Dead Universe, is that something like that catches fire a little bit. So we're not going to drop it. It's not just thrown away, but we will address it in our show. And obviously, there's also the Rick and Michonne show coming up before we will be back."

Asked if Daryl Dixon might connect with The Ones Who Live or reunite Daryl with Rick and Michonne -- after all, Daryl did promise the Grimes children he would keep an eye out for their parents to bring them home -- Zabel said, "That is more of a Scott Gimple question. I mean, I know the fans would love that. I would love that, too. We haven't gotten into anything like that specifically. So I think that's a Gimple question."

For now, the last episode of Daryl Dixon's first season suggests a more imminent reunion: with Laurent, who makes the two-day trek following Daryl from Mont-Saint-Michel to the north coast after Daryl leaves The Nest. Daryl is seconds away from getting on the boat home when Laurent, standing on the shore teeming with walkers, calls out to him as U2's "Seconds" plays. ("It takes a second to say goodbye / say goodbye, oh, oh, oh, say bye bye / Where you going to now?") Asked what Daryl's decision looks like if Laurent doesn't follow him at the end, Zabel said, "I think he probably gets on the boat, to be honest with you."

"It takes that kid showing up and demonstrating the depth of his connection to Daryl, his need. I mean, that's what happens at the end is that kid needs Daryl and loves Daryl so much and needs that parental figure that Daryl has come to represent to him," Zabel explained. "He needs that so much that he follows Daryl to the beach all the way across, a couple days from where they started and tracks him down there. And I think Daryl sees that and has a reaction to that, and I think that's what causes the hesitation. I think if it wasn't for that, he would get on the boat."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol, starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride as Daryl and Carol, is scheduled to premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale.] "I'm looking for a friend of mine. Name's Daryl Dixon." So said Carol (Melissa McBride) on Sunday's first season finale of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, titled "Coming Home." Despite its title, the episode ended with Daryl (Norman Reedus) still stranded overseas after delivering Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) and Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy) to The Nest, a sanctuary at the Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. But the episode was a homecoming for McBride, whose season-ending cameo as Carol will be followed by the longtime Walking Dead star rejoining Reedus as a series regular in a second season titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol.

McBride made a voice cameo in the penultimate episode of the season when Carol communicated with Daryl over long-range radio, reaching him long enough to tell him through static that someone or something "came back." In the flashback sequence, Daryl took a job wrangling walkers to trade them for fuel after his motorcycle broke down outside of Freeport, Maine, and Daryl promised Carol he would return to the Commonwealth in Ohio "in about a week." Daryl never made it home.

That's because Fuller's Auto Repair, where Daryl went missing, hired transients to collect zombie test subjects that Dr. Lafleur (Fran?ois Delaive) then shipped overseas for experiments he would conduct for Madame Genet (Anne Charrier). Daryl ended up in the brig aboard a French cargo ship and, during a prisoner mutiny, went overboard in the Gulf of C?diz before he washed ashore in France -- thousands of miles away from his rendezvous with Carol.

Daryl Dixon's season finale ended with Carol in hot pursuit of a rider (Paul Zies) racing down the road on Daryl's stolen bike. "I don't want any trouble. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Name's Daryl Dixon. That's his bike you're riding," Carol told the rider, who claimed he "found it."

She then told the rider she "came a long way trying to track him down," and stepped aside to let the shotgun-wielding man rummage through the trunk of her classic Mustang. But Carol had a trick up her sleeve: a concealed socket wrench. Carol knocked the rider unconscious, bound his hands, and stuffed him in the trunk. At gunpoint, Carol forced the rider to confess he traded "some dudes" camped a few miles down the road for the bike.

"If you're lying, I won't be back," said Carol, locking him in the trunk. In the final shot of the season, Carol rode Daryl's bike past a vandalized sign welcoming visitors to Freeport, Maine. "Population: DEAD."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon's Carol Cameo Explained by Showrunner

"It was always the hope and the desire that we would get Melissa onto the show in season one, in whatever version she was ready to do. That was always what I wanted to do and what everybody wanted," showrunner David Zabel told ComicBook. "Norman wanted it, Scott [M. Gimple, executive producer] wanted it, we all wanted it. So it was just a matter of working out what the show was going to be and then seeing how we could include her. Because we love the character, and we love Melissa, and we love the dynamic of Daryl and Carol together. So from the point where I started participating on the show, that was always the conversation."

AMC announced an untitled Daryl & Carol Walking Dead spin-off in September 2020, which would follow the 11-season run of The Walking Dead. Then-showrunner Angela Kang and AMC's Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Gimple developed the spin-off, starring Reedus and McBride, as a "road show" set across the southwestern United States. However, in April 2022, McBride dropped out of the spin-off when the series relocated to Europe, which "became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time," according to AMC.

On Daryl & Carol's Change to Daryl Dixon in France

"Unfortunately, I can't talk to the changes too much because I wasn't there for any of that," Zabel said when asked about the original plans for Daryl & Carol. "When I came on, basically they said, 'Hey David, will you come in and tell us a story about Daryl Dixon in France?' And that's where I started. So I wasn't there when they went through some of those conversations about other iterations that the show might have been or was expected to be. So it's a question outside of my wheelhouse in terms of knowing what the details were, and it was a long period of time that they were talking about it, I know, and I think things changed over the course of that period."

Zabel continued, "I just know when I came on, it was like, 'They want you to sit down with Norman and tell him a story about Daryl Dixon in France.' And that's what I did. That was the first thing I did. And then a little bit later, we were all talking about -- even though there were circumstances making it a little bit difficult for Melissa -- we wanted to see if she would be willing to do some part of the show in season one. And that's when I started talking to Melissa about the radio call in [episode] five and the scene in [episode] six that the audience saw."

Melissa McBride's Next Chapter in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol

Ahead of the first season finale, AMC announced at New York Comic Con that McBride would return as a series regular and executive producer for Daryl Dixon season 2. The network also revealed an official new title: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol. Zabel previously confirmed with ComicBook that the second season of the spin-off, which is set and shot in Europe, will continue filming on October 20th after AMC secured an approved interim agreement with the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to resume production amid the actors' strike.

Asked about the Daryl-Carol reunion and McBride's role in season 2, Zabel teased that the Carol coda was just the first chapter in her search for Daryl.

"A lot of the details are still being worked out in script and in shooting of what season two will be. You have to tune in and watch season two to see how it develops, but we are not dropping the narrative of her search for Daryl," Zabel said. "All we know right now is that she's searching for Daryl in America. That's what we see in episode six, and we're super committed to her being a big part of the show as much as she's able to and as much as we can. But beyond that, any specifics, you have to wait and see."

McBride said of her return in a statement released by AMC: "I've known there was much more to be told of Carol's story as I felt her so unsettled when we last saw her, as she watched her best friend, Daryl, ride away. Apart or (hopefully!) together, their stories run deep, and I'm so excited to continue Carol's journey here. This team of storytellers have done amazing work to land these two established characters in an entirely new world to them, and I'm loving the discoveries!"

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol is scheduled to premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale begins on the beaches of Normandy. June 6, 1944. D-Day. An American soldier -- one of 2,501 -- dies fighting for the liberation of France. His dog tag reads: DIXON. "Dixon! Dixon! Today you die! For my brother!" In the present-day, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) hears the taunts of Codron (Romain Levi) and the cheers of the Pouvoir, who have come to watch the American battle the amped-up les affam?s, the hungry ones, engineered by Madame Genet (Anne Charrier). "Don't worry, Issa," Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) assures his praying aunt, Isabelle (Cl?mence Po?sy). "Daryl will win."

Daryl fights the acidic-blooded br?lants, burners, in the arena that Genet has assembled for De Gaulle Day marking the rebirth and rise of France's Sixth Republic. He's chained at the wrist to Quinn (Adam Nagaitis), forcing the American and the Brit to fight side-by-side to survive their trial by walker. Genet's chief doctor (Fran?ois Delaive) injects the Pouvoir's zombie gladiators with a serum that amps up the hungry ones with blackened eyes and sharpened teeth. The Ampers are faster, stronger, and deadlier than the average les affam?s, but Genet's pets fail to kill Daryl and Quinn.

"The point was to win these people to our cause," Genet seethes as the crowd cheers for the American, holding a walker's head up to the blood-thirsty spectators. Before Genet's Guerrier can gun down Daryl, Fallou (Eriq Ebouaney), Sylvie (Laika Blanc Francard), and Emile (Tristan Zanchi) spark la r?volution, allowing Daryl and Quinn to escape in the chaos. "This American killed your brother?" Genet asks Codron. "You want your revenge? Go get it."

In the halls of the Maison M?re, Daryl notices a wound on Quinn's shoulder blade that he says was caused by the burning touch of the br?lant. Meanwhile, Genet imprisons Isabelle and Laurent, telling the boy: "God is not coming for you. The Messiah? I don't think so." Laurent questions if they've been abandoned by God, but Isabelle reminds him that "now is when we need faith the most." She reveals a pick-pocketed key, a trick she learned in another life. As Quinn succumbs to his wound, he repents for his treatment of Isabelle and using Laurent -- his son -- to try to get her back. Daryl says he can still buy him time to save Isabelle and Laurent. With that, Daryl uses a belt as a tourniquet and severs Quinn's cuffed hand with one clean cut. Quinn goes after the Guerrier, giving Daryl time to rendezvous with Fallou's fighters before finding Isabelle and Laurent trapped on the other side of a gate.

