Hulu’s picked up Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a four-part documentary series that goes behind the scenes and gets up close and personal with Jon Bon Jovi and the band. Hulu notes that the docuseries is the first to be produced with all members – past and present – of Bon Jovi cooperating.
The documentary series was directed and executive produced by Emmy Award winner Gotham Chopra (Kobe Bryant’s Muse, Man in the Arena), with Giselle Parets and Ameeth Sankaran for ROS also involved as executive producers.
“As thrilling as the story of a once-in-a-lifetime talent is, it is even more rare that a legend like Jon Bon Jovi lets the world into his most vulnerable moments while he’s still living them,” reads Hulu’s synopsis. “Forty years of personal videos, unreleased early demos, original lyrics, and never-before-seen photos that chronicle the journey from Jersey Shore clubs to the biggest stages on the planet. The series relives the triumphs and setbacks, greatest hits, biggest disappointments and most public moments of friction.”
Hulu has set a Friday, April 26, 2024 premiere date for Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.
January 21, 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of the band’s release of their first self-titled album. Over their first four decades, Bon Jovi sold more than 130 million albums, and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Frontman Jon Bon Jovi was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has used his popularity and spotlight to raise funds to help the poor, unhoused, and hungry.
Apple TV+ has released an intense trailer for Constellation, a psychological thriller starring Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The first trailer for the eight-episode series introduces Rapace as an astronaut who escapes a catastrophic event in space only to return home where she feels detached from her life and her young daughter.
Joining Rapace in the conspiracy-based drama are Jonathan Banks (Better Call Saul), James D’Arcy (Agent Carter), Julian Looman (Emily in Paris), William Catlett (A Thousand and One), and Barbara Sukowa (Voyager). Newcomers Rosie and Davina Coleman star as Alice.
Peter Harness (The War of the Worlds) created the series, writes, and executive produces, with Emmy Award-winner Michelle MacLaren (Shining Girls), Oscar nominee Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), and Oscar nominee Joseph Cedar (Footnote) directing. MacLaren, David Tanner, Tracey Scoffield, Caroline Benjo, Simon Arnal, Carole Scotta, and Justin Thomson executive produce.
Noomi Rapace stars in ‘Constellation’ (Photo Credit: Apple TV+)
Constellation will premiere on Apple TV+ on February 21, 2024 with the release of the first three episodes. New episodes follow on Wednesdays leading up to the March 27th season finale.
“Constellation stars Rapace as Jo – an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space – only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing,” reads Apple TV+’s synopsis. “The action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology and one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost.”
All of Us Strangers‘ Andrew Scott takes on the lead role in Netflix’s Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s popular Tom Ripley novels. The first one-minute teaser captures a noir vibe in stunning black & white and briefly reveals the first look at Scott in character.
The eight-episode drama also features Dakota Fanning (The Alienist) as Marge Sherwood and Johnny Flynn (Lovesick) as Dickie Greenleaf. Eliot Sumner, Maurizio Lombardi, Margherita Buy, and John Malkovich also star.
Oscar winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) wrote the series and directed all eight episodes. Zaillian also served as an executive producer along with Garrett Basch, Clayton Townsend, Guymon Casady, Ben Forkner, Sharon Levy and Philipp Keel of Diogenes. Series star Andrew Scott is a producer.
“Tom Ripley (Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home,” reads Netflix’s synopsis. “Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.”
Four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening and two-time Emmy nominee Sam Neill lead the cast of Peacock’s Apples Never Fall, a limited series based on Liane Moriarty’s New York Times bestselling novel. The first official teaser briefly introduces the family at the heart of the story and reveals that beneath the family matriarch’s happy facade lie carefully kept secrets.
Joining Bening and Neill in the seven-episode drama are Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner, and Essie Randles. Georgia Flood, Jeanine Serralles, and Dylan Thuraisingham also star, with Katrina Lenk, Timm Sharp, Nate Mann, Paula Andrea Placido, Pooja Shah, and Quentin Plair guest starring.
Melanie Marnich (The OA) adapted Moriarty’s book for the series and serves as executive producer and showrunner. Author Moriarty also executive produces along with Bening, David Heyman, Gregory Jacobs, Joe Hortua, Albert Page, and Jillian Share. Executive producer Chris Sweeney and Dawn Shadforth direct.
“I’ve never been able to resist a story that feels like an immersive vacation from life…and yet is deliciously about life. Enter: Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty. The riveting and twisty mystery is anchored by the Delaney family, whose wit, wounds, yearning and complexity made me want to translate this great book to television and made me feel like the Delaneys had something to say to all of us,” commented Marnich.
Marnich continued: “Through them, this story dives into the complexities of love, long-term marriage, and the struggle to define oneself within—and beyond—family. It was thrilling to write about the truly grown-up issues the Delaneys are grappling with, like the sometimes brutal sacrifices parents make to keep a marriage and family together. We also take the gloves off when capturing what it takes to be a working mother and wife as we follow Joy into the mystery at the heart of this show.”
