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Joseph Perry

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Fantasia Astounds with Its 25th-Edition First-Wave Announcement

Year after year, The Fantasia International Film Festival strengthens its reputation as the top genre-film fest in North America, and one look at this year’s first-wave announcement for the festival’s 25th edition explains exactly why that is. The following press release highlights the first round of horror, science fiction, and horror-adjacent features scheduled for this August. The Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to announce the first wave of programming for its upcoming 25th edition, set again to take place as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada. The festival will run from August 5 – 25, 2021 and will include scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops, with films once again hosted on the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. As the summer approaches, Fantasia organizers will be following advice from local health authorities in Montreal with respect to the possibility of adding a limited range of physical events as well. In celebration of the key

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Joseph Perry

May 20, 2021

Reviews

Movie Review: The Djinn

David Charbonier and Justin Powell are making waves as a cowriting/codirecting duo with their single-location cat-and-mouse horror thrillers. They made a big debut splash with last year’s excellent The Boy Behind the Door and have followed it up with their terrific supernatural sophomore effort The Djinn. In The Djinn, young Dylan Jacobs (Ezra Dewey), who is mute, has just moved with his radio personality father Michael (Rob Brownstein) into a new home after the death of Michelle (Tevy Poe), Dylan’s mother and Michael’s wife. The father and son are grieving Michelle’s loss, but their obviously strong bond is helping them work through matters. Dylan discovers a large tome entitled The Book of Shadows in a closet and tries out one of the spells contained in the book in hopes that it will grant him one of his fondest wishes. This unleashes the titular supernatural being, which can take on different human forms. Dylan must escape the djinn’s deadly wrath for

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Joseph Perry

May 11, 2021

Film FestivalsIndieMoviesReviews

Warped Dimension Online Film Festival Review: “The Black Market: San Francisco (ASMR)”

If you are in the mood for something decidedly different and altogether intriguing, give writer/director Alexander Roman’s neo-noir mystery The Black Market: San Francisco (ASMR) a whirl. It’s a modern take on classic mysteries using autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) elements to engage viewers deeper into the proceedings. Besides offering what the store name promises, San Francisco business O’Hara’s Art Gallery & Rare Books also sidelines in hot items and organ transplants. Elsa (Christina Ros) is the face of the retail business, and works the behind-the-scenes illegal businesses with Jess (Stevie Vallejo) and Ava (Max Reeves). When Jess’s father, ringleader Boss Joe (David L. Klein), finds himself needing an organ transplant quickly, he finds it isn’t easy locating a donor as forces work against him. Side plots include a retired judge turned writer and someone he sentenced to jail time, and a detective suspicious of the goings-on at the bookstore who takes a personal interest in Elsa. Briefly, ASMR is

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Joseph Perry

May 8, 2021

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesNews

Fantaspoa 2021 Announces Its Award Winners

Brazilian genre-film festival Fantaspoa celebrated its second year online with a tantalizing selection of horror, science fiction, thriller, and other exciting movies, as the fest’s 2021 awards affirm. Following is the official press announcement for Fantaspoa’s wrap-up of its 2021 edition. The seventeenth edition of Fantaspoa was again a landmark for the long-running Brazilian genre festival. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Latin America’s largest genre film festival celebrated its second online edition, with free access within Brazil to all festival content. In total, 160 films from over 40 countries were exhibited, including 57 features and 103 shorts. The massive virtual event took place from April 9th through 18th on the Brazilian streaming platform, Wurlak — and the festival proudly presented fourteen masterclasses along with 29 Q&As with filmmakers from around the globe. According to festival directors and producers João Fleck and Nicolas Tonsho, this was the finest edition of the festival they’ve presented thus far, even with the ongoing

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Joseph Perry

May 6, 2021

Film Festivals

Movie Review (Warped Dimension): Companion

Writer/director John Darbonne has created a new type of supernatural entity, one that doesn’t let the humans it encounters know of clear rules involving it. This leads to mystery and confusion for both the characters in Companion and, to some extent, viewers, as well. Mind games, duplicity, and deceit rule the world of this film, which has a decidedly grim edge to it. Gus (Marcus Anthony) and Ella (Anna Flynn) Grace are a married couple who viewers meet three years after a war and in the throes of an apocalypse. Since that time, entities called companions have inhabited the world, seeking out those who show fear. Companions look like some other-dimensional cross between the dead from Carnival of Souls and zombies. The Preacher (Eric Hanson) and two sidekicks burst onto the scene, gravely injuring Gus and brutalizing Ella. Just as quickly as the villainous trio showed up, Abner (Russell Shealy) arrives, and he has reasons to hunt down The Preacher.

