The public domain horror craze has left very few stones unturned in just the past few years, and you probably guessed that L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz was probably on the short list of classic tales being targeted for the horror movie treatment. Enter Wicked of Oz, a “spectacularly dark and bloody reimagining” that’s being unleashed this coming November.
Insurgence, actor-producer Tom Malloy’s Trick Candle Productions, and filmmaker James Cullen Bressack’s Sandaled Kid Productions have joined forces with director Aaron Mirtes for Wicked of Oz, a twisted take on the legendary story that’s being billed as a slasher film.
The Wicked of Oz traps Dorothy Gale in a savage land where she faces a blood-drenched death everywhere she turns, and Deadline has shared the first images and information this week.
Here’s the synopsis: “A freak tornado pulls Dorothy into the wicked world of Oz just in time for the down-on-her-luck Kansas farm girl to confront Glinda, a starving cannibal who finds herself all out of Munchkin meat. And things go down from there, as Dorothy goes head-to-head (literally) against a skull-cracking Scarecrow, a Tin Man whose hobby is to collect still-beating hearts and a Cowardly Lion who pleases his master by ripping apart anyone he sees. Oz becomes Ooze as Dorothy – armed with scavenged weapons – battles her way through hordes of psychotic enemies until she happens upon her ultimate nemesis, the Wicked Of Oz.”
Kenzie Wynne stars as Dorothy Gale, alongside Chelsey Fuller as Glinda; Patrick Sharn as The Wizard; Destinee Monét as Toto; Zach Lazar Hoffman as The Cowardly Lion; Brad Belemjian as The Scarecrow; and Carson Butcher as The Tin Man.
The upcoming slasher film is directed by Aaron Mirtes (The Bigfoot Trap, Painted in Blood, Escape Pod) and written by Mirtes with Nathan Illsley (Acts of Desperation) based on a story by James Cullen Bressack (Darkness of Man, Hot Seat, Fortress, Beyond The Law) and Scotty Mullen (Zoombies, Sharknado 5 & 6).