The zombified Quinn attacks Isabelle, who uses a pipe to fend him off. Handing Laurent his blade through the gate, Daryl tells him he can save her. "God will forgive you," Daryl tells the boy, who puts down his reanimated father. Later, Daryl, Isabelle, Laurent, and Sylvie head for Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy: The Nest. When their truck breaks down outside a small village, Daryl tells Isabelle how his dad used to have him and his brother, Merle, take apart engines. If they couldn't put them back together, they didn't get dinner. It was hard "when he was around," Daryl says of his father, "which was hardly ever." Daryl's dad "grew up without a father. I guess history repeats itself if you're not careful." Daryl explains that his grandfather enlisted, left his pregnant wife back home, and died in France in World War II. When Isabelle remarks that grandpa Dixon "gave his life for France," Daryl is almost churlish in his response: "Yeah, while his family fell apart back home. Hardly seems worth it."

Isabelle admits that Laurent growing up without a father was "better than Quinn." And then she confesses another truth: that she recognized Daryl was dangerous when she found him in Lourdes after he washed ashore in France, and she knew that he was the one who could deliver Laurent to The Nest. She lied about the drawing of Daryl on the beach that she claimed was Laurent's premonition. But as she's said, everything happens for a reason. Just then, Codron and Genet's soldiers have taken Isabelle, Laurent, and Sylvie hostage. Daryl offers to trade his life for theirs, but Codron relays that "Madame said you all die today. The boy first." Isabelle is stabbed protecting Laurent from a Guerrier, who hands Codron a gun so he can avenge his brother and let Laurent's death be "the last thing the American sees."

Daryl is at Codron's mercy. "God loves you," Laurent tells Codron, who finally pulls the trigger... and guns down the Guerrier. "Not today, Dixon. Next time." He tells the travelers that Mont-Saint-Michel is a day's walk north, and to burn the truck because it's easy to track. With that, Codron walks off to face his fate back at Maison M?re. Codron tells Genet that the Guerrier were ambushed, and he is the only survivor. "A man cannot give more to a cause than his own life. Yet you return without a scratch." Codron's face is tattooed for the cause, but it's his eyes that give him away. Codron confesses he couldn't bring himself to the kill the boy, who has become the "hope" for l'Union de I'Espoir.

"The Union offers fairy tales. Every person who joins them makes us weaker. That's why they must be snuffed out," Genet explains. "Because we're building the future. Not for ourselves. But for those that come after. We have to do the hard, unspeakable things, so that they won't have to." Genet tells him to give up the location of The Nest, but Codron refuses. "It's only going to get more painful," says Genet, ordering her men to take Codron away.

At The Nest, the people of l'Union welcome Laurent like the messiah they believe him to be. Daryl meets with their leader, the Buddhist monk Losang (Joel De La Fuente), a Hoboken-born Paris transplant who traveled to Europe as a student in the '90s. Daryl warns Losang that Genet will be coming for The Nest. "We'll pray not, but if the day comes," he says confidently, "we'll be prepared."

In a montage, Daryl teaches the Nesters weapons training as Laurent learns from Losang. Daryl raises a toast -- Sant? -- to l'Union. Isabelle has healed from her knife wound. Daryl tries his hand at Laurent's Rubik's cube. The nun, who treated Daryl's wounds when he first came to France, now asks him to help her with what Daryl jokes is "a pretty impressive battle wound for a nun." "I think you said 'killer nun,'" she replies. Daryl admits The Nest isn't what he expected: "Bunch of Amish people running around. Straw hats, people churning butter, bonnets." It hurts to laugh, but she does it anyway. "I like it here," she tells Daryl. "Feels like home."
I Feels like home.

Later, Losang tells Daryl that he was skeptical when P?re Jean (Hugo Dillon), the priest from the Abbey of Saint Bernadette, first sent word of the boy. While making the 500-mile pilgrim's camino to Santiago, Losang stopped at Abbey de Bernadette to meet Laurent -- and that's when he knew Laurent is the boy prophesied to "lead the revival of humanity." Losang then reveals that l'Union has held up their end of the deal: for delivering Laurent to The Nest, Losang secured Daryl passage home. A fisherman from Dover will bring Daryl to England, where they know of boats that can get him as far as Newfoundland. Daryl will have to manage from there. Daryl has two days to walk to the north coast and take his boat home.

"I got family waiting for me back home," Daryl says to Losang's offer to stay at The Nest. "Well," the monk counters, "you've got people here who hope you'll stay." Daryl says it's not so easy, and the Pouvoir isn't his fight. Losang has faith Daryl will make his way home -- wherever that may be. "Who knows what tomorrow will bring? And an ocean away, the world being what it is. But we need you -- here, now. Maybe the fight's not the reason you're torn. Sometimes, when a person leaves home, he comes to find he belongs someplace else."

Daryl quietly packs his belongings -- his angel wings vest, a map -- when his no-goodbye goodbye is interrupted by Isabelle. "I made a promise to them, just like I made to you," Daryl says of his people back home. Isabelle, recalling how Daryl told her he left the Commonwealth to see what was left in the world, found something. "Maybe not what you were looking for, but--"

Daryl doesn't want to say goodbye to Laurent. "Are you gonna abandon him, like your father did to you? I think you care about him," Isabelle says. "And I think it scares you. You think you're escaping history by doing this, but you are not. You're repeating it." To that, Daryl says: "You believe what you believe, and I respect you for that. And this place feels like home to you, and I truly hope it is for both of you. But I have my own home to get back to." Daryl's leaving, and there's no changing his mind. "I'm glad we met," Isabelle says. "Godspeed on your journey." Daryl leaves the Rubik's cube on the bed of a sleeping Laurent, leaving without a word. After one last look back, Daryl leaves The Nest and makes the trek across Normandy.

His journey brings him to a weathered American flag at a graveyard for the freedom fighters who died on the shores of France. Scouring the tombstones, Daryl finds it: WILLIAM T. DIXON. PVT. 490 INF 23 DIV. GEORGIA. JUNE 6, 1944. Daryl is overcome with emotion. And then he sees it: the boat home. He waves it down, receiving a reflective signal in response. Daryl Dixon is going home. As he makes his way across the beach, fighting through the walkers that have risen from the sand to see him off, Daryl is seconds away from getting off the shore when he hears it. "Daryl! Daryl!" It's Laurent, calling out to him from the walker-plagued beach. U2's "Seconds" plays as Daryl looks to the approaching boat home, then back to Laurent. "It takes a second to say goodbye. Say goodbye. Oh, oh, oh, say bye bye. Where you going to now?"

America. Daryl's motorcycle races down the road in Freeport, Maine. America. The rider is... someone we don't know. In hot pursuit is a classic mustang, its driver stepping out with their hands up. It's Carol (Melissa McBride). "I'm looking for a friend of mine," Carol says. "Name's Daryl Dixon. That's his bike you're riding." The rider says he found it. "Sure about that? I've come a long way trying to track him down," Carol says, disarming the man when he goes to help himself to her trunk. Carol shoves him inside the trunk and forces a confession: he swears to God, he traded "some dudes" for it camped down the road a few miles outside an old gas station. "If you're lying, I won't be back." Carol shuts the trunk and rides off on Daryl's bike past a sign reading: "Welcome to Freeport, Maine. Population: DEAD."

So begins the first chapter in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Found footage is a technique that's both horror's most rewarding and most challenging. You have the mainstays of the format like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield going up against countless others. Then there are entries like the Hell House LLC franchise, popularizing the genre once again after a decades-long period of mediocrity. As Hell House LLC helmer Stephen Cognetti tells us, there's one key to making a successful found footage picture: you've got to make it scary.

"I think you can get a little leeway in found footage about not having the certain types of depth that you learn in writing school and regular features have because you can't do that with found footage because you have to justify the camera, and you're not going to be able to have the third person perspective in a lot of different ways," Cognetti tells ComicBook.com.

That said, Cognetti adds that he still tries to add the depth to the films but doesn't go overboard; he'd much rather have the films be as scary as possible.

"I try to put depth into these stories as much as I can, but it is really hard to do, so really what I think any good found footage just really has to scare people. And I think that's really what people watch these movies for," the filmmaker adds. "I think found footage in general is to be have people scared enough to just to get that rush of adrenaline and being scared because it feels so real."

He concludes, "I think that's why people really want to go to found footage, just to get that sense that, 'I know it's not real, but it felt so real and it's different from a bigger budget narrative feature,' so I think the key is it is just being very scary and I think there's so many good found footage films out there that really achieve that. I don't mean in a shock kind of scare, I mean this this sense of sending-chills-up-your-spine kind of scare."

The original Hell House LLC trilogy is now streaming on Shudder. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael House hits the service on October 30th.

What's your favorite found footage horror movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

FX has released a preview for "Preech", the fifth episode of American Horror Story's twelfth season, Delicate. The episode also serves as the finale for Part One of the season, as Delicate is divided into two parts. The episode is scheduled to air on Wednesday, October 18th. For Anna (Emma Roberts), it has been a wild ride over the previous four episodes. While her acting career has taken off and she's earned accolades and awards for her latest movie role, her personal life has been a bit more of a challenge as she struggled to get pregnant and then seemingly miscarried all while dealing with an eerie stalker. Last week's episode revealed that Anna was somehow still pregnant, but things keep getting stranger and stranger -- and people are listening to Anna less and less. Now, the new preview teases that things will take an even darker series of turns as Anna's due date looms. You can check it out for yourself in the video below.

Here's the official synopsis for "Preech": "Anna senses the dark presence closing in on her, closer than ever. Ms. Preecher reveals pieces of her past and may know the truth about what's happening to Anna and Dex."

What is American Horror Story: Delicate About?

Based on Danielle Valentine's novel Delicate Condition, in American Horror Story: Delicate "after multiple failed attempts at IVF, actress Anna Victoria Alcott wants nothing more than to start a family. As the buzz around her recent film grows, she fears that something may be targeting her -- and her pursuit of motherhood." The season stars Emma Roberts, Cara Delevingne, Kim Kardashian, Denis O'Hare, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Julie White, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Matt Czuchry, Odessa A'zion, and Zachary Quinto.

