Hulu and Blumhouse Televison’s horror anthology Into the Dark is set to deliver its third installment, Pooka!, and from the first trailer it looks to blend psychological horror with the terror of missing out on the hottest toy trend of the shopping season. Like the Furby or Tickle Me Elmo craze in the late ’90, Pooka! appears to be the must-have item for kids and their beleaguered parents everywhere, but in a weird twist, the movie sets its sights on an actor given the chance to bring Pooka to life, and the strange hallucinatory (and possibly murderous) journey he goes on afterward.
The new film comes from director Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal, Extraterrestrial), and stars Nyasha Hatendi of Hulu’s Casual as Wilson, the out-of-work actor who has the fortune and misfortune of playing Pooka during the holidays. As you might expect, things begin to go awry when Wilson slowly falls victim to what appears to be a malevolent suit. If anything, it sounds a bit like Jon Watts’ 2014 film Clown in which a man is possessed by the clown suit he puts on for his son’s birthday.
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As with The Body and Flesh and Blood, the two other installments in the Into the Dark series so far, Pooka! looks to be a blend of comedy and horror, and it’s easy to see why. The suit Wilson is tasked with wearing is absurdly large, and the creature’s giant, glowing eyes make for an interesting design, if nothing else. Check out the trailer and synopsis below:
So far, Into the Dark has managed to deliver a pair of fun stories to get the series started. Flesh and Blood was perhaps a little more organized and better exectuted than its predecessor, so the hope then is that each successive installment in the series will be better than the one before it. If that’s the case, then Pooka! may turn out to be a welcome holiday surprise that comes a little early.
“A struggling actor gets a holiday season job as a Christmas character in a plush suit to promote the hottest toy of the year, “Pooka.” At first it’s a fun and friendly distraction, but he slowly develops two personalities–one when he’s in the suit, and one that’s outside it–as Pooka slowly starts to take possession of him. This unconventional monster movie is directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, the visionary behind the acclaimed 2016 Kaiju film COLOSSAL.”
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Into the Dark: Pooka! premieres Friday, December 7 on Hulu.