Peacock will release all seven episodes on March 14, 2024 for your binge-watching pleasure.
Annette Bening as Joy in ‘Apples Never Fall’ (Photo by: Jasin Boland/PEACOCK)
Peacock released this synopsis of the limited series:
“Apples Never Fall centers on the seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family. Former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. While they look forward to spending time with their four adult children (Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles), everything changes when a wounded young woman knocks on Joy and Stan’s door, bringing the excitement they’ve been missing.
But when Joy suddenly disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ so-called perfect marriage as their family’s darkest secrets begin to surface.”
Conor Merrigan-Turner as Logan, Essie Randles as Brooke, Sam Neill as Stan, Annette Bening as Joy, Alison Brie as Amy, and Jake Lacy as Troy (Photo by: Vince Valitutti/PEACOCK)Jake Lacy as Troy, Essie Randles as Brooke, Alison Brie as Amy, and Conor Merrigan-Turner as Logan (Photo by: Vince Valitutti/PEACOCK)Sam Neill as Stan and Annette Bening as Joy (Photo by: Jasin Boland/PEACOCK)Conor Merrigan-Turner as Logan, Annette Bening as Joy, and Jake Lacy as Troy (Photo by: PEACOCK)
Finn Bennett and Jodie Foster in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ episode 2 (Photo by Michele K. Short/HBO)
HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, season four of the award-winning anthology, began with the mind-blowing discovery that an entire research team just up and vanished, leaving food on counters and a DVD playing back at the Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska. Episode one introduced Academy Award-winner Jodie Foster as Ennis Police Chief Liz Danvers and Kali Reis as Alaska Trooper Evangeline Navarro, who will be – reluctantly – teaming up to figure out what happened to the researchers, a disappearance that Navarro believes is connected to the cold case of a local activist and midwife who was brutally murdered six years ago.
Episode two kicks off with Liz and Officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) examining the researchers’ frozen bodies, which were discovered outside of town at the end of the season premiere. Their bodies are frozen in grotesque positions and partially sticking out of the snow. It appears the victims are naked and have ruptured eardrums, and Peter believes one of them scratched their own eyes out.
Danvers finds a symbol on one of the victims’ heads. She originally planned to turn the case over to Anchorage to investigate because it’s too big for their small department, but she’s changed her mind and wants to keep it. Danvers reminds everyone at the crime scene to be professional and at least act like they know how to behave.
Navarro finds the victims’ clothing, including shoes, arranged neatly not far from the bodies.
As the police are carefully digging out the bodies, one suddenly starts to move and makes disturbing gurgling noises.
The surviving victim is placed in a medically-induced coma and will most likely have his leg amputated. Liz takes a call from a nurse and learns he can’t be questioned. A call from Peter informs her he’s figured out how to move the bodies without destroying any evidence.
Liz disrupts a high school class and sends the students home. The teacher, Bryce (a geologist), isn’t happy about the intrusion or happy to see her since they used to sleep together. Liz assures him she just wants to ask about the Tsalal research facility.
Bryce describes the researchers as madmen and very reclusive. Most research facilities switch out personnel, but not Tsalal. No one comes in, and no one goes out. Bryce knows they spent decades trying to sequence the DNA of an extinct microorganism that potentially could stop cellular decay. In layman’s terms, the work they were doing could cure cancer and autoimmune diseases and was basically a game changer. However, he doesn’t think what they were doing was ever going to work.
Navarro stops by Rose’s place and asks if she sees Travis often. (Travis is the dead man who showed Rose where the missing researchers were.) Travis committed suicide because he didn’t want leukemia to take him. Navarro found him dead, and that’s how she and Rose (Fiona Shaw) met. Rose is certain a lot of Ennis residents can see the dead.
“I think the world is getting old, and Ennis is where the fabric of all things is coming apart at the seams,” says Rose.
Rose believes some of the dead come because they miss people, and some have something to say. Others just want to take the living with them.
Evangeline opens up to Rose about her sister’s troubles. Her sister believes people are following her and that their dead mother is calling her. Rose tells her not to confuse seeing the dead and mental illness.
As they say goodbye, Rose asks Evangeline if she saw the symbol on the body. After Rose draws the symbol in the snow, Evangeline confirms she’s seen it before. Rose says it’s older than Ennis – and probably older than the ice.
Liz returns to the station where Captain Connelly (Christopher Eccleston) is talking to the officers. Connelly informs Liz this case is going to Anchorage and Liz protests. She wants the case and Connelly assumes that’s only because it’s her way of getting back at him for sending her to Ennis.
Liz reads him a rule from the Alaska Forensic Crime Detection Laboratory Manual. It clearly states frozen bodies are not to be moved until properly thawed. If they’re moved, the evidence obtained could be compromised.