"I did a cameo on this season of American Horror Story and I got to meet her," Quinto previously said of Kardashian. Quinto appeared in the second episode, "Rockabye", as a presenter at an awards ceremony. "She was so lovely and warm and, really, I don't think she needs my advice. She seemed really in her element, and I was really impressed by her spirit and her openness. I really look forward to seeing this season because I think she's gonna do a wonderful job."

"Kim is among the biggest and brightest television stars in the world and we are thrilled to welcome her to the AHS family," co-creator Ryan Murphy shared in a statement with The Hollywood Reporter. "Emma and I are excited about collaborating with this true force in the culture. Halley Feiffer has written a fun, stylish, and ultimately terrifying role especially for Kim, and this season is ambitious and unlike anything we have ever done."

Why is American Horror Story: Delicate Being Aired in Two Parts?

American Horror Story: Delicate is airing in two parts due to production. the series had been in production earlier this year but was paused due to the Writers Guild of America Strike in May and then, officially suspended in July due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Presumably, the first batch of episodes -- Part One -- is what had been completed before production ceased. At this time, it is unclear when the series will return for Part Two.

American Horror Story: Delicate airs Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on FX.

Daryl Dixon may be far from home in France, but the first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has a home on streaming. All six episodes of the Walking Dead spin-off starring Norman Reedus are now available to stream on AMC+, including Sunday's "Coming Home" season finale. Since the newest series in AMC's Walking Dead Universe premiered in September, Daryl Dixon surpassed The Walking Dead: Dead City as the #1 premiere of all time and the #1 most-viewed season of any show in the history of AMC+. The network has already started production on a second season, set to premiere in 2024, with Melissa McBride reprising her role as Carol for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol.

Keep reading below to find out all of the ways to watch The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon with or without cable.

TWD: Daryl Dixon Episode 6 Release Date and Time

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale, "Coming Home," premiered Sunday, October 15th, at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on AMC+ and will air at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on the AMC channel.

Daryl Dixon Episode 6 Run Time

The Daryl Dixon finale has a runtime of 53 minutes and 40 seconds without commercials, and is scheduled to air from 9:00 p.m. -- 11:20 p.m. on AMC.

How to Watch The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 Online Without Cable

To stream all episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon online without cable, you'll need an AMC+ subscription. Prices start at $4.99/month for the new AMC+ with ads plan, while ad-free AMC+ is available for $6.99/month (when billed annually) or $8.99/month (when billed monthly).

AMC+ is available as an app and via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video Channels, The Roku Channel, Comcast Xfinity, Dish, DirecTV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV.

Is There an AMC+ Free Trial?

To watch The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon for free online, new customers can sign up for a 7-day free AMC Plus trial that will automatically renew unless cancelled. All six episodes of Daryl Dixon are available to stream online on AMC+, along with the first seasons of TWDU spin-offs The Walking Dead: Dead City and Tales of the Walking Dead, plus episodes of Fear the Walking Dead.

You can also watch Daryl Dixon on the AMC website by signing in with your TV provider.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon episodes 1 ("L'?me Perdue"), episode 2 ("Alouette"), episode 3 ("Paris Sera Toujours Paris"), episode 4 ("La Dame de Fer"), episode 5 ("Deux Amours"), and episode 6 ("Coming Home") are currently available to stream online on AMC+.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Recaps

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 1 Recap: "L'?me Perdue" (The Lost Soul)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 2 Recap: "Alouette" (Lark)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 3 Recap: "Paris Sera Toujours Paris" (Paris Will Always Be Paris)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 4 Recap: "La Dame de Fer" (The Iron Lady)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 5 Recap: "Deux Amours" (Two Loves)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Episode 6 Recap: "Coming Home"

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The Strangers was released back in 2008 and was followed by The Strangers: Prey at Night in 2018, and now the horror franchise is back with an all-new trilogy directed by Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning). The trilogy stars Riverdale alum Madelaine Petsch, and all three installments are expected to be released in 2024. In Chapter 1, Petsch plays a woman who stops at a remote vacation rental in the woods with her fianc?, but things turn deadly when a gang of masked strangers attack them. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Harlin, and the director teased there are more stories to tell after the trilogy.

"Thanks for asking that question because I definitely see more movies and it's almost like - that's why I don't even call it a trilogy - I call it the first three movies of the Strangers Universe," Harlin explained. "And the way the third movie ends, if people thought that the original movie ended in a titillating way because Liv Tyler sort of gasps in the end of that. And you question, like, 'Did she live, what happened?' If you thought that was thought-provoking, I think that when the third movie ends, you are like, 'Oh my God, what's, what's gonna happen now?'"

Harlin continued, "Because this is really an exploration of a young woman who's been the victim of incredible violence and an exploration of what happens to a person mentally and physically. How do you survive it? Where do you go? And in the end of the third movie, you have more questions than answers and I definitely see a bunch of new movies coming after that, and just continuing her story. So instead of going the route of the original film and the sequel of it, the sequel was about the strangers attacking some other random people. Our focus is our central character and her journey and where she's gonna go."

No official release date for The Strangers: Chapter 1 has been confirmed, but the movie and its two sequels will be released in 2024. Stay tuned fore more updates about The Strangers trilogy.

The Strangers was released back in 2008, and it took ten years for the horror film to finally get a sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night. Now, the franchise is returning in the form of not just one new movie, but an entire trilogy. All three films have already been shot and will be released next year. The Strangers: Chapter 1 stars Riverdale's Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, and Rachel Shenton. This week, a new poster for the trilogy was released.

You can read a description of the new The Strangers here: "From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fianc?. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman's journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films." You can view the poster below:

Renny Harlin Talks The Strangers:

In an interview with ComicBook.com, Harlin spoke about his plans for the new trilogy and teased the films will have nods to the original 2008 movie.

"I have to say that the original Strangers is one of my favorite horror films ever," Harlin shared. "I remember seeing it and not knowing anything about it and being just blown away that how random it's violence is, how these people get into a city situation which they don't understand at all. And us as the audience keep wondering why. And we realized like you said, it's just because they happen to be home in that house. And that's exactly what we are exploring."

He continued, "For me, it was very important to give the fans of the original film, give them the same experience. Obviously, the movie is not a carbon copy in any way, but it definitely has a similar story of two young people in an environment that should be cozy and safe and turns out to be a night of all nightmares. And I think it was very important to give the fans the similar experience that they enjoyed the first time. And then those who don't know anything about the original can come here just with no expectations, give them something that will blow their socks off."

"I, as a fan of the original film, I wanted something that feels familiar, feels, truthful to the original. And then we obviously, we made a second movie and a third movie at the same time because we wanted to explore the reasons behind this. I feel like myself, and I'm sure a lot of the people who love the original film were asking the question, like, 'Why did this happen?' and 'Who were these people?' and 'Where did they come from?' and 'Where are they going next?' and that's the kind of answers that I wanted to explore in the second and the third movie and just go beyond what the original movie was."

No official release date for The Strangers: Chapter 1 has been confirmed, but the movie and its two sequels will be released in 2024.

Horror movies might be the easiest films in Hollywood to franchise. Halloween has thirteen movies (and a TV show on the way), Friday the 13th has twelve movies, and Amityville has become a catch-all name for a slew of low-budget schlock. Knowing that it's a little surprising that 2008's The Strangers took ten years to get just one sequel, and since then it's just been the two movies. That will soon change as the franchise is getting a facelift in the form of not just one new movie, but an entire trilogy that has already been shot and will be released next year.

Speaking with ComicBook.com in a new interview, director Renny Harlin (who helmed all three of the new movies) opened up about his plans for the new trilogy. When asked if the new movie, which he describes as not really a reboot nor a remake, would reference the other two The Strangers movies, Harlin replied: "Definitely." The filmmaker continued though, perhaps implying that any references to the original movies might be more in an Easter egg capacity and not in terms of continuity. He adds:

"I have to say that the original Strangers is one of my favorite horror films ever. I remember seeing it and, and not knowing anything about it and being just blown away that how random it's violence is, how these people get into a city situation which they don't understand at all. And us as the audience keep wondering why. And we realized like, like you said, it's just because they happen to be home in that house. And that's exactly what we are exploring. For me, it was very important to give the fans of the original film, give them the same experience. Obviously, the movie is not a carbon copy in any way, but it definitely has a similar story of two young people in an environment that should be cozy and safe and turns out to be a night of all nightmares. And I think it was very important to give the fans the similar experience that they enjoyed the first time. And then those who don't know anything about the original can come here here just with no expectations, give them something that will blow their socks off."

"I, as a fan of the original film, I wanted something that feels familiar, feels, truthful to the original. And then we obviously, we made a second movie and a third movie at the same time because we wanted to explore uh the reasons behind this. I feel like myself, and I'm sure a lot of the people who love the love, the original film were asking the question, like, why did this happen? And who were these people? And where did they come from and where are they going next? And that's the kind of answers that I wanted to explore in the second and the third movie and just go beyond what the original movie was."

The Strangers: Chapter 1 cast includes former Riverdale star Madelaine Petsch as Maya, with Froy Gutierrez as Ryan, and Rachel Shenton as Debbie. A previously released description for the movie described it as follows: "From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV's Riverdale) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fianc?. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman's journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films."

No official release date for The Strangers: Chapter 1 has been confirmed, but the movie and its two sequels will be released in 2024.

Focus Features' upcoming horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein is set to star Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's Kathryn Newton and Riverdale's Cole Sprouse. The film marks the feature-length directorial debut of Zelda Williams and was written by Juno and Jennifer's Body scribe Diablo Cody, who is also producing the film. Set in 1989, Lisa Frankenstein follows an unpopular high schooler who accidentally re-animates a Victorian corpse. Today, the first teaser for the movie was released in addition to news of its release date.

