By MICHAEL GINGOLD
If you want to literally Netflix and chill next month, the streaming service has a quartet of fright films on tap, and images and a trailer have been released for all of them.
First up is IN THE TALL GRASS (pictured above), the adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill’s novella by writer/director Vincenzo Natali (CUBE, SPLICE), releasing globally October 4. Harrison Gilbertson (HOUNDS OF LOVE), Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Will Buie Jr., Rachel Wilson and Patrick Wilson from the CONJURING and INSIDIOUS movies star; the synopsis: “When siblings Becky and Cal hear the cries of a young boy lost within a field of tall grass, they venture in to rescue him, only to become ensnared themselves by a sinister force that quickly disorients and separates them. Cut off from the world and unable to escape the field’s tightening grip, they soon discover that the only thing worse than getting lost is being found.”
Next up on October 11 is FRACTURED, from director Brad Anderson (SESSION 9, THE MACHINIST) and writer Alan B. McElroy (WRONG TURN). Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky and Lucy Capri star; the synopsis: “Driving home after a tense holiday weekend with his in-laws, Ray Monroe [Worthington], a well-meaning but overwhelmed family man, pulls into a rest area with his wife Joanne [Rabe] and daughter Peri [Capri]. The trip takes a turn for the worse when Peri is hurt in an accident and the family rushes to a nearby emergency room run by a staff with dubious intentions. After being sent away for further testing Peri and Joanne vanish and all records of their visit disappear. Ray’s concern turns into a desperate race to find his family and discover the truth of what happened to them.”
Netflix has set an October 18 global debut date for ELI, the supernatural chiller it acquired from Paramount earlier this year. Directed by Ciaran Foy (CITADEL) from a screenplay by David Chirchirillo (who discussed it with us here), https://rue-morgue.com/exclusive-scripter-talks-boy-in-the-bubble-chiller-eli-from-geralds-game-producer/ Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing (the duo behind THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE), ELI stars Charlie Shotwell, Lili Taylor, Max Martini, Sadie Sink (STRANGER THINGS) and Kelly Reilly and and is “the story of a young boy [Shotwell] plagued with an unknown, debilitating illness that requires him to live completely sealed off from the outside world. After exhausting every option, his parents [Reilly and Martini] put their trust—and his life—in the hands of a doctor [Taylor] whose experimental, cutting edge treatments at her clean house facility may hold Eli’s last hope. As Eli undergoes the tremendously intense process that could potentially cure him, he begins to be haunted by experiences that make him question who he can trust and what is lurking inside the house.”
Finally, RATTLESNAKE has its Netflix premiere October 25. Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, it stars Carmen Ejogo, Apollonia Pratt, Theo Rossi and Emma Greenwell. The synopsis: “Katrina [Ejogo] is a single mother driving cross country to start a new life with her young daughter Clara [Pratt] when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. As Katrina changes the tire, Clara wanders off the desert road and is bitten by a venomous rattlesnake. Desperate to save her daughter’s life, Katrina accepts the help of a mysterious woman, but after she miraculously heals Clara, Katrina is asked to repay the good deed by killing a stranger in exchange for the life saved. Without time to lose, she must wrestle with the morality of who deserves to live and who should die, before her daughter’s life is once again put in peril at sundown.”