Score one for Liz, as she’s staved off the removal of the case from Ennis for now.
Liz heads to the ice rink to see if they can keep the bodies there while they thaw out. Kate (Dervla Kirwan), who is apparently a bigwig at the mine that owns the rink, agrees to help even though it’s obvious she despises Liz.
It seems like the entire town fills the streets as the bodies are brought to the rink. After they’re delivered, Liz and Peter get a better look at the injuries and Pete thinks they bit their own hands. Liz suggests they dig into old autopsies for similar self-inflicted wounds in past cases.
Jodie Foster and Finn Bennett in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ episode 2 (Photo by Michele K. Short/HBO)
Liz and Peter put faces to names (they have photos of each researcher from Tsalal), and thus far, Peter has counted five heads and nine feet. He wonders why they appear to be climbing on top of each other as if something was chasing them. Liz thinks hypothermia caused delirium.
Evangeline joins the frozen pile examination and notes that Kate might hate Liz more than she hates her. Liz confesses she slept with Kate’s husband while the couple were still married. Evangeline points out that the symbol on the surviving victim’s forehead was also tattooed on unsolved murder victim Annie K’s body. Evangeline thinks they should work together since it’s the same case. Liz refuses, and Evangeline insults her, claiming everyone hates her except Peter.
Peter has the brilliant idea to use the victims’ faces to unlock their phones.
Evangeline visits Annie’s brother, Ryan, to see if he recognizes Clark, the researcher who was photographed wearing Annie’s jacket. Unfortunately, Ryan’s never seen him. A miner catches a glimpse of the photo, and it’s evident he knows Clark. However, he denies it.
A fight breaks out and interrupts their conversation.
Back at the ice rink, Liz and Peter ask each other questions as they attempt to figure out what could have happened. (Liz likes to make Peter try and come up with the right questions as an investigative tool.) If there is, in fact, a killer, why would they fold the victims’ clothes in neat piles? They toss out ideas, including a polar bear attack, but nothing sticks. The symbol on a victim’s forward stumps them since they don’t know when it was drawn, what it means, or who drew it.
Peter nails one “right” question when he wonders how scared you have to be to run out into the freezing snow and ice without shoes or without being completely dressed.
Peter plays a video from researcher Facundo’s phone. In it, Clark can be seen in the background convulsing. When Facundo asks if he’s okay, Clark replies, “She’s awake.” The video then cuts off.
Kali Reis in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ episode 2 (Photo by Michele K. Short/HBO)
Evangeline goes to see Eddie Qavvik (Joel Montgrand), the owner of Qavvik’s Bar and her no-strings-attached sexual partner. Eddie reveals water in some parts of the town is undrinkable (and black) and the citizens are blaming the mine. Fights have been breaking out between townies and miners because of it.
There’s even talk of protests.
Liz interviews one of the cleaning crew (the same woman who hit the abusive guy in the head with a bucket in episode one) and learns she never saw Annie K at Tsalal. The woman also claims to have never seen the symbol before. The researchers never spoke to any of the cleaning ladies.
Another cleaning lady claims Clark was really strange, and she found him locked in his room, crying. The other researchers just ignored him.
Peter speaks with the delivery driver who discovered the tongue. He reveals that the last couple of times he went to Tsalal, Clark was talking to himself a lot and staring at nothing. The driver does confirm he’s seen the symbol and that Clark had it tattooed on his chest. He saw it while Clark was walking around naked and acting strange. The driver mentions he thought he saw someone when he first got to the research station, but he’s sure it was just one of the dead. Either that or he imagined it.
Evangeline heads out to see Chuck Moseley at the Silver Sky Mining barracks. On her drive there, she drops her phone, and when she reaches for it, she retrieves a necklace with a cross instead. Instantly, she flashes back to her mother wearing a necklace like it while going through a psychotic episode.
She snaps out of the memory when a truck honks at her. Evangeline swerves at the last minute and avoids a head-on collision. She throws the necklace out of the window.
Evangeline makes it to the mine barracks and speaks with Chuck, the miner who denied knowing the researcher even though it was obvious he did. Chuck claims Clark bought a trailer from his cousin seven years ago and paid $10,000 in cash.
Peter’s dad, Hank (John Hawkes), notices his files on Annie K are missing.
Liz and Peter fill each other in on the interviews they conducted. Peter also learned Tsalal was receiving funding from a shell company called NC Global Strategies which belongs to Tuttle United. Tuttle’s involved in a little bit of everything, including crude oil and cruise lines.
Liz retrieves her daughter, Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc), from Peter’s house and sees that Kayla’s grandmother drew Kakiniit on Leah’s face. (Kayla is Peter’s wife.) Liz isn’t pleased and orders her to wash it off. In return, Kayla demands that Liz leave.
Evangeline tries to talk her sister into checking into The Lighthouse, a community center for people dealing with addictions. Her sister insists she doesn’t need to.
