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After spending December revisiting Joel Schumacher’s 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera (listen), Bette Davis’ Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (listen) and Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 (listen), Trace and I rang in 2025 with a look back at Sophia Takal‘s Into The Dark entry, New Year, New You (2018), co-written with Adam Gaines.

In the Hulu film, Alexis (Suki Waterhouse) joins friends Kayla (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Chloe (Melissa Bergland) and social media influencer Danielle (Carly Chaikin) to ring in the new year.

But Alexis has ulterior motives for attending this year’s festivities. She blames Danielle for her facial disfigurement, resents her for her fame, and has a devious plan to exact revenge. The party quickly turns into a hostage situation with Kayla and Chloe forced to pick sides as the other two work out their issues in an escalating series of verbal and physical spats.

Will Alexis get her revenge?...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSJonas Mekas (1922 — 2019)"I have never been able, really, to figure out where my life begins and where it ends. I have never, never been able to figure it all out, what's all about." We're sad to say that Jonas Mekas, considered the "godfather of avant-garde cinema," has passed away today at the age of 96. The Lithuanian filmmaker leaves behind a legacy of film criticism, programming, and lovingly, meticulously crafted cinema, often confronting and splicing through his own biography as a refugee and artist. In April of last year, Mekas was "rediscovering Virginia Woolf," and working on a compilation of 50 years' worth of diaries. After a number of health scares in the summer, he informed The New York Times that death is a "normal transition [...] It’s where the mystery begins, where it becomes interesting.

You cannot talk about Sophia Takal’s New Year, New You (the fourth episode of Blumhouse Television’s holiday-themed Hulu series Into the Dark) without mentioning producer Jason Blum’s reaction to a Twitter storm in October that stemmed from an interview wherein the low-budget financier relayed an erroneous statement that “there are not a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror.” Blum talked specifically about how he’s offered pre-packaged projects to women in the past who have turned him down—artists known for work that they’ve created themselves. So what about giving those filmmakers money to bring their own visions to life a la Jordan Peele and Get Out? What about betting on their creativity rather than a script already in his pipeline?

Is Takal’s feature-length television episode the first step towards making good on his apology? Yes. It comes with some caveats,...

The fourth entry in Hulu's Into the Dark, New Year, New You follows childhood friends in a feral fight to survive the night, and you can now watch the trailer for the latest installment of the monthly anthology series.

Directed by Sophia Takal from a script by Adam Gaines, New Year, New You will be released on Hulu on December 28th.

"This is the year you kill it. Into the Dark: New Year, New You premieres December 28 only on Hulu.

A social media star celebrates New Year's Eve with her childhood friends, but a fun game of secrets turns into a terrifying fight for survival. Stars Suki Waterhouse and Carly Chaiken

About Into The Dark

In partnership with Blumhouse Television, Into The Dark is a horror event series from prolific, award-winning producer, Jason Blum’s independent TV studio. The series includes 12 super-sized episodes, with a new installment released each...

Blumhouse Television’s new Hulu series “Into the Dark” is providing an unique opportunity for genre directors to produce new work. The anthology horror series launched in October, with the plan to have a new entry released each month tied to a holiday. However, unlike other anthology series, each episode is actually feature-length, which means that Blumhouse is producing one new horror movie every month. October’s Halloween-centric “The Body” allowed director Paul Fisher to expand on his short film of the same name, while cult genre filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo’s Christmas-centric “Pooka!” premiered today to rave reviews.

The next entry in the series, IndieWire has learned, comes from a filmmaker familiar from the festival circuit: Sophia Takal, the director of “Green” and “Always Shine,” helmed the all-female horror movie “New Year New You” for the series. The 85-minute feature will premiere on Hulu on December 28.

The all-female cast includes...

Dexter's Katia Winter and Westworld's Simon Quarterman are an unlikely team-up in Joshua Caldwell's new spy thriller Negative, out today from Monarch Home Entertainment. In the film, Winter plays a burned MI5 agent on the run from a deadly cartel kidnaps a photographer in order to save him after he innocently crosses her path. The unlikely pair then take an outlandish jaunt across the southwestern United States in order to find safe haven. The first trailer shows off some high octane action and a cracking script from Adam Gaines. It also stars Sebastian Roche, Josh Randall and Marem Hassler. Check out the trailer below:...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...