"it's giving unliving ? LISA FRANKENSTEIN only in theaters 2.9.24," the official account for the film shared on social media. You can check out the teaser below:

it's giving unliving ? LISA FRANKENSTEIN only in theaters 2.9.24.

written by diablo cody & directed by @zeldawilliams. pic.twitter.com/K9slVcEyMz

-- lisa frankenstein (@lisafrankenfilm) October 13, 2023

What Is Lisa Frankenstein About?

You can read the official description for Lisa Frankenstein here: "A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer's Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness... and a few missing body parts along the way."

The film stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino.

Lisa Frankenstein was produced by Mason Novick and Diablo Cody, who have previously collaborated on Tully, Young Adult, Jennifer's Body, and Juno. Jeffrey Lampert is serving as executive producer. Focus is distributing the new film in the U.S. with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.

Diablo Cody Explains Barbie Exit:

Barbie was originally going to star comedian Amy Schumer until she exited the project and a new creative team was brought on. That version was also going to be written by Juno scribe Diablo Cody. During a recent interview with GQ, Cody talked about her own exit from the project and explained why The LEGO Movie was a "roadblock" at the time.

"I think I know why I sh*t the bed," Cody explained. "When I was first hired for this, I don't think the culture had not embraced the femme or the bimbo as valid feminist archetypes yet. If you look up 'Barbie' on TikTok you'll find this wonderful subculture that celebrates the feminine, but in 2014, taking this skinny blonde white doll and making her into a heroine was a tall order."

"That idea of an anti-Barbie made a lot of sense given the feminist rhetoric of 10 years ago," Cody said of her Barbie project that never happened. "I didn't really have the freedom then to write something that was faithful to the iconography; they wanted a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn't figure it out because that's not what Barbie is." She added, "I heard endless references to The Lego Movie in development, and it created a problem for me because they had done it so well. Any time I came up with something meta, it was too much like what they had done. It was a roadblock for me, but now enough time has passed that they can just cast [The Lego Movie villain] Will Ferrell as the antagonist in a real-life Barbie movie and nobody cares."

Lisa Frankenstein is being released on February 9, 2024.

Avalon Hill has teamed up with actor, producer, director, and tabletop entrepreneur Matthew Lillard to create a special two-part Haunt for Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition as part of Betrayal Season of Treason. The new Haunt is titled Thirteen Ghouls Are All That, and is themed around Lillard's career in the form of a fictional actor named Dexter Norville and his sidekick P.I. Pup. Fans can tune into a live play of the new Haunt right here at 7 PM, but ComicBook had the chance to speak to Lillard all about the new Haunt, which features a host of easter eggs that fans who have followed Millard's career will undoubtedly get a kick out of.

"It's one of those things that in my life very rarely do opportunities come along and you're like, oh, I'm excited about this. You get lucky and you find something that speaks to you," Lillard said. "It speaks to the person you are and speaks to the brand that speaks to who you are as a person. Like me doing something for Doritos doesn't make any sense. Me doing something for Betrayal is like, oh, this is epic. Sitting down with the team and saying, 'Hey, what do you guys want from me? What do you expect?" Because in this kind of a relationship, I want to be engaged authentically, I don't want to just put my name on something because you're creating a Haunt."

"Let's dig in and let me help and let me be a part of the game design. Stepping into that and having the team sign onto that was really exciting, and then in the early part of the process, I was like, 'Hey, if we're using me, then let's build the Haunt around something I'm associated with, like becoming an older, fading actor,' which I thought was awesome. And so that's where we started that conversation," Lillard said.

The team mined Lillard's career and wove references into every part of the Haunt, and some of the Omens are fantastic, with Lillard noting some pretty deep cuts. "Let's find fun Easter eggs from my path in my career, I didn't think they would deliver such deep cuts. There are some cuts in there I'm like, 'Wait, I think this is from In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,' or there's just some random stuff, which I thought was hilarious for the weird obtuse Matthew Lillard fan out there who's followed along with my long and painful career. I think that when you give creative people the ability to do what they do best, and empower them to have fun, then you get these great results," Lillard said.

"I think that's what happened here. I think that collectively the team, I was like, 'Let's dig into my career, let's make fun of it, and let's have fun.' And I think that as you play through the game, you can feel that, the idea that the cats are coming. That's a reference to Wing Commander, but the idea of giving them an opportunity to poke fun at something, they had a blast. And I think that that comes off in the game," Lillard said.

Lillard had the chance to test the Haunt out at Gen Con, and it was another level of thrill to see the fans put the Haunt through its paces and come away having such a great time.

"Getting a chance to sit down at the table playing the new edition, playing through the Haunt itself was awesome. I played at home once and obviously, I read through all the cards and I got familiar with it," Lillard said. "Then we went and shot it at Gen Con and had an absolute blast playing it. That's when it comes alive. We were excited to be there and excited to play something for the first time. It had never been played before in that capacity, and so I think the game came to life through that, right through the live play."

"And look, you're surrounded by people, you're surrounded by the crew, you've got lights going, and there's a performative aspect of it, sure. But the good news is that the game held up," Lillard said. "You spent all this time and energy putting something together and in gameplay it was like, oh, this is as fun as we had hoped. That was the rewarding part. You put all the time and energy into it, and then once you get it and it goes live, under live fire, it was like a blast. So that's good."

"I'm excited for fans of the game, fans of Matthew Lillard and his weird career, getting to smash those two worlds together," Lillard said. "And the idea that the team Avalon Hill is making this haunt a free download, I think is super cool. I think it's a celebration and you don't see that very often from big corporations. The idea of, 'Hey, let's give back in this moment.' And trying to build the Season of Treason to try to support the game in this moment I think is super cool."

Lillard would love to team up on another Haunt down the line, but the idea of new people coming in and lending their unique voice to Haunts is one he hopes to see continue even if it's someone else.

"Yeah, look, I would love it. I think that the only important thing, in this moment, is that we deliver for the fans of Betrayal, something that they have fun doing, whether it's me or anyone else. I think that the intersection of pop culture and a game that gives you something fresh to play, I think it's exciting and really smart. It makes the game evergreen if you continually add cool nuance and cool and exciting ways to rope people into this awesome game, Lillard said.

If you are interested in checking out Matthew Lillard's new Haunt, you can download it free of charge on Hasbro Pulse, and the link will become available at 7 PM EST. You'll need the base game to play, so head over to Amazon or Walmart to pick it up.

V/H/S/85 was released on Shudder last week and marked the newest installment to the horror franchise that began back in 2012. Today, Shudder announced more news about the franchise during a New York Comic Con panel. Another installment to the found footage saga is coming in 2024. Shudder, which is AMC Networks' "premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural," revealed the seventh V/H/S film will focus on sci-fi horror. The new movie will include five "bloodcurdling tapes, placing horror at the forefront of a sci-fi-inspired hellscape."

"The V/H/S franchise has been terrifying and entertaining audiences for over a decade now thanks to the work of some of the genre's most gifted filmmakers," Head of AMC Networks' Film Group Scott Shooman shared. "Following the massive success of V/H/S/85 and its previous installments on Shudder, it's clear that the filmmaking team won't be running out of unique ideas anytime soon. We're thrilled that the franchise is going in a bold, new direction that will surprise fans and newcomers alike, and demonstrate the innovative capabilities of sci-fi within the world of V/H/S."

"Jason Voorhees, Leprechaun, Pinhead, Dracula, even the Amityville Horror house ended up in space, so as we move into our own Part 7 it was only natural that we should too," producer Josh Goldbloom added. "The sci-fi horror genre provides us an infinite playground of forbidden worlds and dangerous lifeforms, a formula which we're confident will lead to the biggest, maddest, bloodiest V/H/S ever."

We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Shudder on a groundbreaking new V/H/S film! The V/H/S franchise has become a cornerstone of the horror genre that provides an unfiltered platform for filmmakers to push boundaries and tell innovative stories," President of Scripted Content at Studio71 Michael Schreiber shared.

The next V/H/S will be produced by Goldbloom for Cinepocalypse in addition to Brad Miska and James Harris (47 Meters Down) along with executive producers Michael Schreiber and Adam Boorstin for Studio71.

Currently, you can watch V/H/S/85 on Shudder. The film features five stories from filmmakers David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, and Mike Nelson. Stars include Freddy Rodriguez, Jordan Belfi, James Ransone, Dani Deett?, Rolando Davila-Beltran, Justen Jones, Marcio Moreno, Ari Gallegos, Forrest Hartl, Duffy McManus, Eric Pierson, Felipe de Lara, Tom Reed, and Vivian Morse.

Stay tuned for more updates about the next V/H/S film.

Fox has released the official synopsis for The Simpsons' upcoming Treehouse of Horror XXXIV, the latest installment of the revered horror-comedy anthologies. As has often been the case, this one won't actually air until after Halloween, but that hasn't stopped fans from continuing to get excited about the Treehouse episode every year (remember when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa invoked "Treehouse of Horror" in teasing the possibility of Afterlife With Archie-themed Halloween episodes?). The official synopsis features a Silence of the Lambs parody featuring a grown-up Lisa and Nelson, and another story in which Bart is turned into an NFT.

Here's the official synopsis (with a hat-tip to Bloody Disgusting): In Treehouse of Horror XXXIV, "Bart is turned into an NFT and Marge must fight through the Blockchain to rescue him; Lisa turns to a murderer from her past; an outbreak transforms Springfielders into a plague of lazy, beer-loving oafs."

It's that second bit -- Lisa turns to a murderer from her past -- that's apparently a Silence of the Lambs riff. One assumes that she will go to Sideshow Bob, giving Kelsey Grammer a second chance to reprise a character he's played for decades after this week's return of Frasier.