Later, Leah sneaks out while her mom’s working on their Christmas decorations. Liz finds the stuffed polar bear and has a flashback of herself with a child playing with the bear.
Peter’s at the ice rink defrosting the researchers when his dad slaps him across the face. Hank’s upset that Peter took Annie’s files without permission. He warns his son never to steal from him again. Hank also reminds him Liz isn’t his family and she doesn’t own him.
Liz visits Captain Ted Connelly at his hotel, and it’s revealed he’s another one of the men she has a sexual history with. (Liz seems to have a thing for married men and is quite the player.) After a quickie, Ted asks why she wants to keep this case. He admits he’s worried it’s going to turn into a disaster.
Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, and Finn Bennett in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ episode 2 (Photo by Michele K. Short/HBO)
After her sexual liaison, Liz returns to the station and looks over Clark’s credit card statement that Peter managed to retrieve. It shows Clark paid a tattoo shop on April 22, 2017. Liz reaches the tattoo artist, and she recalls Clark got sentimental and cried when he got the tattoo. She forwards Liz a photo of Clark’s tattoo and a photo of the model he used for inspiration.
Liz is too stunned to respond to the tattoo artist.
It turns out the model for the tattoo was a photo of Clark and Annie embracing, shirtless. Liz immediately heads to Evangeline’s and shows her the photos. She also discloses that the DNA came back on the tongue found at the Tsalal facility. It is Annie’s. Liz confirms their cases definitely overlap.
Evangeline wants to talk about the past and mentions Wheeler, but Liz stops her. (Who is Wheeler?!)
Leah pays a surprise visit to Peter at the rink. They discuss Liz, and Leah recalls that her dad was a stoner, and he and Liz used to love dancing together. She thinks Liz also smoked weed, and they both laugh while trying to picture that.
Evangeline goes to see Qavvik since she’s in the mood for sex. She tells him that she and Liz are teaming up, but right now, she doesn’t have anything new to contribute to the investigation. Suddenly, she figures out Clark bought a trailer to keep his relationship with Annie a secret. And where do you keep a trailer that you don’t want anyone to know about? The Nook.
Evangeline is right and finds the trailer just where she expected it to be.
Liz is pouring over Clark’s notes when Evangeline calls with news of the discovery.
Liz joins Evangeline at the trailer, and they look around the place. There are animal bones on the table and knitted dolls hanging from nooses. They also find Annie K’s phone and a life-size doll fully dressed on a bed.
Episode two ends with Peter calling them to come to the rink. Once there, Peter points out that there are only six bodies in the frozen pile. Clark is missing and Evangeline believes he’s alive.
Yuki Kura as Yoshii Nagakado in ‘Shogun’ (Photo CR: Kurt Iswarienko/FX)
The major broadcast networks’ February 2024 lineups include the return of primetime dramas and comedies that were delayed to midseason due to the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The premium channels also have a sprinkling of new shows and returning series set to premiere in February, with Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Apple TV+’s The New Look, FX on Hulu’s Shogun, and Netflix’s One Day making their debuts.
The FBI and NCIS franchises kick off new seasons in February; Abbott Elementary returns on the heels of creator/star Quinta Brunson’s Emmy win; and Young Sheldon, Blue Bloods, SWAT, The Good Doctor, and Curb Your Enthusiasm start their final season runs. And the much-anticipated The Walking Dead spinoff The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, takes viewers back to the post-apocalyptic zombie-filled world beginning February 25th.
