Misc
Checking into ‘Hell Motel’ with Jim Watson and Paula Brancati
Fans of the Canadian horror anthology Slasher might want to check into Hell Motel this summer. In case you missed the news, “Hell Motel is a series from Slasher series creators Ian Carpenter and Aaron Martin.” Slasher fans will quickly notice a ton of familiar names in addition to the co-creators and director Adam MacDonald. The team is also bringing a good amount of the Slasher acting ensemble along for the bloody ride. This is why we were honored to be invited to a press roundtable with Jim Watson and Paula Brancati. Watson and Brancati are two of the Slasher alums you can expect to see in Hell Motel. They are also a fun duo on a Wednesday afternoon.
According to Shudder’s synopsis: “Hell Motel sees a group of 10 true crime obsessives invited to the opening weekend of the newly renovated Cold River Motel, the site of a 30-year-old unsolved Satanic Mass Murder. History repeats itself when the guests get stranded and start getting knocked off one by one during a murder spree that grows exponentially more gruesome than the original with each kill.”
Andy (Watson) and Paige (Brancati) are two of the characters who have been invited to this murderous weekend. The first question we all wanted to know was what drew this pair into this series and made them want to explore these characters.
An Interview with Hell Motel’s Jim Watson and Paula Brancati
This roundtable discussion has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Paula Brancati explained: I so loved working with Ian (Carpenter) and Aaron (Martin) on the Slasher series, and they always write such incredible characters for me and for the entire team. I love being part of a world where the female characters are very voicey on the page. They’re not tropey in any way, as can sometimes be the case in the genre. So, for me, it was a very easy yes.
Brancati continued: Aaron Martin and I have worked together since Being Erica, and he and Ian always surprise me. They write stuff that’s incredibly dark and very funny. When I heard some of my old castmates, like Jim Watson here, were going to be a part of it…that also made the yes extra easy and special. So yeah, it was a lot of fun to come back with a lot of our old Slasher family to do Hell Hotel. A lot of that amazing crew that we’ve worked with so much. It felt like a bit of a summer camp.
When asked if they found anything difficult while filming, Jim Watson said: The interesting thing about the Andy character is that he’s approaching all of this as this sort of analytical skeptic. You know, he’s a PhD. He’s really going in there, and it’s that balance of anyone in that world. In that field. Any skeptic has to [have] a kernel of love or appreciation for the thing that they’re actually trying to disprove. So, there was this sort of element of battling the excitement of the moment with each of the scenes while also remaining grounded and being ready to point out the obvious to everyone. It was just this fun tightrope to walk, and I got to really work closely with our director, Adam (MacDonald). He and I were in constant conversation about, “Is this too much? Is this not enough?” That kind of thing.
Watson continued: It was great because it’s so rare that we actually get to really stretch those kinds of muscles. And you know, Ian and Aaron, they set this stuff up for us like Paula said. They give it to each and every character. There’s so much in there to work with. So, it was a lot of fun.
Brancati stated: Yeah, it’s very juicy material. As Jim was saying about Andy, and I think this is the case for all the characters, there’s a lot of textures. A lot of layers. We’re also shooting all of it out of order [because] they shoot all 8 episodes at once. So, that’s a unique situation. You’re shooting like a very long movie, so I’d say the most challenging part is the endurance. You know we’ve done that model for Slasher, as well.
Brancati explained: You have to be a bit masochistic to love this setup, I think, but I love it. There’s an adrenaline rush to it, in sort of building the puzzle. I think the challenge is shooting something from a later episode, perhaps at the beginning of the shoot, and then filling in that blank on day 50 of the shoot and making it work with decisions you made creatively at the beginning. I think that’s really fun and part of what’s very joyful about working with actors you love, like Jim and this amazing cast.
You know, Adam and Ian and Aaron, we’re all watching out for each other and vibing together. I think part of the challenge is part of what the joy of it is. It’s also a physical show. There’s a lot of stunts. There’s a lot of screaming and yelling, and you know, emotional stuff the characters go through. So, I think that’s like part of the challenge, but part of the joy. It’s a very cathartic shoot.
Brancati laughed: I would highly recommend working through whatever you have going on on a horror set, my friends. Just scream it out…and go on vocal rest after.
When the laughter died down, the duo was asked about working with Emmy® Award-winner Eric McCormack, who plays a character people are going to love to hate this season.
Watson: For me, I mean, that was my first time working with him, and I mean, he’s probably heard this a million times. I grew up watching Will & Grace, and like, I loved him. He was this outlet, this voice, in a small town community of this other thing, and I just worship that individual.
Watson continued: So, getting to work and meet with him. My expectations were pretty high, and he just came in and was the most humble, sweetest, nicest person. And yeah, funny, like duh, he’s funny, but like, actually just a funny person doing schticky things, too. Like stuff that you’re like, ‘Oh, my dad would do that!’ But then, like when he does it, it’s hilarious, you know. He was just wonderful. He was just a shining star in a very dark and murderous environment.
Brancati: Yes, I feel the same. I worked with Eric on the last season of Slasher that we did, and I was a bit nervous to meet him because I, too, was such a huge Will & Grace fan. I was worried that I would call him Will on set. That show meant so much to me and my mom growing up, and he is everything you’d want him to be and more. He is such a delight! He’s such a Toronto boy. We went to see our friend, up in Stratford last year.
