‘The New Mutants’ to be the first in a trilogy of superhero-themed horror movies

By Eric Brackett Published October 15, 2017

Superhero movies are a dime a dozen these days. This year has already seen the release of several new superhero movies, and more are slated to come later this year. Wonder Woman released to rave reviews and box-office records, but this year will also see the release of the third Thor film and the first installment of Justice League. With so many superhero movies coming out over the next few years, new franchises have to do something different to stand out, and the upcoming film The New Mutants is certainly doing that by taking the superhero genre in a frightening new direction as the first in a planned trilogy of superhero horror movies.

In an interview with IGN, director Josh Boone said that he was inspired by Chris Claremont “Demon Bear” storyline, which was where The New Mutants went from your standard Teen Titans-like superhero comic to something a bit darker and more psychological.

Recommended Videos

Aside from that classic Marvel storyline, Boone cited a number of horror icons as his influences for this upcoming trilogy.

“We were incredibly inspired by the Demon Bear story which is probably the best, well-known New Mutants story. We also drew on movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Stephen King stuff, and even Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors,” said Boone.

Speaking of Nightmare on Elm Street, the trailer contains a reference to the famous wall scene in the first installment of the franchise, which prompted Boone to go into a minor rant about his issues with the remake using CGI instead of practical effects. He stated that the majority of the movie’s effects were practical, though it did not shy away from CGI when necessary.

The idea of a horror-themed X-Men movie might seem like a hard sell, but Boone points out that Fox has seen a lot of success with non-traditional superhero movies such as Logan and Deadpool, so the studio was willing to take a chance on his horror-inspired story. Boone said that the movie would be a trilogy, but promised that each movie would deliver a different kind of horror.

“These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies,” Boone said. “This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie.

Topics

Entertainment

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is going to break one iconic vampire movie trope

A clawed hand's shadow covers Lily-Rose Depp in a still from the 2024 movie Nosferatu.

Very few filmmakers take research as seriously as Robert Eggers. In his first three films, 2016's The Witch, 2019's The Lighthouse, and 2022's The Northman, Eggers has demonstrated not only an affinity for stories set in the distant past but also an unyielding commitment to staying true to the rituals and beliefs unique to each film's specific historical period. It doesn't look like Eggers is going to deviate from that rigid, authenticity-first style in his latest film, this year's Nosferatu, either.

The movie, a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name, is set in Germany during the early 19th century. It stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok, an immortal vampire who becomes dangerously infatuated with Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), the wife of an ambitious real estate broker named Thomas (Nicholas Hoult). While Nosferatu is deeply indebted, like its 1922 predecessor, to Bram Stoker's Dracula, though, Eggers' historical research resulted in him deviating from the usual vampire-movie tradition in one surprising way.

Entertainment

10 years ago, The Babadook changed modern horror forever

Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman look under a bed together in The Babadook.

In many ways, the horror genre is as popular and prevalent as it's ever been. While the genre continues to expand and introduce countless new voices, though, its past decade has been dominated by the emergence of elevated horror. Once upon a time, horror movies that used ghosts, monsters, or demons as metaphors for their protagonists' emotional and psychological issues were a bit of a rarity. Nowadays, it's hard to find a new horror movie that doesn't try to connect its story and scares back to its characters' underlying traumas.

These films, depending on the level of artistry with which they're made, often fall into the elevated horror category because they're made with the intent of doing more than just scaring audiences and terrorizing their characters. The subgenre, which is both beloved and derided by horror fans, has become so pervasive and its tropes have become so common that even 2022's Scream made room for a meta joke about it. Lately, horror movies about the terrors of, say, grief or survivor's guilt have started to feel tired and overly familiar.

Entertainment

40 years ago, one of the worst superhero movies ever debuted and marked the end of an era

Four people stand around in Supergirl.

Forty years ago, superhero cinema changed forever with the release of what is undoubtedly the worst movie within the genre. Supergirl, directed by Jeannot Szwarc and written by David Odell, stars Helen Slater as the titular character and acts as a direct sequel to Superman III and a spinoff of the hugely successful Christopher Reeve superhero series. The film, ostensibly made to capitalize on Reeve's popularity, made certain sense, at least on paper -- if something works, why not do more of it?

Alas, Supergirl received scathing reviews and quickly cemented itself as a timeless classic of hideousness, a woefully misguided mess of a movie with little to no redeeming qualities. Indeed, it takes a lot for a movie to be truly considered awful -- the '80s are full of so-bad-they're-good movies that still have value and unexpected riots of pure entertainment.