You can see the Treehouse of Horror poster below.

The Simpsons's Treehouse of Horror specials have been among the most popular episodes in the show's history, with special DVD releases collecting the early ones and the event being adapted into the long-running The Simpsons comics from Bongo. In a show where few changes to the status quo ever take hold, Treehouse of Horror is a chance to do weird things, change up animation styles, and explore alternate versions and timelines of the familiar characters from Springfield. Last season, in addition to a Bob's Burgers crossover and a Death Note gag, The Simpsons actually had so much material for the Treehouse of Horror that they spun off one story into a full-episode, stand-alone parody of Stephen King's It.

"We've never done a single fantastical, bloody, scary, dark story, told over the scope of the the 20 minutes and 40 seconds that is an episode," executive producer Matt Selman told Variety at the time. "I think the fans are going to be really excited. Certainly the tattoos already exist of Krusty as Pennywise. So we're just writing towards the tattoos now. You want as many tattoo worthy moments in your episodes as you can."

Treehouse of Horror XXXIV will air on November 5 on Fox. Prior Treehouse of Horror installments stream on Disney+.

A breakdown of Hot Topic's Scare Fair exclusives can be found below followed by a look at the Pops via Hot Topic's Instagram account. The figures are available to order here at the Hot Topic website now. All of the details you need about the NYCC 2023 Funko Pop exclusives can be found right here via our master list.

• Halloween Michael Myers Behind Hedge Pop! Vinyl Figure, $15.90
• Trick 'r Treat Sam Pop! Vinyl Figure (Blacklight), $15.90
• The Exorcist Regan Puking Pop! Vinyl Figure, $15.90
• Bride Of Chucky Chucky/Tiffany Pop! Vinyl Figure, $15.90
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space Jojo The Klownzilla Pop! Vinyl Figure, $15.90
• Aliens Xenomorph Pop! Vinyl Figure (Blacklight), $15.90
• Trick 'r Treat Sam Soda Vinyl Figure, $17.90
• Trick 'r Treat Sam (Unmasked) Pocket Pop! Vinyl Keychain, $8.90

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Hopefully you have a Homer Simpson in the hedge Funko Pop to pair with the The Michael Myers version, as it would make for a very amusing display. We wouldn't be surprised if that figure sold out first, so grab it while you can. Want even more Funko Pops? Make sure to check out our list of weekly Funko Pop Wednesday releases. Below, you'll also find a list that includes some of the recent Halloween fashion collections from Hot Topic and sister site BoxLunch.

After releasing films in 2008 and 2018, the Strangers franchise is returning next year with an entire trilogy. 16 years after The Strangers first captivated horror audiences, director Renny Harlin will release three brand new Strangers films in quick succession. All three of these new movies were filmed back-to-back, and they'll all be released in 2024, beginning with The Strangers: Chapter 1.

On Thursday, Lionsgate released the first clip from The Strangers: Chapter 1, which focuses on the film's main protagonist, played by Riverdale star Madelaine Petsch. You can check out the clip in its entirety below.

Knock, Knock...This terrifying first look at Madelaine Petsch in @TheRennyHarlin's #TheStrangersMovie Chapter 1 debuted today at #NYCC. pic.twitter.com/QYRZ8pvIq1

-- Lionsgate Horror? (@LionsgateHorror) October 13, 2023

Here's the official synopsis for The Strangers: Chapter 1:

"From master director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Exorcist: The Beginning) comes a new trilogy of terror. In Chapter I, Madelaine Petsch (TV's Riverdale) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fianc?. Suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. What begins as a fight to stay alive becomes one woman's journey of courage and cunning in this horror series bridging three compelling films."

Casting The Strangers trilogy

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Harlin explained how he came to the decision to cast Petsch and Froy Guiterrez in the lead roles for his new take on The Strangers.

"Obviously Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman did a fantastic job in the original film and those were some big shoes to fill," the director pointed out. "We looked long and hard for our scream queen. When I spoke with Madelaine I just knew that she was an exceptional person, exceptional actor, and that's what it took to play this part. In the same way, after looking long and hard, we found Froy Gutierrez, who is another wonderful young actor. We wanted a couple who feel natural and relaxed together. Their relationship, maybe it's not identical to the relationship in the original film, but it's something that feels very natural and very real, and that to me was the key to this movie and this trilogy. It's the realism."

Are you looking forward to this new take on The Strangers? How do you think the new films will fare compared to 2018's The Strangers: Prey at Night? Let us know in the comments!

Mike Flanagan's latest series has finally arrived on Netflix, and the entire thing is inspired by the many works of literature icon Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher gets its name from one of Poe's famous works, telling the story of the downfall of a powerful man. However, that's just one of many Poe references in the series. Nearly every detail of the eight-episode series is some kind of reference to Poe's writings.

There probably too many Poe references and influences in The Fall of the House of Usher to include in this writeup, especially since we want to stay away from spoilers this soon after the show's release. That said, there are some really major Poe things that we need to dive into and discuss.

The Episodes and Titles

The Fall of the House of Usher is the Poe story that provides the framework for the whole series, but Flanagan actually adapts seven more of the author's tales with individual episodes. Without giving details of the various plots away, each episode after the premiere focuses on a specific character, and that character is given a loose adaptation of a famous Poe story.

The Masque of the Red Death, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, Gold-Bug, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Raven are all turned into modern stories to fit the Usher characters throughout the series.

Verna and The Raven

Carla Gugino's character is named Verna, a shape-shifter who appears as someone different to every member of the Usher family. Chaos and death follow wherever she goes.

It's not at all a coincidence that if you change around the order of the letters in her name you can spell Raven, the harbinger of madness from Poe's most iconic work.

Various Supporting Characters

Pretty much every character in The Fall of the House of Usher is named after someone created by Edgar Allan Poe. This includes all of the members of the Usher family, some of whom are named after characters in their respective episode stories, while others take influence from outside tales.

Roderick Usher's first wife, who you see in nearly every episode via flashbacks, is named Annabelle Lee, after Poe's tragic final poem. Lenore, the woman who is mourned throughout The Raven, is the name of Roderick's granddaughter.

Mark Hamill's character, the lawyer Arthur Pym, is from Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. The attorney and investigator trying to take down the Usher family for their pharmaceutical crimes is named Auguste Dupin, after the famous Poe character who appeared in three of his stories and is considered to be the original model for detectives in literature.

There are several more throughout the series but those are the most prominent.

[Warning: This story contains a spoiler for Sunday's The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season finale]. "It's not like we're never gonna see each other again," Daryl told Carol during their goodbye on The Walking Dead series finale. But it's not like fans were never going to see Carol again: AMC announced today that Melissa McBride will star opposite Norman Reedus as a series regular in the second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. With McBride returning to the fan-favorite role she played on all 11 seasons of the original series, the Walking Dead spin-off has a new title for season 2: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol.

Spoiler alert: AMC also announced that McBride's Carol makes an appearance in the "Coming Home" season finale of Daryl Dixon, premiering Sunday, October 15th, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. The news comes after the network screened the episode during its TWD Universe panel at New York Comic Con.

"I've known there was much more to be told of Carol's story as I felt her so unsettled when we last saw her, as she watched her best friend, Daryl, ride away," McBride said in a statement. "Apart or (hopefully!) together, their stories run deep, and I'm so excited to continue Carol's journey here. This team of storytellers have done amazing work to land these two established characters in an entirely new world to them, and I'm loving the discoveries!"

"My good friend, the talented, beautiful Melissa McBride, will be a series regular for season 2," Reedus said at NYCC. "We couldn't be more thrilled."

McBride made a surprise voice cameo in the penultimate episode of Daryl Dixon and will appear -- in the flesh -- in a season finale coda sequence that will serve as the unofficial first chapter in The Book of Carol.

In 2020, AMC announced Reedus and McBride would reprise their roles in an untitled Walking Dead: Daryl & Carol spin-off developed by TWD Universe Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple and then-showrunner Angela Kang. McBride bowed out of the series in April 2022, with an AMC spokesperson explaining that relocating to Europe, where Daryl Dixon is set and filmed, became "logistically untenable" for McBride "at this time." The AMC spokesperson added: "We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but The Walking Dead Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future."

The near future is 2024. As ComicBook exclusively reported, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 will resume production October 20th in France. Zabel confirmed that the AMC Studios series signed an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA for approval to film amid the ongoing actors' strike.

McBride joins an ensemble that includes returning Daryl Dixon cast members Cl?mence Po?sy as Isabelle, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent, Laika Blanc Francard as Sylvie, Anne Charrier as Madame Genet, Romain Levi as Codron, and Eriq Ebouaney as Fallou. McBride also serves as an executive producer on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol alongside Reedus, series creator and showrunner David Zabel, and EPs Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, Daniel Percival, Jason Richman, and Steve Squillante.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon -- The Book of Carol, starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, is set to premiere in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Jeff Burr, a director known for his work on fan-favorite franchises like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Puppet Master, and Pumpkinhead, has passed away at the age of 60. The news of Burr's passing was confirmed in a statement from his longtime friend, actor Eric Spudic (via The Hollywood Reporter). According to Spudic, Burr passed away in his sleep due to apparent complications from a stroke on Tuesday, October 10th in Dalton, Georgia. Burr had a prolific career in the horror and genre space, helming films like Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Stepfather II, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, and Puppet Master 4, 5, and Blitzkrieg Massacre.

Burr was born on July 18, 1963 in Aurora, Ohio. While growing up in Dalton, Georgia, Burr began having a fondness for horror fanzines and Super-8 filmmaking. He attended the University of Southern California for several years, before dropping out alongside Kevin Meyer so they could finish their first film, which became the 1982 Civil War drama Divided We Fall. Burr then fully entered the horror space with his second film, the Vincent Price-led From a Whisper to a Scream (a.k.a. The Offspring).

