Back in 2014, a little movie called The Canal came out of Ireland, scaring and disturbing unsuspecting audiences with its creepiness, brutality, and gut-punch of a conclusion. It had begun building some solid buzz within the horror community, but when it hit Netflix early the following year, many who may not have otherwise sought it out got a chance to experience the terror.

If you ask me, The Canal is one of the more chilling films to come along in recent years, and ever since first laying my eyes on it, I have been eagerly awaiting more from director Ivan Kavanagh. This weekend, I was able to get an update from Mr. Kavanagh on what fans can expect to see from him in the near-term.

He tells me that since finishing The Canal, he has largely spent his time writing, and now he has three projects in the works. First up is a western called Never Grow Old, which is planned for pre-production in March. Formerly titled “Where We’ll Never Grow Old,” the synopsis that appears on IMDb for this one is as follows:

“An Irish undertaker profits when outlaws take over a peaceful American frontier town, but his family come under threat as the death toll rises.”

Sounds like my kind of western. Kavanagh continued with the following:

“Then straight after that I’ll shoot an adaptation of Jon Bassoff’s acclaimed psycho-noir novel ‘The Disassembled Man‘,” Kavanagh says. “And after that I’ll shoot ‘SON‘ which is an original horror film I wrote and I’m very excited to unleash on the world! Or perhaps ‘SON‘ first, then the noir.”

Given how effective Kavanagh has proven himself to be in the horror genre with The Canal (not to mention the bizarrely uncomfortable Tin Can Man), I’m sure many of you would love to see his original horror film sooner rather than later. That said, while I’m not familiar with The Disassembled Man, anything described as “psycho-noir’ is bound to sit comfortably within our beloved genre. Here’s the book synopsis via Amazon:

The Disassembled Man

The Disassembled Man

Frankie Avicious is a hard-luck fellow with a sordid past. Living in a dreary meatpacking town, stuck in a loveless marriage, and spending his days slaughtering cattle, Frankie has nothing to look forward to but his next swallow of bargain whiskey. His wife is threatening to leave him, and the local sociopath is threatening to kill him. And then there’s Scarlett Acres, a stripper with a heart of fool’s gold. Frankie can’t stop thinking about her . . . With the encouragement of a mysterious traveling salesman, Frankie sets out to reverse his destiny through a series of bizarre murders. The consequences of his brutality turn out to be far worse than even he could imagine.

Canada Media Fund describes the project as:

“A character driven thriller/part film-noir with it’s own share of black humour. A luckless slaughterhouse worker resorts to murder in an attempt to transform his squalid life, with horrifying consequences.”

Consider me on board for all of the above. If you haven’t seen The Canal yet, I highly recommend it (in case that wasn’t already obvious). I also listed Kavanagh’s Tin Can Man as one of 8 modern low-budget films you should be watching in a Modern Horrors piece last year.