Anthology horror films used to be a staple of the genre. Think back to all those sleepovers watching Cat’s Eye, both Creepshows, Body Bags, and Tales from the Hood. More recently, the format’s had a slight resurgence, from the various iterations of V/H/S, to last year’s Southbound, and to this past Spring’s XX, but we’ve yet to see a truly iconic series come to pass.

Cinelou Films is hoping to change that with Nightmare Cinema, another horror anthology that teams up a gaggle of veteran genre filmmakers for one night of terror. This time behind the camera we’ve got directors Mick Garris (The Stand, Riding the Bullet), Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling), David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), Ryuhei Kitamur (Versus, The Midnight Meat Train), and Alejandro Brugues (Juan of the Dead, ABCs of Death 2).

I love being able to bring together visionaries of Horror cinema from all around the world with their personal perspectives about what scares you,” Garris explained in a press release. “This is a project I’ve been working on for some time and I couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with Cinelou and Good Deed to share with everyone.”

So, what’s the schtick behind this one? Here’s the official synopsis:

“A series of down-on-their-luck individuals enter the decrepit and spine-chilling Rialto theater, only to have their deepest and darkest fears brought to life on the silver screen by The Projectionist – a mysterious, ghostly figure who holds the nightmarish futures of all who attend his screenings. By the time our patrons realize the truth, escape is no longer an option. For once the ticket is torn, their fate is sealed at Nightmare Cinema.”

Okay, so it sounds a little like John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns”, which was for Garris’ own anthology series for Showtime, Masters of Horror. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what these wild hogs can put together, especially Dante, whose recent work has been pretty uninspiring to say the least. Who knows, maybe working in this medium will dust off the cobwebs.

Speaking of Carpenter, it’s a shame they couldn’t get the Horror Master. After all, he just carved out a music video for “Christine”, he’s touring behind all of his anthems, and he’s working on the next Halloween, seems like that could have been a slam dunk. Anyways, we’ll be happy with what we get here, so look out for this in the near future. Right now, there’s no release date.

In the meantime, revisit our interview with Garris on The Losers’ Club, our Stephen King podcast.