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Joseph Perry

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Horror Fuel

Brazil’s Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival Announces Its Virtual Version for 2020 and Its Incredible First Wave of Genre Titles

Brazil’s Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival has announced that, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, its sixteenth edition will be held online and completely free of charge, with more than 110 genre features and shorts geo-blocked to Brazilian viewers but with digital versions of the festival’s popular lectures and masterclasses available free to cinema lovers around the world. The event is slated to run July 24th through August 2nd, 2020. Fantaspoa joins other genre-film festivals around the world in moving to a virtual version this year in these uncertain times. The fest’s move comes courtesy of an unprecedented partnership with Darkflix, a Brazilian video streaming service aimed at fantastic genre productions. The opening film of Fantaspoa’s sixteenth edition will be Keola Racela’s Porno, which has already won over audiences at SXSW, Fantasia, Sitges, and FrightFest. You can read Horror Fuel’s review here. The closing films of the festival’s sixteenth edition will be dual co-productions of Fantaspoa Productions: Skull: the Mask and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Takes a Hybrid Approach to Horror for 2020

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) — Asia’s largest genre film fest — will take what it calls a hybrid approach for its July 9–16 run. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the fest will screen 174 features and short films from 42 countries on cinema screens, and offer 69 of those movies on a Korean online platform. According to the fest’s official website, “BIFAN 2020 would like to present the blueprint for future film festivals: a ‘hybrid’ film festival that keeps pace with the changing media environment, a festival that effectively combines offline and online events . . . Overseas directors who cannot travel to Korea will be meeting audiences by introducing their films and giving talks online.” As always, BIFAN is offering a treasure trove of intriguing horror films. Here are five that I am looking forward to watching at the fest, with program notes from the official BIFAN site. Amulet Tomaz is a homeless man in London

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Scare Package

Fear-fare anthology Scare Package combines satirical meta takes on horror movie tropes and delivers a fair share of laughs and grins along with a heaping helping of crackerjack practical gore effects. As might be expected with most portmanteau features, a couple of segments slow things down a bit, but for the most part, the film is a fun effort that tends to dig deeper for its laughs than most horror-trope send-ups. “Cold Open” establishes the tone for the omnibus, as Mike Myers (Jon Michael Simpson) dreams of having more to do in life than merely being the character who sets up the frights to come. Writer/director Emily Hagins delivers a wry take on events and Simpson delivers a solid comical performance. “Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium” serves as a wrap-around for the segments that follow and a lead-in to the final segment; both are directed by Aaron B. Koontz (Camera Obscura). Chad (Jeremy King in a solid comic performance) runs an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is a documentary about how Mark Patton’s life and acting career were negatively impacted after he toplined A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), and how that ultimately led him to becoming a positive voice for a new generation of horror fans, gay and straight alike. A young closeted gay man trying to make a name for himself when AIDS made headlines and claimed the lives and livelihoods of gay men, Patton disappeared from the public eye for decades and blamed Freddy’s Revenge writer David Chaskin for being a major reason why he chose to do so. Scream, Queen! is a poignant journey from Patton’s childhood and his decision to leave home and take a chance on an acting career in New York City to his rather sudden rise to becoming a Broadway star and the lead in Freddy’s Revenge, to his being discovered living an anonymous lifestyle in Mexico by

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 15, 2020
Horror Fuel

Fantasia International Film Festival Offers Up World-Class Horror and Genre Cinema in Its First Wave Announcement

The Fantasia International Film Festival, one of the world’s premiere genre film fests, is forging ahead with its first-ever virtual edition so that Canadian movie lovers can partake of the festival’s outstanding programs despite the current pandemic and the uncertainty it brings to the world. The official press release for Fantasia’s 24th edition follows. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 24th edition as a virtual event accessible to movie lovers across Canada, with a wild assortment of scheduled screenings, panels, and workshops taking place online from August 20 through September 2, 2020. The decision to launch a digital edition of the famed genre festival was born from Fantasia’s desire to keep the health and safety of its attendees a top priority during the current global health crisis, while still offering daring, much-needed new genre entertainment to residents of Canada and supporting the breakout filmmakers of the year. The festival’s full lineup will be announced in early August.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 10, 2020
Horror Fuel

