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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Ben Wheatley's 'Freakshift' Has The Best Description Ever



The phrase “new Ben Wheatley movie” is more than enough to grab my attention. So, as I wait for the British director’s Free Fire to drop early next month, I can’t help but look towards Freakshift. It recently cast Alicia Vikander in the lead, which is great and all, but Wheatley just dropped the best single-line description I’ve ever heard.


Word around the campfire was the upcoming movie is about cops in a custom armored vehicle who respond to 911 calls after monsters come out of the ground. That alone is fantastic. But talking about Freakshift with The Independent, the Kill List and High-Rise helmer added, “It’s about women with shotguns fighting giant crabs.”

Yeah, I’m sold. 100%. 1000%. However much I can possibly buy in, that’s how much I’m buying in. Wheatley added, “There you go, it sells itself,” and it certainly does. I’m even more on board than I was just a few moments before reading this.

I’m not sure I could possibly want more from a movie than women with shotguns battling giant crabs. That sounds perfect. I’d watch that no matter who was involved, but the fact that Ben Wheatley’s at the helm means we’re in for all manner of twisted, genre-busting madness, and that warms the cockles of my cold, dead heart. I’m also psyched beyond belief to see what the iconoclastic director does working with a creature feature. That’ll be a total blast.

Written by Wheatley and his wife/writing and producing partner Amy Jump, Freakshift has been in the works for years—he talked about it at least as far back as 2012, and even before if I’m not mistaken. But with Alicia Vikander coming off of her Oscar win and a role as the lead in the new Tomb Raider franchise, things are finally rolling.

Production is reportedly slated to start in August, so don’t be surprised if Wheatley, who works at a breakneck pace, manages to turn this around and have Freakshift ready to go for one of the fall film festivals in 2018. Free Fire played at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, so TIFF seems like a reasonable landing spot.


In the meantime, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves by watching Free Fire when it opens on April 21.

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