February 2024 TV Premiere Dates:
Thursday, February 1 A Bloody Lucky Day Season 1 (Paramount+) Clone High Season 2 (Max) Farmer Wants a Wife Season 2 (Fox) Genius: MLK/X Anthology Season 4 (NatGeo)
Friday, February 2 Love & WWE: Bianca & Montez Season 1 (Hulu) Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2 (Disney+) Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 1 (Prime Video)
Wednesday, February 7 Abbott Elementary Season 3 (ABC) The Conners Season 6 (ABC) Judge Steve Harvey Season 3 (ABC) Not Dead Yet Season 2 (ABC)
Thursday, February 8 Couple to Throuple Season 1 (Peacock) Halo Season 2 (Paramount+) I Wasn’t Expecting a Baby! Season 1 (Lifetime) One Day Season 1 (Netflix) Tokyo Vice Season 2 (Max)
Friday, February 9 Alpha Males (Machos Alfa) Season 2 (Netflix) A Killer Paradox Season 1 (Netflix) Ninja Kamui Season 1 (Adult Swim) The Silent Service Season One – The Battle of Tokyo Bay (Prime Video)
Monday, February 12 Bob Hearts Abishola Season 5 (CBS) NCIS Season 21 (CBS) NCIS: Hawaii Season 3 (CBS) The Neighborhood Season 6 (CBS) Rock Paper Scissors Season 1 (Nickelodeon)
Tuesday, February 13 FBI Season 6 (CBS) FBI: International Season 3 (CBS) FBI: Most Wanted Season 5 (CBS)
Wednesday, February 14 Love Is Blind Season 6 (Netflix) The New Look Season 1 (Apple TV+) Resident Alien Season 3 (Syfy)
Thursday, February 15 Ghosts Season 3 (CBS) House of Ninjas Season 1 (Netflix) Ready, Set, Love Season 1 (Netflix) So Help Me Todd Season 2 (CBS) Vigil Season 2 (Peacock) Young Sheldon Season 7 (CBS)
Friday, February 16 Blue Bloods Season 14 (CBS) The Dynasty: New England Patriots Limited Series (Apple TV+) Fire Country Season 2 (CBS) Life & Beth Season 2 (Hulu) S.W.A.T. Season 7 (CBS)
Sunday, February 18 American Idol Season 22 (ABC) CSI: Vegas Season 3 (CBS) The Equalizer Season 4 (CBS) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Season 11 (HBO) Naked and Afraid Season 17 (Discovery Channel) The Simpsons Season 35 (Fox) What Would You Do? Season 16 (ABC)
Poster for ‘The Good Doctor’ season 7 (Disney)
Tuesday, February 20 Crime Nation Season 1 (The CW) The Good Doctor Season 7 (ABC) Little People, Big World Season 25 (TLC) The Rookie Season 6 (ABC) Will Trent Season 2 (ABC)
Wednesday, February 21 Constellation Season 1 (Apple TV+) The Family Stallone Season 2 (Paramount+) Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend Limited Series (Apple TV+) Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 (Disney+)
Thursday, February 22 Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 (Netflix) Death in the Dorms Season 2 (Hulu) Summer House Season 8 (Bravo)
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)
Friday, February 23 The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy Season 1 (Prime Video)
Sunday, February 25 Biography: WWE Legends Season 4 (A&E) The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Season 1 (AMC) WWE Rivals Season 3 (A&E)
Monday, February 26 Deal or No Deal Island Season 1 (NBC) The Voice Season 25 (NBC)
Tuesday, February 27 Shōgun Season 1 (FX on Hulu)
Wednesday, February 28 Iwájú Season 1 (Disney+) Survivor Season 46 (CBS)
Thursday, February 29 Elsbeth Season 1 (CBS) Me, Hereafter Docuseries (Hulu) The Tourist Season 2 (Netflix)
Rachel Weisz in ‘Dead Ringers’ (Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise/Prime Video)
As a horror fan, I was delighted that 2023 not only delivered some top-notch genre films but also that there were enough directed by women to create a 10 best list. Women created a diverse array of horror from psychological thrillers to over-the-top gore comedy to creature features. They looked beyond just final girls to create fascinating, flawed, and sometimes deeply disturbed characters.
I measure progress not by how many positive female characters we get on screen but rather by the diversity and depth of the women driving the stories we see. Kudos to the female talent in front of and behind the camera that created these bold, original works in 2023.
2023’s Top 10 Horror Projects Directed By Women
1. Dead Ringers (2023, USA) Key women creatives: Executive producer/star: Rachel Weisz; showrunner: Alice Birch; directors: Lauren Wolkstein, Karena Evans, Karyn Kusama; writers: Miriam Battye, Alice Birch, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Rachel De-Lahay, Ming Peiffer, Susan Soon He Stanton; cinematographers: Laura Merians Goncalves, Jody Lee Lipes; Editors: Erica Freed Marker, Lisa Lassek
Actress Rachel Weisz was a fan of David Cronenberg’s 1988 film Dead Ringers and suggested a gender flip. So in the Amazon streaming show Dead Ringer, we have the twin Mantle sisters who are obstetricians as well as gynecologists. Beverly dedicates herself to creating a new kind of birthing center while Elliot focuses on radical and potentially unethical research on infertility.
The gender flip changes the themes of the original story and offers an audacious reimagining of female body horror. The show presents women’s bodies – pregnant, giving birth, cut open for C-sections – in graphic ways that create a sense of body horror simply because they are making visible what we usually don’t see. But the most horrific body horror is never shown.
An episode directed by Karyn Kusama draws on historical fact as it references Dr. James Marion Sims, credited as the “father of modern gynecology.” Sims developed pioneering tools and surgical techniques for women’s reproductive health, but his research was conducted on enslaved Black women without anesthesia (a racist thought at the time was that the Black women did not feel pain the way white women did). The episode never shows the surgery but has Dr. James describe it in chillingly matter of fact terms that makes the woman seem a willing participant.
Kusama keeps repeating the story until it is seared into our brains.
The show is brilliant in how it addresses real issues about women’s bodies while never losing focus on the twisted tale of the Mantle twins. This is a remake done right and you will be riveted from the opening scene till the final fade out.
