Just as with the annual increase in the level of ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, the run-up to Halloween is seeing a rise in horror-themed movie announcements. The latest? That the [Insert City Name Here], I Love You portmanteau romance franchise is getting a scary tweak thanks to Joe Dante and a busload of other creep-fest directors with Paris, I’ll Kill You.
It sounds like a horror fan's wet dream, as Dante, who last shot The Hole 3D, is teaming up with** [****Rec]’**s Paco Plaza, Splice’s Vincenzo Natali, The Midnight Meat Train’s Ryuhei Kitamura, Creep’s Christopher Smith, A L’Interieur’s co-directing team Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, and Xavier Gens, who made Hitman, truly the scariest film of all, but probably not for the reason he expected.
As you might guess, the movie will be split into several short stories, each exploring the dark underbelly of the City of Lights. Forget about couples meeting cute, finding love or falling out of it, unless that’s followed up by them being horribly murderised by a slavering beast.
So far, it’s at an early stage as, despite the slew of megaphoners on board, the film is still looking for financing, which the producers hope to line up once they’ve shown the concept to buyers at next week’s American Film Market. And if it does get made and succeeds, expect it to be the start of a new city film franchise. Paris, je t’aime was followed by New York, I Love You, with Jerusalem, Rio and Shanghai all on its travelogue list. Let’s hope the horror version manages to make it to London…