PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Transitioning from her squeaky clean wholesome image into vampy horror vixen has been anything but easy for one-time Disney star Bella Thorne. Appearing in the Scream television series had some convinced that she was poised for future scream queen greatness, but her film career has left a lot to be desired. Can her newest supernatural chiller, I Still See You, help change that?
In all honesty, it’s not so much her acting that’s held her back. Probably the biggest issue is that most of her films have had limited to no theatrical runs, or are even released straight to video. She was actually pretty phenomenal in the 2017 Netflix exclusive The Babysitter (you can read our review here), which was a super fun, campy horror comedy, one of the finest Netflix horror exclusives to date, and one of 2017’s best. It was her best work thus far, in my humble opinion. But how much further reach might it have had beyond the streaming service if given the chance? Another Netflix exclusive, the suspenseful thriller You Get Me (2017), was not so good, although Thorne definitely played her part of a possessive, psychotic stalker quite convincingly. Keep Watching (2017) was a largely forgettable home invasion chiller that couldn’t interest people enough to do what its title demanded. Even a beloved franchise film in Amityville: The Awakening (2017) left most people cold, although I think most had really lost interest after the myriad delays and setbacks that postponed the release several times.
Unfortunately, her newest film, I Still See You, is likely destined for a similarly underwhelming fate. The film, directed by Scott Speer and being released by Lionsgate, is slated for a limited theatrical run and simultaneous VOD release on October 12, 2018. Being described as a romantic supernatural thriller, the synopsis from the film’s IMDb page reads thusly:
“Ten years after an apocalyptic event left the world haunted by ghosts, Roni (Thorne) receives a threatening message from beyond the grave. Joining forces with a mysterious classmate, Kirk, Roni descends into a shadow world that blurs the bounds of the living and the dead-and begins a desperate race against time to stop a cunning killer.”
We do have the trailer for you, and a fairly snazzy poster art design, but I don’t know if they’ll be enough to generate much interest.
I hate to sound so jaded on this. Believe it or not, I’m actually pulling for Bella. Here’s hoping she can find some way to shed her family friendly past and bring some legit thrills and chills to the horror masses. But she really needs to Shake it Up, because I don’t know if I Still See You is gonna get it done.