2. Huesera: The Bone Woman (2023, Mexico) Key women creatives: Director: Michelle Garza Cervera; writers Michelle Garza Cervera, Abia Castillo; producer: Paulina Villavicencio; cinematographer Nur Rubio Sherwell; editor: Adriana Martínez; production designer: Ana J. Bellido
Huesera: The Bone Woman deals with body horror in a radically different way from Dead Ringers. It is visually stunning and almost poetic in its horror as it serves up a tale of domesticity reimagined. Valeria (Natalia Solian) is a young pregnant woman who has a loving husband and a good life. But she remains unhappy because it is not the life she wants.
Director Michelle Garza Cervera told me she did not want to focus “on the process of what happens to a female body literally throughout pregnancy. We’ve seen that a lot. It was more about the symbolic thing of something that is breaking you down, and it’s literally making you feel like your bones are fracturing.”
The horror comes from the conflict Valeria feels trying to reconcile what society wants her to be with what she imagines herself to be. Cervera grew up with an image of the rebellious women in her family as somehow evil because they did not conform to the traditional role of submissive housewife. “I had a fear while growing up as a little girl to be one of those because they would make fun of them or they would just be in these kind of boxes, canceled boxes,” Cervera said.
Now Cervera uses her art, and specifically the horror genre, to explore her questions in a symbolic way. “I feel like horror allows me to through one image, through one sound, to say something very complex that maybe takes you ten pages of essay.” Cervera added, “In one sound, you’re like, that’s how it feels. That’s how it feels when your family is asking you something very uncomfortable or social expectations are horrible and how do you express such a complex thing? And I feel like horror really allows you to do it in very fun ways and entertaining ways.”
A scene from Neon’s ‘Anatomy of a Fall’
3. Anatomy of a Fall (2023, France) Key women creatives: Director/writer: Justine Triet; producer Marie-Ange Luciani; production designer: Emmanuelle Duplay
Although many may not classify Anatomy of a Fall as horror, I think it has all the trappings of a horror film. Writer/director Justine Triet rachets up tension with the precision of Alfred Hitchcock or perhaps a Spanish Inquisitor. Her story involves a couple who have a fight and then the husband turns up dead, apparently from an accidental fall. But then the police start to suspect the wife of foul play.
The horror comes in part from how seemingly trivial things in a marriage can take on incriminating dimensions when played out in court in front of a jury. This is a film of exquisite craft and a surprising amount of nail-biting. In a sense, the horror comes from the mundane. There are no ghosts or serial killers or monsters, yet we feel a constant sense of stress and unease throughout the film.
Barry Keoghan as Oliver in ‘Saltburn’ (Courtesy of MGM and Amazon Studios)
4. Saltburn (2023, England/USA) Key women creatives: Director/writer/producer: Emerald Fennell; producers Josey McNamara, Margot Robbie; Editor: Victoria Boydell; production designer: Suzie Davies
Again, this may not strike people as horror but it deals with horrific events and bodies that pile up. Emerald Fennell made a very promising debut with Promising Young Woman, but the savage bite of that film’s opening failed to carry through to the end. With Saltburn, Fennel gives us a male protagonist instead of a female one and his journey ends on a much more satisfying note.
I like that Fennell does not feel that she has to only work on stories centered around women. Barry Keoghan is great at making the class warfare at the heart of the film feel visceral. Fennell also has wicked fun with some decidedly twisted scenes. The horror here is about how people treat each other and how a sense of disparity can fuel a deep and dangerous anger.
Marin Ireland as Rose and Judy Reyes as Celie in Laura Moss’ ‘Birth/Rebirth’ (Photo Courtesy of Shudder. An IFC release.)
5. Birth/Rebirth (2023, USA) Key women creatives: Director/writer: Laura Moss; producer: Mali Elfman; composer: Ariel Marx; cinematographer: Chananun Chotrungroj; editor: Taylor Mason; production designers: Courtney Andujar, Hillary Andujar
Poor Things gave us a gender swap on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in which the creature was a woman. Birth/Rebirth revisits the Frankenstein story and gives us a female doctor in place of a male mad scientist.
I just adore Marin Ireland’s character of Rose who is possessed by a desire to cheat death through science. Rose’s utter lack of tact, social skills, or even concern for her own physical health is admirable in a perversely satisfying way. Laura Ross structures the film with a relentless single-mindedness and along the way adds a layer of ferocious maternal instincts. This is a small, unpretentious film but well-crafted.
Sarah Snook in ‘Run Rabbit Run,’ an official selection of the Midnight section at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Sarah Enticknap)
6. Run Rabbit Run (2023, Australia) Key women creatives: Director: Daina Reid; writer: Hannah Kent; producers: Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw; cinematographer: Bonnie Elliott; production designer: Vanessa Cerne
Run Rabbit Run is a kindred spirit to another Australian film, The Babadook. Both films give us a mother and child, and both present a family dynamic that is disturbingly strained. The specifics of the relationships are very different but both tap into a maternal fear about what do you do if your child is difficult or doesn’t seem to like you.
Run Rabbit Run has elements of a ghost story paired with an intense psychological thriller. Sarah Snook is great as Sarah, a mother whose seven-year-old daughter suddenly starts to insist that she is Sarah’s sister who mysteriously went missing at the age of seven. The daughter’s behavior stirs up long buried memories as well as dark secrets.
Daina Reid takes her horror seriously and delivers an intensely personal and deeply dark story.
7. My Animal (2023, Canada) Key women creatives: Director/editor: Jacqueline Castel; writer Jae Matthews; production designer: Emma Doyle
I love a good werewolf tale and we get too few, and even fewer with female werewolves. In this case, being a teenage werewolf provides a perfect metaphor for a changing body, troublesome hormones, and a sense of just not fitting in anywhere. Jacqueline Castel does not go for the teen werewolf comedy but rather gives the film both grit and a dreamy sense of sexual awakening.
Bobbi Salvör Menuez is Heather, whose father (the great Stephen McHattie) is also a werewolf. But perhaps more terrifying is her human mother who spends most of her time drunk. Heather’s environment feels very real and as unforgiving as the cold landscape. She gets flack for being a girl wanting to play hockey and abuse for displaying affection for an attractive woman skater. The father-daughter scenes are excellent, and Castel has great compassion for Heather. The horror elements are kept in the background but are smartly used.
8. Unseen (2023, USA) Key women creatives: Director: Yoko Okumura; producer: Paige Pemberton; composer: Tangelene Bolton
Unseen was a delightful surprise. Yoko Okumura delivers a clever horror comedy that begins with an unusual premise: a near blind woman is running from her murderous ex in the woods and in order to survive she needs a put-upon gas station clerk to be her eyes through a video call. The premise takes a little dancing around to get in motion but once it does, Okumura has a blast with it. She uses split screen in inventive ways to play the two locations and characters against each other.
Emily (Midori Francis) has to deal with an ex who just won’t stay down no matter how many times she hits him. Meanwhile, Sam (Jolene Purdy) deals with an increasingly dangerous situation at the gas station when she has to steal a phone from an obnoxious rich bitch. Okumura gives the gas station a delightfully garish splash of color to contrast with the ever-darkening woods that Emily is in. The editing and visual design are both assured and deliciously fun. I look forward to whatever Okumura does next.
Hadley Robinson in ‘Appendage’ (Courtesy of Hulu)
9. Appendage (2023, USA) Key women creatives: Director/writer Anna Zlokovic; producers Katrina Kudlick, Hadley Robinson, Anna Zlokovic; production designer Michelle Patterson
Body horror again! This time it is a young woman named Hannah (Hadley Robinson), who grows an appendage that separates from her body and decides it wants to take over her identity. Yet another take on female body horror and birth with some interesting twists.
What I loved most about this film was the unique way it chooses to resolve Hannah’s “relationship” with her appendage. The appendage creature is effectively designed and there are some good turns (but a couple plot holes) to the story.
10. Where the Devil Roams (2023, USA) Key women creatives: Co-directors/co-writers: Zelda Adams, Toby Poser
I want to shout out this film not just because there are women as key creators but because this family (that slyly refers to itself as The Adams Family) is working completely outside the mainstream and cranking out films that are uniquely their own. My favorite of theirs might be their 2019 film, The Deeper You Dig. It was a tightly constructed, claustrophobic story that I loved.
Where the Devil Roams is probably their most ambitious in terms of visual style and production. It is set against the backdrop of a circus freak show, an environment that has been mined many times before but the Adams use it well. The film is created by husband and wife John Adams and Toby Poser, and their daughter Zelda Adams. Their work gives new meaning to the idea of home movies as they pursue the stories that interest them, and so far all have reveled in horror elements.
Major props to them for making exactly the kinds of films they want and proving that you can deliver solid work without traditional industry support.
Flawed but worthy of mention:
Alexis Jacknow’s Clock (2023, USA) for getting into an unhinged mind and creating tension by keeping us uncertain of what’s real and what’s not; Wrath of Becky (2023, USA), co-directed by Suzanne Coote with Matt Angel, for a gleeful gorefest; Nahnatchka Khan’s Totally Killer (2023, USA) for a time travel slasher horror comedy but I wish the protagonist spent less time acting shocked about political incorrectness in the ’80s and morally superior; Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023, USA) for the animatronic creatures from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop; and Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator (2023, USA) for a pair of delectable performances by Alicia Silverstone and Kiah McKirnan.
Season two of CBS’s popular half-hour comedy Ghosts ended on a cliffhanger that left fans speculating as to the identity of the ghost who has moved on. Sam watched (and described to Jay) from the driveway of the Woodstone Mansion Bed & Breakfast as one of the ghosts got “sucked off” – the unfortunate term used by the dearly departed to indicate one has finally left Earth and is a ghost no more.
The teaser for season three episode one, “The Owl,” gives nothing away as it shows Sam searching the house, with Jay trying to help out before remembering he can’t see ghosts. CBS’s official description of the season three premiere airing on February 15, 2024 at 8:30pm ET/PT also doesn’t reveal any specifics:
“Sam, Jay, and the remaining ghosts unravel the mystery of which ghost passed into the afterlife. Also, Sam and Jay must relocate an owl in order to do construction on the barn to turn it into Jay’s restaurant.”
The network’s keeping photos released to promote the episode to a minimum, with only three episode one stills available prior to the show’s return. The three photos just feature Rose McIver, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Tristan D. Lalla, who guest stars as Mark the construction worker.
Fan chatter has Isaac’s boyfriend, Nigel Chessum (played by John Hartman), the odds-on favorite to be the ghost exiting the series. Isaac and Nigel finally reached a pivotal point in their relationship at the end of season two, which might have led to Nigel achieving happiness, fulfilling everything he had left to do on earth, and moving on.
Other possibilities include one of the basement ghosts, the headless Crash (played by Alex Boniello), or Stephanie the teenager (played by Odessa A’zion). However, we weren’t shown any significant event that would have led to anyone other than Nigel experiencing a life/death-changing moment.
Of course, it could be one of the main deceased residents of Woodstone, but we’re only in season three and fans have grown attached to the quirky but lovable ensemble. Hopefully, when season three finally arrives we won’t be forced to mourn the loss of Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), Pete (Richie Moriarty), Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), Trevor (Asher Grodman), Sasappis (Román Zaragoza), Flower (Sheila Carrasco), Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), or Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long).
Christina Wolfe (Batwoman, The Royals) joins the cast of CBS’s FBI: International as a series regular with season three episode one, “June.” Directed by Michael Katleman from a script by Matt Olmstead, episode one will air on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 9pm ET/PT.
Luke Kleintank returns to lead the season three cast as Special Agent Scott Forrester. Heida Reed stars as Special Agent Jamie Kellett, Carter Redwood is Special Agent Andre Raines, Vinessa Vidotto plays Special Agent Cameron Vo, Eva-Jane Willis is Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garretson, and Christina Wolfe is Special Agent Amanda Tate.
“June” Plot: The Fly Team, with the help of their new intel analyst, Special Agent Amanda Tate (Wolfe), works to clean up the pieces left behind after a massive explosion rocks headquarters and their key suspect slips away.
From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf, fast-paced drama FBI: International is the third iteration of the successful FBI brand that follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, they travel throughout Europe with the mission of tracking and neutralizing threats against American citizens wherever they may be, putting their lives on the line to protect the U.S. and its people.
The Fly Team’s Special Agent Scott Forrester, their accomplished and dedicated leader, puts his missions ahead of his personal life. Second in command is Special Agent Jamie Kellett, a heroic and fearless investigator – and her extensive network of informants is a powerful resource. Special Agent Andre Raines shines in the field and makes good use of his accounting background in tracking criminal enterprises’ moving money. Special Agent Cameron Vo, a competitive West Point grad, excels at interrogation and strategy, and Megan “Smitty” Garretson, a streetwise Europol agent with an extensive undercover background, uses her expertise to liaise with each host country they inhabit.
Newly embedded with the Fly Team is Special Agent Amanda Tate, a confident and tech savvy intel analyst, who stays quick on her feet and remains calm in the midst of chaos. Always at the scene where American interests are at risk, FBI: International is a globe-trotting depiction of law enforcement overseas.
The first season of Oxygen True Crime’s riveting Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler concludes with episode 10 airing on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 8pm ET/PT. Episode 10, “Justice Is Green,” focuses on the murder and dismemberment of Morris Black in 2003. Robert Durst was charged with his neighbor Black’s murder and pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense. In this exclusive clip from the season one finale, Kelly Siegler provides a crash course in self-defense and reveals that self-defense cases are more difficult to prosecute than you’d think.
“When you read the legal paragraph of what justifies self-defense, there’s a lot of words,” explains Siegler, the former Chief of Special Crimes in the busiest courthouse in Texas. “And it’s hard to make a jury understand all those words and all those little elements and pieces matter before self-defense applies.”
“A torso found floating in Galveston Bay, Texas, leads to the arrest of billionaire Robert Durst,” reads Oxygen True Crime’s synopsis. “For the first time, Kelly Siegler gets attorneys from both the defense and prosecution to discuss the ‘Texas Trial of the Century.'”
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler takes an in-depth look at harrowing homicides that took place in Texas. Siegler provides special insight into the investigations, sharing the knowledge she’s acquired from spending more than two decades as a prosecutor.
The true-crime series is executive produced by Siegler, Dick Wolf, Casey Kriley, Jo Sharon, Adam Kassen, Andrew Nock, and Tom Thayer.
