Fellow Sailors

Posted by Meagan Navarro

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Director Francis Lawrence is no stranger to helming dystopian films that drop teens into lethal competitions broadcast for a live audience, having multiple Hunger Games features under his belt. It makes him well-suited to capturing the bleak pessimism and bruising brutality of the source material, Stephen King’s The Long Walk, published under the pen name Richard Bachman in 1979 and adapted for screen by Strange Darling filmmaker JT Mollner.

Despite an unwavering eye on the dour and ruthless death march and all its grotesqueries, it’s the pervading camaraderie and heart, as well as a tremendous cast, that solidifies this as one of the best King adaptations yet.

The Long Walk refers to the annual competition that sees fifty young men, each selected by lottery to represent their state, walk until they drop. The last one standing receives a wish granted and a life-changing amount of money, the very thing that incentivizes the youth to voluntarily enter the lotto in the first place, amidst an economically challenged and oppressively controlled country post-war. That the contest comes with high stakes speaks volumes; contestants who fail to maintain a strict pace or break any of the competition’s rules are ruthlessly shot by its military enforcers, presided over by the Long Walk’s creator, “The Major” (Mark Hamill).

Charlie Plummer as Barkovitch, Garrett Wareing as Stebbins, Cooper Hoffman as Garraty, David Jonsson as McVries, Tut Nyuot as Baker, and Joshua Odjick as Parker in The Long Walk. Photo Credit: Murray Close/Lionsgate

Muted colors and drab scenery only enhance the dystopian feel as the walkers set out on nondescript stretches of pavement across rural Maine, flanked by tanks. Lawrence’s stripped-down approach is less interested in where the walkers are going or the competition’s audience, but rather the boys’ emotional, mental, and physical state as they’re forced further along their grueling march for survival, rethinking their choices and humanity in the process. It’s a film that rests squarely on the shoulders of its characters to convey the depth of horror and the emerging triumph of the human spirit. Lawrence keeps his camera’s gaze focused mostly on close-ups of its core players, whether capturing their intimate conversations, deteriorating bodies, or the unflinching grimness of their demises. And the deaths are as shocking as they are brutal.

It’s a dialogue-heavy, character-driven movie, one that threatens violence at every turn and anchored by a talented cast that all but guarantees no eyes will remain dry by film’s end. It’s the rich characterizations and affecting performances that prevent the simple concept and bland scenery from veering into tedious territory. At the forefront are two rising star performances by Cooper Hoffman (son of late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Alien: Romulus breakout David Jonsson, as instant friends and lead protagonists Ray Garraty and Peter McVries. The pair becomes the beating heart of this grim story, carrying each other through the hardest stretches and challenging each other’s philosophies as things continue to get worse. Yet it’s Jonsson’s unflappable cheer as a sage champion of hope, despite a lifetime of disappointment and pain, that threatens to steal the entire film and your heart in the process.

Cooper Hoffman as Garraty and David Jonsson as McVries in The Long Walk. Photo Credit: Murray Close

Rounding out the prominent walkers are pessimistic Collie (Joshua Odjick), the caring Arthur (Tut Nyuot), wisecracking motormouth Hank (Ben Wang), no-nonsense Stebbins (Garrett Wareing), and antagonistic outcast Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer), each complicating the contest through genuine bonds or potentially deadly conflicts. The longer the death march wears on and the more their numbers shrink, the more the young men learn the value of human life to a tragic degree. It’s not just the cast’s portrayal that ensures emotional impact; Mollner makes smart deviations from King’s novel that further emphasize the developing connections and the profound need for human connection if any of us are to survive this unforgiving world and its ugliest impulses.

The Long Walk hurts. Even the characters we barely see or interact with instill pangs of sorrow and heartbreak, each succumbing to horrific fates that snuff out youthful dreams far too early. But Lawrence and Mollner refuse to let the darkness completely snuff out hope, reflected largely through a powerful and deeply moving depiction of friendship. It’s that affecting defiance in the face of a cruel enemy that carries The Long Walk through its most desolate and painful stretches, and what ensures this timely adaptation lingers with you long after its grueling marathon has reached its finish.

The Long Walk releases in theaters on September 12, 2025.

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Posted by John Squires

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In case you haven’t noticed, Warner Bros. is absolutely running the theatrical horror space at the moment. The Conjuring: Last Rites just had the highest global opening weekend in the history of the horror genre, beating previous Warner Bros. releases IT and IT: Chapter Two, and they’re also the studio behind the other three horror movies at the top of this year’s box office charts for the horror genre: Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, and Weapons.

Now, it seems Warner Bros. is gunning for a rare Oscar win for the horror genre.

The Hollywood Reporter notes in an article this week about WB’s box office dominance here in 2025, “sources say Warners intends on launching an awards campaign for not just [Paul Thomas Anderson’s] One Battle After Another, but also for Sinners and Weapons.”

“It’s rare for a studio to push a horror feature in the Oscars race, much less two,” THR notes. “But the studio hopes it can follow in the footsteps of Silence of the Lambs, which won five Oscars, including best picture, and Get Out, which took a screenplay statue.”

Of course, campaigning for an Oscar doesn’t ever guarantee an Oscar nomination, and the horror genre has a long history of being snubbed at the Academy Awards, but a campaign is the first step to the genre breaking through into that arena of mainstream awards recognition.