Our buddy, Dan Chameroy, is one of the stars of Stratford. We were like going to Swiss Chalet together and talking about Toronto hotspots and being like, ‘Yeah, he’s one of us.’ [Eric] is one of us, and he loves being part of our motley crew on Slasher. I feel like we’re doing this like, gritty indie, and he’s so down for that, and so playful as an actor.
Watson asked: You went to Swiss Chalet with Eric Mccormick?
Brancati exclaimed through laughter: Let that be the headline!
Soon after, the conversation turned to the true crime genre. Both actors were asked if they are fans of the genre and if they drew from any real people in the true crime sphere for their characters.
Watson: My wife and I love to listen to those podcasts that tell you about every horrific murder under the sun. That sort of approach, that storytelling, too, of true crime dramas, you know, it’s really an interesting thing to retell a story that is very familiar to people in a new and enticing way, and in some respects, that is what the creators of Hell Motel and Slasher, [are] really playing into. A genre that is well established, and they’re paying homage.
Brancati: Yeah, I’ve gotten into those too, Jim. Those are oddly comforting, and they’re crazy.
Watson: Yeah, which is very scary, that we’re comfortable.
Brancati: I’ve read this somewhere, I think women love them, – and Jim tell me, if this feels right for your lady. But it’s like we like knowing we were right. We’re right to be as worried as we are. I just want to feel validated.
We acknowledged that the show is fun but is also hard on actors. When asked how they take care of themselves during filming, Watson and Brancati explained they have very different methods.
Watson: I mean, I stretched. There was a lot of physical preparation for most days. Honestly, blood isn’t my thing. It does kind of freak me out a bit. We had an amazing props person who allowed us to really ask questions, and that really allowed me to get close to the instruments and things like that that we’d be standing around.
Watson continued: It was really just reminding myself that this is all pretend. That was the best approach for a lot of these scenes because some of the sets were horrifying. Like if I suddenly passed out and, like my buddies, dragged me into this room, and I woke up. I don’t know what I would do… that would have been immediate cardiac arrest. So, just really reminding myself that everything’s okay and I’d hold onto Paula tightly once in a while, and she-
Brancati: I would have a dance break now and again.
They both begin laughing.
Watson: Oh no!
Brancati: Jim and I do this little dance break that was.
Watson: It was beautiful. It was.
Brancati: Gotta laugh because you gotta laugh. (A moment as she figures out how much of her dance she can do on Zoom.) I can’t stand for it but I would go, “Jim! Jim, Gaga.” I kind of (Brancati does some amazing Zoom shoulder work), but my hips would go. It was like I was suddenly in Sweet Charity, but he’d do it.
Watson: It’s the Gaga. That was really, the just…it killed me every [time].
Brancati: Absolutely no sense.
Watson: Yeah. 3 AM. 3 PM. It didn’t matter when.
Brancati: In the middle of the most intense scene.
Watson: (Laughing.) Yes.
Brancati: Full-time. That’s mental health to me. That’s how I would take care of myself and Jim.
When the laughter died down, Brancati also shouted out the Craft table for having well-timed grilled cheese sandwiches and charcuterie. While she admits she could have stretched more while preparing for some scenes, she stressed the importance of vocal warmups.
Brancati: Especially as I’ve gotten older, and I’m a singer, just being aware of the vocal strain. So, truly, just physically stretching my voice, I would do a lot. I would warm up a lot in the morning. I’d cool down at the end of the night. As we got to the end of the shoot. I was using different techniques, just kind of taking care of that because the voice does tell a lot of the story for this show for sure. To say the least.
You can see Jim Watson and Paula Brancati if you check into Hell Motel. The new Shudder show premieres in the United States on Tuesday, June 17th.
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What You’ll Win
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Video
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original DTS-HD MA 7.1 and 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary with Dread Central co-founder Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and co-host of The Spooky Picture Show podcast Chris MacGibbon
- Archival audio commentary with director Marcus Nispel, producer Michael Bay, executive producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form and New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, director of photography Daniel Pearl, production designer Greg Blair, art director Scott Gallager, sound supervisor Trevor Jolly and composer Steve Jablonsky
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, writer Scott Kosar, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and actors Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel and Andrew Bryniarski
- Reimagining a Classic, a brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
- Shadows of Yesteryear, a brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
- The Lost Leatherface, a brand new interview with actor Brett Wagner
- Masks and Massacres, a brand new interview with makeup effects artist Scott Stoddard
- Chainsaw Symphony, a brand new interview with composer Steve Jablonsky
- Chainsaw Redux: Making A Massacre, a making-of documentary
- Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, an in-depth look at the infamous killer who inspired the character of Leatherface
- Severed Parts, a look at the cutting room floor and some of the scenes excised from the final edit
- Deleted scenes including an alternate opening and ending
- Screen tests for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Erica Leerhsen
- Behind-the-scenes featurette
- Cast and crew interviews
- Theatrical trailers and TV spots
- Concept art galleries
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Gingold
Misc
NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!
As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever.
From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025!
Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights
Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength
Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons.
During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear.
I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!
You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.
Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet
Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.
I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film.
Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.
Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band
My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to.
“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”
“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.”
That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)
Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy.
Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business
If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.
“Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.”
In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.
Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”
Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.
Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment
Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make.
Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house…
Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature!
Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun
NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long.
At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.
I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life.
That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more.
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‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
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[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher
