I was a big fan of the American indie horror Absentia from writer/director Mike Flanagan. It was one of those rare instances of an unknown film being referenced in a tweet by one of the actors, which I managed to track down via the director, becoming a firm favourite of mine, making good on the promise of the eerie trailer, and showing that in amongst the miasma of CG-laden gore/bore fests which pass for the modern horror film there is far more interesting work going on in the independent scene.
The film had a good run on the festival circuit, picking up awards and making a pretty penny with its VOD distribution and it was certain that Flanagan would be looking for his next project, bouyed by the sucess of his film. That new project has just been announced as Variety report that the director is to take on the film Scare Dares, a blend of convnetional narrative and (of course) found footage based around the mis-adverntures of a group of friends reuniting to visit paranormal hotspots as directed by a smartphone app. Things, naturally, go wrong.
The report also states that there’s going to be a mobile app, one assumes exactly the same as the one in the movie, which will be developed alongside the film, perhaps the first time this has been done as opposed to employing the smartphone market as simply another advertising opportunity. Much of the cast of Absentia are returning swhich is a good thing as all made a strong impression in last year’s film and we eagerly await more news. Not sure on the name though, seems a little unimaginative, however as long as they don’t go for iDie we’ll be all right. The Big Chiller perhaps?