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Joseph Perry

May 3, 2021

Film FestivalsReviews

Movie Review (Calgary Underground Film Festival): Frank & Zed

Horror movie lovers seeking something truly unique, as well as puppet fans with an edgy side, will find plenty to enjoy in the all-puppet terror tale Frank & Zed. Lovingly brought to cinematic life by writer/director Jesse Blanchard — the film took six years to make — Frank & Zed serves up gore galore, dark humor, and a feast for the eyes. Frank — who, you might guess, resembles Frankenstein’s monster — and zombie-like Zed are the former servants of an evil entity that once brought fear and destruction to the land in which the film is set. A king made a pact with that god of death to spare his kingdom and subjects, with the catch being that once the royal lineage dies out, the kingdom’s subject will be massacred in “an orgy of blood.” For countless years, Frank and Zed existed peacefully, with daily routines of battery charging using lightning and plenty of brain munching. Once some conspirators

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Joseph Perry

Apr 29, 2021

Film FestivalsReviews

Movie Review (Warped Dimension): The Cloud

Phone app horror and the newer trend of Zoom-based fear fare meet in The Cloud, an anthology film from San Francisco’s Awesome Theatre group. Created and curated by Awesome Theatre’s Artistic Director Colin Johnson, the film features a good deal of tension and some solid performances. A new, invitation-only app called ReKomoZe is not only addictive in the usual sense — it also won’t let users quit without dire consequences. It’s also more intrusive than its downloaders could ever imagine. In The Cloud’s main thread, Eric (Marc Abrigo) and Lacey (Sonia Sawkar) become concerned about their friend Jules (Puja Tolton), who has been using ReKomoZe and is now withdrawn. As Eric begins some online sleuthing, the app creeps into his life as well as Lacey’s. All three actors turn in nifty work, and the mystery build pays off handsomely. In the first installment, “Dolores,” — written by Alexandria Love and directed by Nikki Meñez — celebrity vlogger Kennedi (Sharon Shao)

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Joseph Perry

Apr 27, 2021

Film Festivals

Movie Review (Panic Fest 2021): Blood Conscious

Writer/Director Timothy Covell’s Blood Conscious is a gripping horror thriller that touches on social commentary while delivering a good share of excitement and paranoia. Brittney (DeShawn White), her university student younger brother Kevin (Oghenero Gbaje), and her fiancée Tony (Lenny Thomas) travel to Brittney’s and Kevin’s family lakeside cabin in the woods for a relaxing getaway with their parents. They explore the eerily quiet surroundings and Kevin discovers the bodies of his parents and their neighbors, who have all been shot or otherwise violently killed. The perpetrator — Nick Damici as “The Stranger” — sneaks up on them, demanding to know at gunpoint whether they are humans or, as he claims, demons who replaced the murder victims before he disposed of them. The trio manages to overcome the stranger and lock him in the basement, where he continues to shout that they should protect themselves from the demons, who are on their way. Though Brittney and Tony insist that his

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Joseph Perry

Apr 23, 2021

ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers

Tony Todd Features in new U.K. Shocker The Lockdown Hauntings, Due May 3rd

Howard J. Ford’s The Lockdown Hauntings is the latest entry in the currently hot subgenre of supernatural shockers set during COVID-19 lockdowns. The film stars fright-fare icon Tony Todd. The official press announcement follows regarding its May 3rd release in the U.K. and Ireland. Strap yourself in for a Covid-era creep-out par-excellence, with THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS, from acclaimed director Howard J Ford, (The Dead, The Dead 2) and Evolution Pictures, released 3rd May on digital platforms in the UK and Ireland. Set at the beginning of last year’s lockdown, THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS is a fast-paced mix of paranormal horror and detective thriller, that sees the evil spirit of a dead serial killer stalking his victims who are stuck in their homes alone during the Covid epidemic. Award-winning director Howard J. Ford, (who directed/co-wrote zombie hits and FrightFest favorites The Dead and The Dead 2) pulls out all the stops to deliver a jolt-filled, creepy and highly entertaining shocker, despite having

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Joseph Perry

Apr 22, 2021

Film FestivalsReviews

Movie Review (Panic Fest 2021): Night Drive

The latest entry into the ride-share subgenre of thriller and horror movies is Night Drive, one of the best offerings in the subgenre so far. Funny, smart, and with a truly surprising element, the first co-directing feature film team up from Brad Baruh and Meghan Leon is a blast. AJ Bowen (Dead Night; Satanic Panic; I Trapped the Devil) portrays Russell, a ride-share driver with a fancy car who has gone through a series of personal and professional hardships. He and his freewheeling fare Charlotte (Sophie Dalah of Dead Night and Satanic) share some laughs and drinks, and then Russell accidentally hits a pedestrian. It turns out that Charlotte happens to be quite knowledgeable in the area of body disposal, and the night is only going to get weirder and more dangerous for Russell. Bowen and Dalah have superb chemistry together, with both getting in their share of sarcastic barbs and witty asides. Leon’s crackerjack screenplay gives the duo plenty

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Joseph Perry

Apr 21, 2021

Joseph Perry

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