A few years later, he signed on to helm 1990's Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III -- taking the job just weeks before production was set to begin, after New Line Cinema's first choices for the job had dropped out. The film would become one of the most infamous parts of Burr's filmography, as the movie's content led to a lengthy back and forth with the MPAA, eventually earning an R rating after eleven submissions. Burr actually asked to have his name removed from the film's credits, after editor Michael Knue was brought in to film an entirely new ending, but the studio declined.

In subsequent years, Burr would direct Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings and Puppet Master 4 and 5, as well as lesser-known horror films like Night of the Scarecrow and Devil's Den. His dream project was regarded to be 1992's Eddie Presley, a dramedy that featured cameo appearances from Quentin Tarantino and Bruce Campbell. According to Spudic, "He loved that one more than the others."

Burr's later work included Spoiler, The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes, Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy, and an episode of the Land of the Lost TV show. His final work was 2018's Puppet Master: Blitzkrieg Massacre, as well as the 2021 video game American Hero, which had originally been shot in 1995.

"I've had a real up and down (mostly down) career, but I still love it," Burr told Dread Central in a 2018 interview. "It's what I love to do, and it's still great that after 28 years people still want to talk about this movie, and are still watching it - that's the greatest gift you can get, and I thank everyone that's seen it and talked about it over all these years."

Our thoughts are with Burr's family, friends, and fans at this time.

The second season of AMC's Interview with the Vampire is expected to debut in 2024, and a sneak peek was revealed earlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con. Thanks to New York Comic Con, which kicked off today, fans of the Anne Rice series got a glimpse at a new clip from the season as well as some new photos. The clip begins with a voiceover by Louis (Jacob Anderson) as he arrives at the estate of the family de la Croix with Claudia (Delainey Hayles). It looks as though Armand (Assad Zaman) is serving as their guide, and things turn violent quickly, but Armand and Loius skip the carnage to engage in some flirtation. While people get killed around them, the duo chats and Armand offers to help Louis get better at blocking his thoughts.

The clip ends with Armand saying, "I do believe I felt some trepidation with the name Lestat was uttered." "Who?" Louis replied with a small chuckle. You can watch the clip and view new images from the season below:

Where Is Lestat in Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire?

"They are apart, and Louis has a new partner, Armand, played by Assad Zaman," Sam Reid (Lestat) previously told Entertainment Weekly. "We'll find out a lot more about Armand and his backstory and who he is as a character, because Assad didn't really get the chance to play Armand last season. Armand is a really awesome character that has a lot of connections to a lot of the vampires. He's very old. Finding out more about Armand, and Louis and Armand's relationship and their dynamic, which is very different to Louis and Lestat, it's exciting. It's a wild ride. I get tingles when I see Assad as Armand -- it's very spine-tinglingly good. As is Ben Daniels, who plays Santiago. People are in for a real treat."

Series showrunner Rolin Jones previously teased what fans can expect in Season 2 of the hit AMC series.

"I can tell you a couple things. The challenge is that in the second half of the book, there's less plot than there is in the first half of the book and there's so much internal dialogue," Jones revealed on AMC's blog. "There are long scenes of people having discussions. What we're finding that's really cool about that is even though it's not giving you a wealth of plot, what it does have are these really big emotional tentpoles. There are big plot moments that we're retaining from it, but there are these emotional moments too within our plot that might be slightly different than what's in the book. I'm feeling really, really excited about that."

Interview With the Vampire returns in 2024.

Terry O'Quinn is going from The Island to the Civic Republic. The Emmy-winning actor, who played fan-favorite John Locke on Lost, has been cast in the Rick and Michonne Walking Dead spin-off series starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. AMC announced at New York Comic Con on Thursday that O'Quinn will play Major General Beale -- until now the unseen, shadowy leader of the Civic Republic Military -- in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The network also confirmed that Pollyanna McIntosh, who previously reprised her Walking Dead role on limited series The Walking Dead: World Beyond, will return as CRM Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes.

Alongside Lincoln and Gurira, reprising their iconic roles as Rick Grimes and Michonne, the new series also stars TWD Universe newcomers Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) as Pearl and Matt Jeffries as Nat. See the just-revealed first-look images below, and watch the new teaser trailer here.

Beale was first mentioned on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, ordering the "tactical military operation" that wiped out Nebraska's Omaha Safe-Zone and the satellite Campus Colony -- killing more than 110,000 people -- as part of a plot that threatened another 87,000 survivors from Portland, part of the Civic Republic-aligned Alliance of the Three. That series also revealed that Beale, along with CRM Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond), founded Project Votus, which involves human and zombie test subjects labeled as either an "A" or "B."

The CRM is the mysterious group that Jadis called to shuttle Rick away aboard a helicopter on season 9 of The Walking Dead. More than six years have passed since Rick disappeared and was presumed killed in a bridge explosion, but World Beyond revealed that Jadis trafficked Rick to the CRM in exchange for entry into the Civic Republic, a secret civilization of 200,000 people in fortified Philadelphia. Designated "Consignee Grimes," Rick repeatedly tried -- and failed -- to escape the CRM. Rick has been put to work at a Civic Republic Cull Facility, decontamination centers where CR military personnel perform mass zombie cullings as part of the CRM's efforts to clear entire states of the undead.

Beale was also referenced on The Walking Dead coda when a CRM helicopter pilot told an escaping Rick: "Come on, Rick. It's like he told you: there's no escape for the living."

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live "presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world," per AMC's description. "Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead... And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive -- or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?"

Scott M. Gimple, Chief Content Officer of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe, serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead) and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon). The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres February 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

"We're the ones who live." With those words, Rick Grimes and Michonne returned for a final coda ending The Walking Dead series finale in 2022. The partners and parents are "kept apart by distance and an unstoppable power," per the logline, but not for much longer: Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are reuniting for their new Walking Dead spin-off. The six-episode series, titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, will premiere in February 2024 on AMC and AMC+. The network released a new teaser trailer for the Rick and Michonne spin-off during AMC's TWD Universe New York Comic Con panel, previewing the next chapter in Rick and Michonne's "epic love story."

"I tried to get away. Please know I tried. I tried, but I failed," a bloodied, walker-killing Rick Grimes says in the new trailer, which you can watch below. As Rick looks at the engraved cell phone that Michonne would eventually find on a boat on Bloodsworth Island, Michonne's katana slices through the dead somewhere else. Rick says in voiceover: "Just know... I love you."

"This series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were," reads the official synopsis. "Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead... And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive -- or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?"

After Rick blew up a bridge to save his family and friends from a zombie horde in The Walking Dead season 9, Anne/Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) called a CRM helicopter to airlift the gravely wounded Rick to safety. The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed that Jadis traded Rick to the Civic Republic Military for entry to the Civic Republic in Philadelphia, where Rick has spent years at a CRM zombie-culling facility as "Consignee Grimes."

Years later, in season 10 of The Walking Dead, Michonne set off to find Rick and bring him home to their children, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Rick "RJ" Grimes Jr. (Antony Azor), after she discovered evidence that suggested Rick was alive.

"These are two people that have been separated for a very long time. They've lived whole other existences and they have to find themselves again, let alone each other. And it's hopefully going to be mind-blowing," showrunner Scott M. Gimple has said of the series originally developed as a Rick Grimes movie trilogy. "We see this incredible power couple, but we also see that Red Machete Rick. We see that Michonne who taught a thing or two to the Governor. [The series] kind of goes coast to coast that way between the intimate and the epic and the insane."

Gimple, Chief Content Officer of AMC's The Walking Dead television universe, serves as showrunner and executive produces alongside Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon). TWDU veterans Michael E. Satrazemis (Fear the Walking Dead) and Channing Powell (Tales of the Walking Dead) are co-executive producers, and franchise statesman Greg Nicotero -- who directed the Rick & Michonne coda and The Walking Dead series finale -- is consulting producer.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres in 2024 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 2 is set to resume production next week amid the actors' strike, ComicBook has exclusively learned. In August, AMC Networks secured an interim agreement with the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to resume filming on three series: two Walking Dead spin-offs, Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live, and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. Per the striking actors' union's official list of Productions Approved and Signed to Interim Agreements, the cast and crew are permitted to return to work on these productions without being in violation of the strike order in place since July 14th.

"We're prepping. We're getting ready to shoot," The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon showrunner David Zabel told ComicBook ahead of the first season finale (airing Sunday, October 15th, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+). In an interview conducted the day after members of the Writers Guild of America ratified its contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to end the 148-day writers' strike, Zabel confirmed that the series, which is set and filmed in France, resumes production on October 20th.

"We've got a bunch to film, but we're in pretty good shape," Zabel said of the upcoming second season, which AMC ordered in July. Some of Daryl Dixon season 2 filmed earlier this year in Europe before a planned hiatus that coincided with the actors' strike.

AMC Networks, which produces the series via Stalwart Films and AMC Studios, is an "authorized company" but is not a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing the major Hollywood studios and streamers. Daryl Dixon is among more than 300 "independent" projects granted the waiver with an agreement to abide by the terms the AMPTP eventually reaches with SAG-AFTRA.

The interim agreement "hopefully won't be relevant because I'm hoping that SAG will get what they need and be able to end their action soon," the former ER showrunner added. "But in the meantime, with the writers able to work, and me able to work, we're able to fully produce the show as always. And so that resumes on October 20th and continues from then."

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiered September 10th as the #1 most-viewed premiere of all time and the most-viewed season of any show in the three-year history of streaming service AMC+. Norman Reedus leads a cast that includes Cl?mence Po?sy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebouaney, Laika Blanc Francard, Romain Levi, and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi. Zabel serves as executive producer alongside Reedus, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, Jason Richman, and Daniel Percival.

