The eagerly anticipated superhero-horror movie blend New Mutants, which was due to be released in April of this year is getting pushed a full ten months to February of 2019 according to Jeff Snider of The Tracking Board.
Why? According to Snider, “Word on the street is that after the film tested well but not great, the studio decided to actually embrace the film’s horror elements and beef up the scares in the wake of the success of It and Get Out last year.”
As much as I love the idea of creating a horror-superhero blend, I sure hope they aren’t shoe-horning in horror elements just to chase a trend. The New Mutants would seem to be a good pairing, and Fox has shown a willingness to go R-rated with their hero slate. The New Mutants would seem to skew more closely to a teen audience, so exactly how scary they can make a movie if they keep it PG-13 will be interesting to see. Previous blends of horror movies have been successful, like Blade and Hellboy, but I don’t think either of those franchises came out particularly scary. Entertaining, yes, but nothing that made me want to hide in the corner. Here’s hoping that Fox can find the right balance.