Portland Horror Film Festival Announces Its Terrific Virtual Edition Lineup

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a new trend of film festivals going virtual this year. Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere horror genre film festival, is the latest fest to announce that it is offering a virtual version, and as a selection and awards judge on the fest’s film jury, I can tell Horror Fuel readers first-hand that the quality of fright fare selected for this outing is high, indeed. Best of all, you can partake of the terror from anywhere in the United States! Horror fans can dig into a selection of more than 60 short and feature films during the 6-night event, beginning June 10th with the first shorts block and a preview of the festival’s upcoming features. The terror continues June 17–21 with more shorts and feature films from around the world. Following is the official press release from Portland Horror Film Festival: In the midst of this pandemic, some businesses are finally starting

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Becky

Something seems hidden below the surface of the young teenage title character in Becky. Alas, quite a bit also seems hidden from viewers — though that is certainly not the case in the gore department — in this horror thriller that sees a dating pair of single parents and their children rudely interrupted (to put it mildly) by a quartet of neo-Nazis who have just escaped from prison. Lulu Wilson (Anabelle: Creation, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and The Haunting of Hill House series) stars as 13-year-old Becky, who is still mourning the death of her mother and is angry at her father Jeff (Joel McHale of Deliver Us from Evil and the Community comedy series) for, among other things, inviting his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel of the Snowpiercer and The Handmaid’s Tale series) and her young son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe, also of The Handmaid’s Tale series) to what Becky thought was going to be a weekend alone with her

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 2, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Confessional

The central conceit of director Brad T. Gottfred’s Confessional is an updated, low-budget approach to the old chestnut of a mysterious host inviting people to a certain location and having them crack under pressure, or killing them — think The Beast Must Die (1974), The Cat and the Canary (1939), or Ten Little Indians (1965). In the case of Confessional, a group of college students come to a specially built booth that records their deepest, darkest secrets, to which they have been invited by an unknown host after the death of two mutually known fellow students. The film is an exercise that stays true to its technique, but it gets convoluted and has the issue of not presenting any characters for viewers to truly get solidly behind. Film student Amelia Lincoln (Mia Xitlali) and star swimmer Zach Turner (Brandon Larracuente) both die puzzling deaths. Seven students from their university are blackmailed by an unknown person into revealing what they know

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Chattanooga Film Festival): Skull; The Wanting Mare

Skull and The Wanting Mare are part of Chattanooga Film Festival’s 2020 virtual edition, which runs May 22–25, and these films may be viewed anytime during those dates. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org. Please note that the festival is open to residents of the United States only. Fest badges can be purchased at www.chattfilmfest.org/badges. Skull If a demonic monster/slasher mashup sounds right up your alley, don’t hesitate on catching Skull (AKA Skull: The Mask), a grue-filled, giddy romp that delivers action and carnage at a frenetic pace. This Brazilian fright flick centers on the excavated Mask of Anhangá — the executioner of Tahawantinsupay, a Pre-Columbian God — which viewers learn during a jaw-dropping cold open is a deadly false face, indeed. Police officer Beatriz Obdias (Natalia Rodrigues) gets tangled up with mysterious creep Tack Waelder (Ivo Müller of The Devil Lives Here) after a double murder in which the killer ripped out the victims’ hearts, because Waelder wants the mask

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Chattanooga Film Festival Features Vampires, a Sacrifice-Seeking Mask, and Other Horror Galore in Its 2020 Virtual Edition