Sinners, in particular, seems primed and ready for nominations including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director & Best Actor, while it’s not out of the realm of possibility to imagine Amy Madigan getting a nomination for her performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons. Madigan, we must remind, is a previous Oscar nominee for Twice in a Lifetime back in 1986.

Stay tuned for more from Warner Bros. Horror as we learn it.

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Posted by Meagan Navarro

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The horror bides its time revealing itself in Zach Cregger’s Weapons, now playing in theaters and at home on Digital, resulting in a wildly unpredictable journey full of surprises.

That includes the film’s shocking use of violence, sparing at first but steadily escalating into one of the most outrageous climaxes in horror. That writer/director Zach Cregger holds fast to his preference for practical effects ensures the horror in his sophomore effort is all the more effective.

Special Makeup Effects Designer Jason Collins (Unfriended, Velvet Buzzsaw, “Stan Against Evil”) of Autonomous FX and his team were responsible for bringing the savage kills and bloodletting to life on screen for Cregger’s latest.

For a film that’s been described as “batshit insane,” Collins walked Bloody Disgusting through his process on Weapons, starting with the wildly unpredictable script.

He explains, “When I first read the script and saw how fractured the story was, and the different perspectives and points of view, the first thing that came to mind was that I realized how grounded it was in reality. That was the first step.”

Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

“When we start to talk to Zach and everything, we start talking about some of the specific characters and things,” Collins continues. “The thing that I really realized that he was trying to do with the film was to ground it in reality. When the surprises hit, and the supernatural stuff hits, and the horror elements hit. They really, really hit, and they hit hard. And that was the thing. That was my brief as far as how what I was going to do, as far as the design of the makeup effects for the film. I was really taking it from a grounded perspective and not trying to go over the top. But keep things within a perspective that is really sort of believable. Really, it’s the idea and the audacity of the idea that really sells the effect much more.”

Collins uses a familiar horror classic to explain why the grounded approach was the only path for Weapons. “So, I wanted to live in that universe with Zach, and that was really the thing that we were talking about was the approach to things, of how they were going to land with an audience with regards to the universe, and how they’re fitting into the film itself. Like, this film, if you did something really crazy like The Thing or something, and do that in this film. I mean, your audience just checks out. But if it still really has an allegiance to the characters, you, as an audience member, are like ‘What the fuck?’ You just took a left, or just took a right. There were moments.

“Of course, we go over the top a little bit, because that’s to sell the point of this is what movie you’re watching now. That is what I really love, because it’s not a lot for a lot’s sake. It is just the perfect amount. And when that first big moment happens, you’re like, ‘Oh, shit! This is a horror film! Oh, this is the real deal.’ I love that. We all love all things horror. But I also love character-driven things. In this day and age, everybody’s seen everything, right? So it’s like when the characters are actually great, amazing, believable characters that you can relate to, all flawed.”

While we won’t spoil what happens in Weapons, much of the violence that transpires brutally on screen is inflicted by characters unable to control themselves, as if possessed. Collins explains the subtle look of the “possessed” characters, pointing out the sole exception of VFX in a practical effects-heavy feature.

“Again, that’s all led by our fearless leader’s act because of the idea of when the possessions happen,” Collins states. “That when you look at them you just wanna see a slight difference. It’s not in your face, but it’s just a slight difference. When we were talking about the possession stuff, you know, the idea of Graves’ disease came up, where the eyes sort of bulge out. We played around with like, okay, can we do this practically? Eventually, we decided to do that via visual effects in the film. I think that’s the only thing that really was a visual effect in the film. Everything else was really left alone and practical, but that particular thing is a really hard thing to do when you have stunts involved. When you’ve got all that blood involved, when you’ve got all those sorts of things where people are taking a topple and that kind of thing. But what I love about the effect was that it wasn’t crazy. It was just like, this guy’s out of control, that kind of thing. As far as the humor is concerned, I believe it’s the audacity of the situation, right? The heat. But because Zach just loves fucking with tone.”

Collins continues, “Barbarian set the tone for that, where it’s like, you think you’re watching this. But really, you’re watching that. Same thing with this, where it’s like the humor just isn’t like boom, boom, boom! Guys, look at this. Let’s laugh at this. It’s much more in the moment. That’s why horror has always gone along with comedy, where it’s like, you need a little reprieve, you know. Little levity. Yeah, Spielberg said that when he was making Jaws. You can’t go 90 degrees the whole film. You gotta go 90 degrees. Then you gotta give them a little humor. Then you gotta go 90 degrees. Then you gotta give them a little humor because you gotta give the audience places to rest.”

You can rest assured that the maniacal finale of Weapons was all practical. It was also the most complex effect to pull off for Collins’ team. It required “multiple stages of a body that was all mechanical, which means it’s a whole, complete fake body that has the likeness of the head on it, and everything is all controlled via cable.” Collins notes, “You have real actors running into frame, the stunt actor taking the brunt of the blow, and all those things. You have all that coverage, and then we get into our body, and our body is all mechanically released.

“So it’s a bunch of cables coming off of it that’s buried, and we just go piece by piece.”

Rent or purchase Zach Cregger’s Weapons at home on Digital now.

Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

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