Wheatley/Vikander film Freakshift is an homage to ’50s B-movies

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

KILL LIST director Ben Wheatley continues to say all the right things about his upcoming creature feature FREAKSHIFT. Clearly this man is on a mission to make this project one of the most highly anticipated films of the foreseeable future for viewers like me, because with each new interview he's making it sound more and more incredible.

My hype started building when it was announced that Alicia Vikander (pictured above) was in talks to star in the film, 

an all-guns-blazing action thriller about a band of misfits who hunt down and kill nocturnal underground monsters.

Sure, sounds like a movie I would like to watch. My excitement level then got a massive boost when Wheatley described it like this: 

It's about women with shotguns fighting giant crabs. There you go, it sells itself."

Now that sounds awesome. But it gets even better. During a recent chat with Collider, Wheatley delved further into his vision for the film:

It’s monsters, shotguns, trucks, fighting at night, and it’s in the future, things coming out like crabs. Stuff with claws. That’s the elevator pitch. And August is when we shoot it.

… It will be dynamic and exciting the same way that Free Fire is. But it won’t be sadistic. But it will be fun. It’s a kind of a 50s B-Movie done through the prism of Hill Street Blues and Doom."

Wheatley isn't giving away any secrets, but these vague descriptions make it sound like FREAKSHIFT is going to be one of the coolest movies to go into production this year, and I love that the director has '50s B-movies in mind while preparing to make a giant crab movie. I need to see FREAKSHIFT as soon as possible.

Vikander's THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. co-star Armie Hammer, who just worked with Wheatley on the shoot 'em up film FREE FIRE (now in theatres), will be playing her love interest in FREAKSHIFT.