This Week in Dead Meat | March 23rd

Welcome to the inaugural Dead Meat Newsletter!

We’ve been working on this for a while - you might have noticed if you subscribed when our website went live in October. Half a year later we’re finally ready to go. Expect a weekly edition every Sunday morning.

This is new for us so let us know the best way to make this worthwhile for you. We don’t want to have a newsletter just to have a newsletter, we want it to bring our readers value.

All right, let’s get to the news.

James’ Corner

The Modern Horror Golden Age

In a couple of weeks it will have been 8 years since I first published the Friday the 13th (1980) KILL COUNT. I can’t help but think about that as I work on the Dead Meat Horror Awards, which I consider the pinnacle of this channel / brand / company’s success.

I’m just so damn proud of the horror genre. In the years since Dead Meat began, it’s boomed and flourished both commercially and critically. It has proven to be one of the more resistant genres amidst the ever-changing box office landscape. Horror can still turn a tidy profit while plenty of bigger budget fare end up as let downs for their studios. Sure, a big part of that equation is the usually (much) lower budgets, but that only shows how creative horror filmmakers are. They’re making more with less, and having a good time while they do it.

I’ve long said horror began its modern resurgence in 2017 - and no, not just because that’s when Dead Meat began (I’ll take that as a happy coincidence).

Get Out earned critical recognition and the acknowledgement that, hey, horror movies can be art. Sure, it may have led to the overused term / subgenre “Elevated Horror”, but you can’t fault it for imitators.

And It, released the same year, found INSANE commercial success, becoming the highest grossing horror movie of all time. Due to its younger audience, that meant an entirely new generation of horror fans. I like to think Dead Meat was there to help guide the ones who went on YouTube looking to learn more about the genre.

Since then, the quality of horror films has not let up, save for the industry-wide dearth caused by COVID. But even that lull gave us 2022 as a result, when all the pent-up productions were unleashed within the same calendar year.

I still think 2022 was the best year for horror in my lifetime, but 2024 was plenty impressive itself. Watching the rough cut of our Awards show, I’m moved by the variety and quality of horror offerings last year. Not everyone will have liked everything, but I hope we as horror fans can take a moment to appreciate the golden age we’re living in right now. Thanks for being a part of it.

Last Week In Horror

• Saw XI Stalled Amid “Inter-Squabbling”: After already being delayed from last September to this September, the planned follow-up to the fan darling Saw X seems to have hit a major roadblock.

• Darren Aronofsky Circling to Direct New ‘Cujo’ Movie: Darren Aronofsky, the director behind Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, and Mother is in talks to direct the recently announced adaptation of Stephen King’s Cujo.

• First Images Released For (Seemingly) Final Hell House LLC: Hell House LLC will likely be the final movie in the franchise, but it’s also the first movie in the franchise to ditch the found footage format.

• The Release Dates for “Weapons,” “The Bride,” and “Flowervale Street” Have Shifted: Some of the biggest upcoming horror movies have gotten a little shaken up, with Zach Cregger’s Weapons moving up to 2025 while “The Bride” and “Flowervale Street” have been pushed back.

Trailers

Readers, sometimes a week goes by and there are simply no interesting horror trailers. This is not one of those weeks.

• TOGETHER - Starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, this romance body horror has been getting praised from critics that have already seen it.

• THE UGLY STEPSISTER - A take on the Cinderella story, this Shudder release doesn’t seem like the standard public domain horror we’ve become accustomed to. We’d never heard of this until finding the trailer, but it looks interesting!

• FREWAKA: Another Shudder release, this Irish horror movie seems like it has the potential to be a fun take on paranoia, superstitions, and demonic entities.

• TOXIC AVENGER: It’s only a teaser, but we’ve officially gotten our first look at the new Toxie in action.

Dead Meat Announcements

The biggest news is the upcoming Dead Meat Horror Awards Nominees - we’ve unveiled the nominees for our 11 categories. Check them out HERE! 

But what else is to come from Dead Meat?

Announced Videos

• March 28th: Smile 2 (2024) KILL COUNT

• April 11th: Last of Us | KILL COUNT GAMES

• April 18th: Maniac (1980) KILL COUNT

• April 25th: As Above So Below (2014) KILL COUNT

• April 26th: Dead Meat Horror Awards - 1PM PST Premiere

Live Events

Want to see James and Chelsea in person? Good news, they’ll be places! Here are some of the live events they’ll be attending this year. More to be announced in the future.

• Horror Con Scotland - Glasgow, Scotland on April 12th!

• Texas Frightmare - Dallas, Texas on May 23rd-25th

• Flashback Weekend - Chicago, Illinois on August 1st-3rd

Latest Videos

It’s been a big week for Dead Meat releases! On the Kill Count, we dived into last year’s breakout awards darling:

Then it was March Madness on the Dead Meat Podcast, with James and Chelsea determining the WORST friend that horror has to offer.

And finally, we had a whole host of interviews.

1. Borderline’s Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, and Jimmy Warden: James is joined by the cast and writer/director of this month’s Borderline to discuss the Madonna inspired home invasion.

2. Locked Director David Yarovesky: James and Chelsea sat down with David Yarovesky, the director behind Brightburn, to discuss his latest movie - Locked.

3. ASH Director Flying Lotus: Life comes full circle for Flying Lotus superfan Chelsea as she and James get to sit down with the musician turned director to discuss his feature debut, ASH - the followup to his work on the V/H/S/99 segment Ozzy’s Dungeon.

And on top of all of that, James and Chelsea were on Good Mythical Weekend telling scary stories and making jokes about them - something they have experience with.

Current Merch