‘New Mutants’: Marvel’s first horror film heads to UAE cinemas

The long-delayed, superhero-horror flick ‘The New Mutants’, from Marvel Entertainment and Twentieth Century Studios and the last film in the long-running ‘X-Men’ franchise, finally hits UAE theatres on September 10.

‘The New Mutants’, directed by Josh Boone and written by Boone and Knate Lee, stars Maisie Williams (‘Game of Thrones‘), Anya Taylor-Joy (‘Peaky Blinders’), Charlie Heaton ‘(Stranger Things’), Alice Braga (‘The Shack’), Blu Hunt (‘The Originals’) and Henry Zaga (‘13 Reasons Why’) in lead roles.

The horror thriller follows Rahne Sinclair (Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Heaton) and Roberto De Costa (Zaga), four young mutants being held in an isolated hospital for psychiatric monitoring.

Dr Cecilia Reyes (Braga), believing the teenagers are a danger both to themselves and to society as a whole, keeps a close eye on them as she struggles to teach them how to reign in their mutant abilities. When newcomer Danielle “Dani” Moonstar (Hunt) joins the other patients the facility, strange occurrences begin to take place. The hospital’s patients are plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, and both their new mutant abilities — and their friendships — will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

Simon Kinberg, producer of ‘The New Mutants’, has previously backed six of the titles in the ‘X-Men’ franchise, and director Boone says he knew Kinberg was the key to getting a ‘New Mutants’ project off the ground.

“We wanted it to be a horror story, one that relayed the true horrors of being a teenager in search of themselves,” says Boone, “and he — above all people — understands how much we have to push these movies to make them their own unique thing and to have their own unique identity.”

Together, Boone and Lee pitched Kinberg a female-driven origins narrative with the demon bear storyline as its framework which introduces the ‘New Mutants’ to a brand new audience. “Although we incorporate similar themes from the comics, this is very much its’ own unique story,” says Boone. “Though there are references to the X-Men and our characters know who the X-Men are, this a standalone world where if you took these characters and tried to place them in another ‘X-Men’ movie, they would seem like outsiders.”

“‘The New Mutants’ always stood out to us because the characters and their powers — as well as their back stories — were just a little bit more screwed up than the rest of the mainline X-Men, and translating their powers and their storylines really lent themselves more towards the horror genre,” added Lee.

“‘The New Mutants’ is very much a coming-of-age story about young adults accepting what’s happened in their pasts so they can move forward into the future. We all have a history and past that we have to move beyond, and within this story we wanted to embrace that narrative which provides a strong emotional spine.” says producer Karen Rosenfelt.

Diehard fans will also be excited to know that the film features Lockheed, a tiny, alien dragon, first introduced in the comics in 1983.

The New York Comic Con trailer featured the dragon in a split-second moment next to Taylor-Joy’s Illyana Rasputin, and director Boone confirmed his appearance in the film. “All the mythology from the comic book has been honoured, but not the stuff that’s really difficult to explain without a lot of crazy X-Men back story. Like for example, [originally] Lockheed came from outer space and he belonged to Kitty Pride first. Then he eventually was sort of adopted by Illyana in the New Mutants comics. And it’s like, we simplified that in ways just to make it more grounded, like the movie, and less connected to that sort of stuff,” he said in a press event, according to CinemaBlend.

Another character highlighted in the trailer is the terrifying Demon Bear, a massive bear-like entity with superhuman strength, the power to corrupt human souls, and the ability to transform or teleport.

With all these characters and more, ‘The New Mutants’ promises to be a whole new superhero movie experience, and the perfect chance for fans to say goodbye to a long-loved franchise.

Don’t miss it!

‘The New Mutants’ releases in the UAE on September 10.