Sophia Takal directs New Year entry in Hulu’s Into the Dark series

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

Blumhouse Television and the streaming service Hulu are working together on a series called Into the Dark, which will consist of twelve feature films released on a monthly schedule, each film based around a holiday that occurs in the month of its release. Into the Dark began in October with director Paul Davis's Halloween-set THE BODY and continued in November with Patrick Lussier's FLESH & BLOOD, which was set around Thanksgiving. I have watched and enjoyed both of those features, but haven't yet gotten around to watching Nacho Vigalondo's recently released Christmas entry in the series, POOKA!

IndieWire has now found out that the New Year entry in the series is called NEW YEAR NEW YOU, and it was directed by Sophia Takal (ALWAYS SHINE, pictured above), making her the first woman to direct a horror film for Blumhouse.

Based on a script by Adam Gaines that Takal revised herself, NEW YEAR NEW YOU stars Suki Waterhouse, Carly Chaikin, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Melissa Bergland. The story follows 

a group of old high school friends who reunite in a house for New Year’s Eve, where they’re forced to confront traumas from their past.

Filming took place over 15 days back in July – August, in a beachfront home in Santa Monica that used to belong to Cary Grant.

Takal says she "riffed on movies from the '70s" while making this film about "a crazy, scary, murderous New Year's night", referencing the classics of that time in the cinematography and editing. She told IndieWire that NEW YEAR NEW YOU is 

in the vein of hysterical women horror movies, but it’s really a satirical takedown of the loathsome internet culture of today."

Breaking the established pattern of Into the Dark movies being released on the first Friday of the month, Takal's entry in the series will premiere on Hulu on December 28th so it will be available to watch on the holiday it's set on.