Daryl Dixon's first season finale premieres Sunday, October 15th on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD (and find us on Facebook) and follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

It's been a year since Halloween Ends landed in theaters and seemingly brought an end to the decades-long conflict between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, but the franchise isn't ending anytime soon, with Deadline confirming that Miramax has secured the TV rights to the Halloween franchise. This update follows reports of weeks of negotiating and bidding among various studios who all hoped to secure the lucrative rights to the series, which launched back in 1978 with the John Carpenter-directed film, which he co-wrote with Debra Hill. It's unclear at this point what Miramax's plans might be for the franchise or where a potential TV series could debut.

With Miramax owning both the TV and film rights to the franchise, the outlet claims that the hope is to launch a shared universe of movies and TV series inspired by the franchise.

"We couldn't be more excited to bring Halloween to television," Miramax's Head of Global TV Marc Helwig shared in a statement. "We are thrilled to expand our long and successful partnership with Trancas and the brilliant Malek Akkad in introducing this iconic franchise to a new form of storytelling and a new generation of fans."

Akkad added, "Trancas International Films is extremely enthused to be expanding our long-standing relationship with Miramax, and we look forward to working with Marc Helwig and the entire team in creating this new chapter."

In the original film, the masked murderer Michael Myers stalked the streets of the suburban Haddonfield, Illinois, with the teen-aged Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) managing to survive the stalker, thanks to the help of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). In the 40 years since that first movie, the original movie has earned multiple sequels and reboots, some of which continue the narrative of their predecessors and some of which create an all-new mythology.

Carpenter and Hill, however, never aimed to create a long-running narrative focusing on Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. The pair begrudgingly agreed to develop the first sequel, Halloween II, in order to put an end to Myers. Halloween III: Season of the Witch then pivoted away from the Michael Myers storyline for an entirely original tale about an evil mask maker, though fans didn't react well to abandoning Myers, who then became an integral component throughout the rest of the franchise.

Horror franchises Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street have both previously been adapted into TV shows, though both served more as anthology programs with self-contained narratives as opposed to a continuation of the big-screen mythology.

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Halloween franchise.

Are you excited for a Halloween TV series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

Nearly 40 years after George A. Romero and Stephen King's Creepshow landed in theaters, Shudder revived the concept for an all-new TV series that captured the spirit of the original movie, yet shifted formats for the streaming age. The series has largely kept the spirit of the original movie alive while also bringing contemporary filmmakers into the fold, but one of the integral components of the original film, John Harrison, has returned to offer a more direct connection to the film that has become a cult classic among audiences. While Harrison composed the score of the original Creepshow, he directed two segments in Season 4 of the series. Creepshow Season 4 premieres on Shudder, AMC+, and AMC on October 13th.

Based on George A. Romero's iconic 1982 horror-comedy classic, Creepshow is still the most fun you'll ever have being scared. A comic book comes to life in a series of vignettes, exploring terrors ranging from murder, creatures, monsters, and delusions to the supernatural and unexplainable. You never know what will be on the next page...

ComicBook.com caught up with Harrison to talk the new season of the series, the lasting legacy of the franchise, and more.

ComicBook.com: There're so many other anthologies that have just been released over the years, what do you think it is about that original Creepshow and the concept of it that has just really resonated with fans over the years?

John Harrison: Well, I don't want to get too pretentious about it, but I think that part of it is that, first of all, it's a lot of fun. It's very creepy stories told exceptionally well by a master. And so, first of all, it's very, very well done. And you don't get the sense that you're really slumming it when you watch Creepshow. You're watching a really high-end movie. So I think that's one of the reasons it's held up for so long. But I think it's just the kind of storytelling, the stories, are very succinct. It's an anthology, so you're not spending two and a half hours trying to get to the point, and there's a place for that, of course.

But in these horror stories, I don't want to call them bite-sized, because they are certainly more than that, they have a way of getting under your skin really quickly. And then you move on to another story and it's got a completely different tone, style, and everything else that can really be different from the other ones. Therefore, you're constantly amused and entertained and hopefully frightened.

This might surprise you to hear, but horror fans can be a bit cynical about reboots or remakes or revivals or whatever. So if somebody was apprehensive about getting involved in the new Creepshow, if they were like, "George Romero's not involved, Stephen King's not involved, who the heck cares about that?" what do you think it is about the TV show that does really capture the spirit of that original movie?

Well, I have to point the finger at Greg Nicotero then, because even though Greg was not involved in the original Creepshow movie, he certainly was part of the whole Romero tribe, if you will, for many, many years, and has carved out a career on his own in terms of monster making and special effects and his own directing with things like The Walking Dead. We certainly give him the bonafides to enter this world, so that's number one. But I also want to give him credit and those of us who he's asked to join on this little odyssey of trying to maintain ... There's been a very definite directive to maintain the spirit and the fun and the style that George and Steve created back in the day. We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are trying to live up to the style that was created back then because that's what people still love, and we want to deliver that to them.

Yes, we have the advantage of some new technology and we have the advantage of some storytelling freedom that maybe we didn't have back then. But I would really say to anybody that's skeptical, you've got to jump in and have a look because you'll find a lot of stories that will give you the same thrill that you had when you watched the original movie. Not to take anything away from the original movie, it's The Godfather, but we tried to live up to it.

You bring up a good point about how Greg is masterminding things or serving almost as a mentor. Is there much collaboration between all of the filmmakers who are involved to either try and unify the tone or look of an installment or is the freedom in how you can set yourselves apart with each story?

Well, it's a little bit of both because Greg chooses all the stories. So, right from the jump, he has a continuum and a style that is uniform for the entire season. But each director, I think, that he is asked to be a part of it is going to bring something unique to it. That's the beauty of the anthology, that you can have different moments from different points of view throughout an entire season.

One unifying factor that has been very helpful, I think for all of us, is the inclusion of Rob Draper, who was a cinematographer. Rob was not involved in the original Creepshow, but he did the Tales from the Darkside TV series and he shot Tales from the Darkside: The Movie with me for Paramount. So first of all, he's a veteran of anthologies. He knows and loves the genre and the original Creepshow. And Greg enlisted him right from the get-go to be the cinematographer on this series so that he could bring a consistency of style and tone to the whole series. I think that other creatives involved Greg's shop, KNB Effects, all of us have been pulling in the same direction. I had the advantage of being George's first assistant director on the original movie, so I go back, I know what it's all about. But having these other team members has been really a wonderful way to keep it consistent.

What was it about "Smile" and "Baby Teeth" that really excited you as a filmmaker? Did Greg just think you'd be a good fit for them or was it that they really caught your interest?

Well, I was lucky because Greg picked them and he sent them to me and said, "I think I'd really love you to do these two." When I read them, I thought, well, he knows me. It was a really good choice. And the reason I really loved them is because they're very different.

"Smile" is a very odd, psychological horror story. There's not a lot of violence, not a lot of bloodletting. It's really all in the guy's mind and what's really happening to him and his wife for something that happened to them a long time ago. "Baby Teeth," on the other hand, is typical Creepshow. A young girl has an encounter with the Tooth Fairy, which is a little bit different than what she expected, let's put it that way. And it's got a very interesting and fun monster in it. For me, doing these two was just a lot of fun because I could exercise two different styles and have two different approaches.

Speaking of that creature in "Baby Teeth," what was the design process like for that? Was it a fully formed idea of what it would look like? Was it a collaboration between you and KNB?

It was mostly KNB. With these schedules and budgets, we don't have a lot of time, at least the director doesn't, for too much of the input into that. And besides, we're dealing with KNB, and what could be better? So Greg had an idea. Once he had settled on the story, I think he and his team had started to put together ideas for what this little creature could look like. When he showed them to me, I thought, "Well, geez, there's not much I can add. This is really great. Now the question is, how can I shoot it to its best effect?" And that's what I brought to the table.

You've worked on so many cool projects over the years, you've worked on other anthologies like Monsters and Tales from the Darkside. Do you think those projects could ever earn a similar revival or do you think, especially Tales from the Darkside and Creepshow, there's so much common DNA between those two TV shows and those two movies, do you think Creepshow's scratching that itch? Or do you think both Monsters and Tales from the Darkside are their own unique things, their own perspectives, that they're worth bringing back for a new generation?

Well, I think that they do have their own unique identity. I don't know, the question you're asking is almost more of a business question than it is ... Would I love to see a series of Monsters, would I love to see a series of more Darkside episodes? Sure. You got the money? I'll go do it. It's really a matter of a distributor, a network, or whoever who would want to pull that off.

Is there enough of an appetite for it? Yeah, I think so. There are a lot of anthology series now on TV. I think it's a storytelling paradigm that people like. I think that's been proven. I remember in the '90s, George and I used to go around L.A. and try to sell anthology series and we couldn't get arrested. We had a couple of ideas and we partnered up and we were going around town, couldn't get arrested.

I don't know, exactly, what tipped the balance. Both his movie and my movie were very successful, so I don't know why people didn't see it. But they didn't, until into the 2000s, and now there's a lot. I think, in general, there's a breaking point there, too, that horror, for a long time, was considered a low-rent arena in Hollywood. The movies made money and they made a lot of them, but it wasn't until ... Genre was a very hard sell in television for a long time. And then, somewhere around the 2000s, it started to happen.

I did the Dune miniseries, Ron Moore did Battlestar Galactica. They were hugely successful. All of a sudden, people started to say ... Genre and the Sci-Fi channel started coming up with stuff, people started to say, "Maybe genre really has a place." And now you turn on the television and everything's genre all the time. So it's maybe just a matter of timing, who knows?

For years, the various iterations of Dune were more like cult classics. You really had to find people super passionate about Dune to have a conversation. And now, what the most recent movie did and this upcoming movie is doing, it's taking it to a whole new level. I was just curious what your thoughts on that were, whether you enjoyed the movies or if you're just excited about the fact that the popularity of it will introduce new audiences to what you did with Dune?

