Lucy Hale's New Horror Movie Sounds Way Too Similar To This 85% RT Sci-Fi Classic

6 days ago 4

Lucy Hale has a new horror project coming up, but it sounds suspiciously similar to a sci-fi classic with 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lucy Hale’s acting career began in 2003 when she was a contestant in American Juniors, but she rose to fame seven years later when she was cast as Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars. Hale made her big screen debut in 2008 when she played Effie Kaligaris, Lena’s younger sister, in the comedy-drama The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Since then, Hale has been part of various projects on TV and film in different genres.

Lucy Hale first visited the horror genre in 2009 in Michael Storey’s Fear Island, which was released direct-to-video. Her first theatrically released horror movie was Scream 4, in 2011, in which she has a cameo appearance in the movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie in the opening scene. Hale later starred in 2018’s Truth or Dare, followed by Fantasy Island in 2020, a prequel and reimagining of the 1977 TV series of the same name. Hale is now preparing for the release of the comedy horror F*** Marry Kill, but she already has another horror movie lined up, and it sounds very similar to a John Carpenter classic.

Lucy Hale’s White Mars Sounds A Lot Like John Carpenter’s The Thing (& Its Prequel)

White Mars Might Have Taken Too Much Inspiration From The Thing

Three men in snow suits talk together in The Thing

As reported by Deadline, Lucy Hale is now set to star in the upcoming sci-fi horror movie White Mars. Directed by Martin Owen and written by Matt Mitchell, Vicki Sargent, and Roo Berry, White Mars is set in an isolated Aquila Research Facility in Antarctica. Hale plays Sammie, a microbiologist who, when a malevolent entity haunts the facility, has to fight to save her fellow crew members, as this entity wants to extinguish them all. White Mars is set to begin filming in November 2024, but it doesn’t have a projected release date yet.

Despite the few known details about White Mars, the movie already sounds suspiciously similar to John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror classic, The Thing. Based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., The Thing follows a group of researchers in Antarctica, among them pilot R. J. MacReady (Kurt Russell). When an extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates and imitates other organisms makes it to the station, MacReady and his crew are overcome with fear and uncertainty, as anyone could be “the thing” posing as one of them.

Despite getting negative reviews during its initial release, The Thing is now one of the best sci-fi horror movies ever made and has gained a cult following. In 2011, a prequel of the same name was released, following vertebrate paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and the members of the Norwegian research station who came across “the thing” first. Unlike Carpenter’s movie, 2011’s The Thing was a critical and commercial failure.

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How White Mars Could Succeed Where 2011’s The Thing Failed

The Thing’s 2011 Prequel Didn’t Perform Well

Mary Elizabeth Winstead in The Thing(2011)

White Mars sounds like yet another version of The Thing now with a microbiologist as the lead character, but it could have a much better performance than 2011’s The Thing. The main problems with the 2011 prequel to The Thing were that it didn’t do much to add to the original movie, and it was the same story but with different characters. White Mars can stand out by giving the malevolent entity haunting Sammie and company a proper origin and, most importantly, different qualities to “the thing”.

The purpose of the entity should also be different from that of “the thing”, and the ending could go in an entirely different, perhaps more optimistic direction.

Although the title of the movie implies the malevolent entity is an alien one, there’s a lot that can be done with an alien entity that arrives on Earth. The purpose of the entity should also be different from that of “the thing”, and the ending could go in an entirely different, perhaps more optimistic direction. It’s to be seen if White Mars truly got inspiration from The Thing or if its first details were misleading.