New Mutants to take inspiration from The Shining

September 20th 2017, 3:28pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

While I enjoy the X-MEN films for the most part, and haven't felt the superhero fatigue many others have claimed to have, I can understand the feeling that superhero movies are due to run their course. I mean, how many times can there be a world-ending threat that only punching, explosions, and witty quips can solve? A lot, apparently…but probably not an infinite amount. Which is why many people are shrugging with a "meh" about the release of NEW MUTANTS, the most recent live-action feature film spin-off of the (as of now) popular franchise.

However, here's what Stacey Snider – head of FOX studios – had to say about this very issue in an exclusive interview with Variety:

“New Mutants” is about these teenagers who are just coming into their powers. It’s like watching mutants go through adolescence and they have no impulse control, so they’re dangerous. The only solution is to put them in a “Breakfast Club” detention/“Cuckoo’s Nest” institutional setting. It protects the people on the outside, but it’s strange and combustible inside. The genre is like a haunted-house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. We haven’t seen it as a superhero movie whose genre is more like “The Shining” than “we’re teenagers let’s save the world.”

What, a haunted house movie with superheroes? That's…actually kind of brilliant. I know there might be comics that have similar plots, but the idea of a horror film in the vein of SHINING starring X-Men characters? I'm already on board! I think the closest we've come to something like this was ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE which was superheroes meets SAW…though let's hope this one turns out better.