Well, all of the above. I'm very excited about it. Richard Rubenstein and I were still involved in the development of several attempts to try to get it off the ground after my miniseries. And, maybe fortunately, some of those never came to pass because I think what Denis Villeneuve has done is just fantastic. And I love him as a director.

I wasn't involved at all in the latest movies except to have my name put up there, but I think it's just fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the new ones. I hope it does introduce a whole new audience to the Dune world. If they are able to get back and see my miniseries, I'm very proud of them. We were able to ... I think the success of them, they won a couple of Emmys and they were hugely successful here and abroad. I think they gave people faith that Dune actually could be adapted again.

The David Lynch version has its strengths, but clearly the run time that your miniseries was able to tap into helped make them understand that this cannot be contained to one two-hour experience. And clearly they've learned that lesson, I like to think entirely because of you.

Well, thank you very much. I'll take that.

Lastly here, and this might be something super specific, it might be completely off your radar, but when Eli Roth made his Grindhouse trailer, he used your music from Creepshow in "Thanksgiving." And now he's finally made his Thanksgiving movie into a full feature, is that something that you're at all involved with? Was it just a totally random selection of your piece of music for that trailer and now he's doing his own thing, or are you involved at all with this new Thanksgiving?

No, I'm not involved with it at all. I've been aware of it. Now, back in the day when Quentin [Tarantino] and Robert [Rodriguez] were doing the Grindhouse movies and Roth was going to do the ... They called me and said, "Listen, we love this piece and we want to put it in there and would you give us permission?" And, of course, I said, "Yes." But he's finally getting a chance to do it, so he's going to put his own imprimatur on it, and I'm sure the music that he'll choose will be pretty creepy.

Creepshow Season 4 premieres on Shudder, AMC+, and AMC on October 13th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, it's time to enter the Buffyverse. You can listen to Slayers: A Buffyverse Story now on Audible, but if you're wondering what it might sound like, we have you covered. Audible has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive excerpt from the nine-episode Slayers series. The clip sees Indira (Laya DeLeon Hayes), a brand-new Slayer, getting to know Anya (Emma Caulfield), the ex-vengeance demon. The conversation involves Anya's talents with magic and the possibility that she'll teach Indira a thing or two. You can listen to the clip below. Caulfield is reprising her role from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a role she told ComicBook.com she had never expected to revisit.

"It was the most fun I've had on a job in years," Caulfield said of her time recording Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. "It's one of my top, top, top, top favorite projects I've ever done. Loved it. And I never thought I would revisit that show in a million years. Never. But then knock, knock, and it's Amber, and I was like, 'Hmm, what are you doing? What's up? What is this?' And that was enough for me."

What is Slayers: A Buffyverse Story about?

Original cast members from the beloved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reunite for an all-new adventure about connections that never die--even if you bury them.

A decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The game-changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists. With new Slayers constantly emerging, things are looking grim for the bad guys. Rebellious vampire Spike (James Marsters) is working undercover in Los Angeles with his old pal Clem (James Charles Leary) when he meets feisty, rookie Slayer, Indira (Laya DeLeon Hayes), who wants Spike to be her mentor. Stakes intensify as Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) emerges from an alternate reality where she alone is the Slayer, and Buffy Summers doesn't exist. Cordelia enlists Spike's help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world...his ex, Drusilla (Juliet Landau). Giles (Anthony Head), Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford), Jonathan (Danny Strong), and Tara (Amber Benson) also return, but through the years and the vastness of the multiverse, not everyone is who they used to be...

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is written and directed by Amber Benson and Chris Golden, and co-directed by Kc Wayland.

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story debuted all nine of its episodes today. You can listen now on Audible.

Last week on American Horror Story: Delicate, Anna became convinced that she is still pregnant despite having appeared to have suffered a miscarriage previously after she began exhibiting some unusual symptoms. However, despite that happy possibility, things have gotten more unsettling than ever -- including someone communicating with Anna via her online calendar telling her that they're trying to warn her and that her baby isn't dead. This week, Anna might just get her good news confirmed, but her career is also in crisis and things just get more complicated from here. Here's what happened in this week's episode, "Vanishing Twin".

Spoilers for American Horror Story: Delicate, "Vanishing Twin" bound from this point on. Only read on if you really want to know.

What Happens in American Horror Story: Delicate Episode 4?

England 1555. The queen is giving birth and her sister arrives and demands to be let in. It quickly becomes apparent that something is horribly wrong and the queen says the baby is a monster. Dark figures emerge from the shadows and tell Mary that it is time. They take the baby and says he has waited over 6000 years to be born. They say that Mary promised them the child in exchange for a prosperous reign. When Elizabeth says she won't promise anything, they tell her she will be barren and she falls down in pain. The figures vanish and Mary demands Elizabeth leave.

Back in the present, Anna confronts Dex about Sonia. He explains it away and Anna tells him that she and Kamal saw Preecher in town. Dex agrees to go with her to the doctor the next day. Anna goes into the house, carrying the corpse of the animal outside and is confronted by Nicolette, but Anna dismisses her. Anna brings the animal down to the basement and puts it in a bassinette, treating it like a baby. A black cat startles her but then leaves through a window. Anna starts to go upstairs but hears something in the basement and turns back only for it to be nothing.

Anna goes to see Siobhan where she meets the Ashleys -- who appear to be the same women from 1555. They're introduced as being there for crisis PR and have worked for some major clients. They want to create a viral Reel for her to rehab her image. Anna is hesitant. Back in her own home, there's a new security system and Dex's mother is there unexpectedly. She speaks to Dex privately and asks him to testify on her behalf in a lawsuit against his father. Alone, Anna starts noticing that her hair is falling out and then rage stomps the broken mirror.

At the doctor, despite the doctor being dismissive of her symptoms he soon finds the heartbeat. The baby is fine. The doctor explains things as being vanishing twin syndrome. Anna and Dex both question this but the doctor dismisses them and leaves them to celebrate their good news. On the way out, Anna sees the woman, Nurse Ivy, again, but Dex is unable to locate her.

Siobhan is having an affair with the director of Anna's film. She reminds him that he can't tell anyone about how he got the idea for the film. Anna ends up doing the viral Reel -- about female body autonomy -- and it's a hit. Dex has lunch with his mother and they talk about abortion and kids. His mom doesn't really approve of them having a family. His mother has also been doing recovery of memories about ritual satanic abuse and she claims his father was in on it which is why she's suing him.

Back at Talia's house, Nicolette congratulates Anna on being pregnant but it's a little weird. Flowers were also delivered with a creepy card that says, "you can't trust any of them". That night, Anna can't sleep and gets up to get a snack. She again finds the photo of Dex with his late wife but imagines it is Sonia instead. She eats a pint of ice cream and a jar of pickles then goes into the basement and tries to open the door down there but can't. She falls backwards and hits her head. When she wakes up, she goes to the bassinette she put the dead animal in. She notices her gums starting to bleed again. As she's listening to the Golden Globe nominations -- and she's nominated -- she starts eating the dead animal.

American Horror Story: Delicate airs Wednesdays on FX.

Chucky season 3 just premiered its second episode tonight and with it a promo for next week as well. The next episode of Chucky, titled "Jennifer's Body," looks to be flashing back to the immediate aftermath of the Chucky season 2 finale. Not only that but it teases the return of a fan favorite character, and their potential death, Alex Vincent's Andy Barclay. "I think it's time we paid some of my old friends a little visit," Chucky says in the teaser right before footage is shown of him stabbing Andy in the neck with a syringe. The Chucky season 3 episode 3 teaser concludes with Andy tied to a bed and Chucky sitting on his chest, a knife pointed directly at his face.

Alex Vincent originally played the role of Andy Barclay way back in 1988's Child's Play when he was just seven-years-old. He would return to play Andy once again in Child's Play 2 but then would stay on the sidelines, only returning for a post-credit scene in Curse of Chucky over twenty years later. Vincent would then go on to play a bigger role in 2017's Cult of Chucky, playing an adult Andy still on the revenge path against Chucky. When the Chucky TV series premiered later he would become a recurring star, appearing in seven episodes in the show's first two seasons.

Where is Chucky streaming?

The first two seasons of Chucky are available for streaming on two different platforms, both Peacock and Shudder. All sixteen episodes of the series, including both seasons 1 and 2, can be streamed on each of these services. Unlike previous seasons of Chucky however, wherein the entire season would have to premiere on cable before it began streaming, the new episodes of Chucky season 3 will be available for streaming the next day. After Chucky season 3's episodes air on SYFY and USA Network on Wednesdays, they'll be available to stream the very next day on Peacock.

When does the next episode of Chucky come out?

New episodes of Chucky season 3 premiere on Wednesdays at 9 PM ET. Like previous seasons, Chucky season 3 is eight episodes in total, but only four of them will air this year, so only two are left in 2023. The final four episodes of Chucky season 3 will premiere in 2024, with no specific timeframe revealed yet.

In Chucky's unending thirst for power, Season 3 now sees Chucky ensconced with the most powerful family in the world - America's First Family, inside the infamous walls of the White House. How did Chucky wind up here? What in God's name does he want? And how can Jake, Devon, and Lexy possibly get to Chucky inside the world's most secure house, all while balancing the pressures of romantic relationships and growing up? Meanwhile, Tiffany faces a looming crisis of her own as the police close in on her for "Jennifer Tilly's" murderous rampage last season.

The cast for chucky includes Zackary Arthur as Jake Webber, Bjorgvin Arnarson as Devon Lopez, Alyvia Alyn Lind as Lexy Taylor, Barbara Alyn Woods as Michelle Cross, Devon Sawa as the President of the United States, Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany Valentine, Fiona Dourif as Nica, and Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky.