Netflix is now streaming Blumhouse horror movie Mercy Black. The streaming platform surprise dropped the movie and it is available to stream right now. The movie comes to us from Austin writer-director Owen Egerton (Follow, Blood Fest) and is loosely inspired by the Slenderman controversy and the U.K. Mary Bell child killer case, but it has its own voice. Daniella Pineda stars along with Austin Amelio, Elle LaMont, Lee Eddy, Janeane Garofalo, and Miles Emmons.
Owen Egerton recently sat down to talk about Mercy Black. Egerton says, “I’m trying to scare myself with concepts and moments,” and he seems to be on the right track as viewers try and figure out if the premise is based on a true story. The director/writer gives potential viewers an idea of what they’re going to be in for when they jump into watching the horror movie on Netflix. You can read what he had to say about it below.
“It’s the story of a woman 15 years after she stabbed a classmate. She committed this horrendous act to conjure a phantom called Mercy Black. She’s just now getting out of a mental asylum and presumably cured but she’s beginning to see all the things she never thought she’d see again. The creature becomes a viral success, even her young nephew is becoming obsessed with this Mercy Black, and she has to, perhaps for the first time ever, face what she’s done and the power of this mythical creature.”
Owen Egerton was very happy to be able to team up with Blumhouse for the Mercy Black project. Egerton says that he and Jason Blum talked about crafting a movie that would work on its own without the scares and the director believes that he was able to pull it off successfully, noting that the scares are more emotional and tied to the characters. Additionally, the director talked about truth being an ultimate part of the horror element in the movie. He explains.
“It’s filled with scares and surprises and all the stuff I love in horror movies, but some of the most terrifying moments are when two people are talking and a truth comes out that’s just too hard to take.”
The goal of Mercy Black is to make the audience feel uncomfortable. While there are some reviews starting to come in, it might be too early to tell how the movie is being received by horror aficionados. However, with the Blumhouse name attached, it practically already has a built-in audience ready to devour every minute of the surprise release. The movie marks the third release for Blumhouse this year, following Glass and Happy Death Day 2U.
Mercy Black aims to take real-life elements to craft a pretty intense horror movie. Whether it succeeds or not is the real question and horror fans will be voicing their opinions very soon. Owen Egerton is already hard at work on a new screenplay, which he describes as, “a little more of a thriller, with some sci-fi and dystopian stuff.” You can currently stream Mercy Black on Netflix and you can read the rest of the interview with Egerton over at Entertainment Weekly.
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