THE RED: Michael Biehn Cast in Horror Film by Ryan Coonan

Michael Biehn joins cast of Ryan Coonan thriller The Red

Michael Biehn is the latest member of Ryan Coonan’s horror opus The Red.

The Red is one of two notches in Michael Biehn’s belt for 2022, the other being his Saturn Award nominated performance in The Walking Dead episode, “Warlords.”

His career spans across several media over decades as actor, producer, writer, and director. Quite a feat for what many felt to be a bump in the road as the obsessed, star-struck stalker in The Fan. (Film scholar John Kenneth Muir saw something beyond the film’s bad press, however, and singled out Biehn for praise.)

And Michael Biehn has since proven time and again his diversity and eagerness to push beyond his career’s envelope. He plays good guys and bad with equal gusto or finesse, or both, according to context, and is consistently impressive. His work with James Cameron provides good examples. Kyle Reese (The Terminator) and Cpl. Hicks (Aliens) stand as good guys against the macho bad guy Lt. Coffey in The Abyss, from whom Biehn manages to evoke unexpected humor and vulnerability. Biehn’s subtle but chilling portrayal of Doc Holliday’s nemesis Johnny Ringo in Tombstone had garnered significant interest in the outlaw, especially his erudition (Ringo was most likely self-taught).

That being said, whatever role to which he is assigned in The Red, hero, antihero, villain, or somewhere in between, Michael Biehn is bound to make the most of it. By the same token, the story itself by Coonan and his writing partner, Richard Barcaricchio, must have rightly fascinated the actor.

Or had Biehn watched the remarkable short film, Waterborne, by the Coonan/Barcaricchio team, and had been duly impressed? This film is a cautionary tale concerning the dangers of zoonotic infection from contaminated drinking water — algae turns the victims into zombies — he might have already been in the same frame of mind after his stint in “Warlords.” (Incidentally, Waterborne is available on Youtube in its entirety and packs a surprising whollop of suspense in its nine minutes.)

The role of the female sheriff, daughter of the previous one, who struggles with self-confidence in the wake of grisly attacks on locals in her bailiwick may go to either of the two award-winning Australian actors already on board thus far: Angie Milliken (Elvis, The Condemned) and Tess Haubrich (The Wolverine, Alien: Covenant, Spiderhead).

Notable among the producers are Jessica Butland, Nina Kolokouri and James Norrie. Ms. Butland’s latest venture is an intriguing upcoming post-apocalyptic horror thriller, Enter Sanctum. Ms. Kolokouri and Mr. Norrie were part of the driving force behind the acclaimed Canadian comedy/horror film The Void.

The Red is currently filming in Australia with Radioactive Pictures set to distribute. No release date has yet been given.

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