The first trailer for Daniel Alexander’s Gale: Stay Away From Oz has arrived online, and it’s precisely what you think it is: a Wizard of Oz sequel (well, kinda) with a decidedly nightmarish bent. How nightmarish? Potentially more nightmarish than that room full of heads in 1985’s Return to Oz, a comparison this traumatized-as-a-child writer does not make lightly.
We’ll check out that trailer in a second, but first – here’s an official plot synopsis:
“Long gone are the days of emerald cities and yellow brick roads. In this dark re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale is now an elderly woman, broken by years of paranormal entanglement with a mystical realm, which has now echoed down to her only living relative, Emily, who is being called to settle unfinished business in this terrifying world of Oz.”
Alright, let’s roll that beautiful Gale footage…
Well, Dorothy Gale has certainly seen better days, and there’s not much to go on here in terms of what Oz will actually look like in the film, but there’s potential in this concept. The world of Oz is an inherently freaky place, and if one were so inclined, one could easily mine that territory for some truly freaky scares. Or will Gale: Stay Away From Oz follow the advice buried within its own title, and keep the action largely in our world? Only time will tell!
At present, there’s no word on a release date for this one, but the trailer above has captured our attention, and we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground going forward for further updates. Stay tuned for those, and if you’ve never seen it: definitely seek out Return to Oz in the meantime. There’s some creepy shit going on in that movie.