The Chattanooga Film Festival, known and loved by horror and genre film fans for its eclectic cinematic fare and incredible special events, has announced a breathtaking lineup for its virtual edition, headed to a computer near you next week! The May 22–25 event is a doozy, with film offerings such as the world premiere of the Brazilian shocker Skull, science fiction/horror outing The Beach House, and vintage 1970 nugget Hollywood Horror House, to name but a few. Some of the special events include Joe Dante receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Joe Bob Briggs hosting a talk with filmmaker/producer Mick Garris on the making of Stephen King’s pandemic classic The Stand. Following is the full press release from Chattanooga Film Festival, which is well worth poring through! The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF), along with its presenting sponsor Gunpowder & Sky’s ALTER and media partner Bloody-Disgusting.com, are thrilled to announce their innovative lineup of features, panels and live events set

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 14, 2020

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

Brazil’s Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival Announces Its Virtual Version for 2020 and Its Incredible First Wave of Genre Titles

Brazil’s Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival has announced that, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, its sixteenth edition will be held online and completely free of charge, with more than 110 genre features and shorts geo-blocked to Brazilian viewers but with digital versions of the festival’s popular lectures and masterclasses available free to cinema lovers around the world. The event is slated to run July 24th through August 2nd, 2020. Fantaspoa joins other genre-film festivals around the world in moving to a virtual version this year in these uncertain times. The fest’s move comes courtesy of an unprecedented partnership with Darkflix, a Brazilian video streaming service aimed at fantastic genre productions. The opening film of Fantaspoa’s sixteenth edition will be Keola Racela’s Porno, which has already won over audiences at SXSW, Fantasia, Sitges, and FrightFest. You can read Horror Fuel’s review here. The closing films of the festival’s sixteenth edition will be dual co-productions of Fantaspoa Productions: Skull: the Mask and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Takes a Hybrid Approach to Horror for 2020

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) — Asia’s largest genre film fest — will take what it calls a hybrid approach for its July 9–16 run. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the fest will screen 174 features and short films from 42 countries on cinema screens, and offer 69 of those movies on a Korean online platform. According to the fest’s official website, “BIFAN 2020 would like to present the blueprint for future film festivals: a ‘hybrid’ film festival that keeps pace with the changing media environment, a festival that effectively combines offline and online events . . . Overseas directors who cannot travel to Korea will be meeting audiences by introducing their films and giving talks online.” As always, BIFAN is offering a treasure trove of intriguing horror films. Here are five that I am looking forward to watching at the fest, with program notes from the official BIFAN site. Amulet Tomaz is a homeless man in London

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Scare Package

Fear-fare anthology Scare Package combines satirical meta takes on horror movie tropes and delivers a fair share of laughs and grins along with a heaping helping of crackerjack practical gore effects. As might be expected with most portmanteau features, a couple of segments slow things down a bit, but for the most part, the film is a fun effort that tends to dig deeper for its laughs than most horror-trope send-ups. “Cold Open” establishes the tone for the omnibus, as Mike Myers (Jon Michael Simpson) dreams of having more to do in life than merely being the character who sets up the frights to come. Writer/director Emily Hagins delivers a wry take on events and Simpson delivers a solid comical performance. “Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium” serves as a wrap-around for the segments that follow and a lead-in to the final segment; both are directed by Aaron B. Koontz (Camera Obscura). Chad (Jeremy King in a solid comic performance) runs an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is a documentary about how Mark Patton’s life and acting career were negatively impacted after he toplined A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), and how that ultimately led him to becoming a positive voice for a new generation of horror fans, gay and straight alike. A young closeted gay man trying to make a name for himself when AIDS made headlines and claimed the lives and livelihoods of gay men, Patton disappeared from the public eye for decades and blamed Freddy’s Revenge writer David Chaskin for being a major reason why he chose to do so. Scream, Queen! is a poignant journey from Patton’s childhood and his decision to leave home and take a chance on an acting career in New York City to his rather sudden rise to becoming a Broadway star and the lead in Freddy’s Revenge, to his being discovered living an anonymous lifestyle in Mexico by

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 15, 2020
Horror Fuel

Fantasia International Film Festival Offers Up World-Class Horror and Genre Cinema in Its First Wave Announcement

The Fantasia International Film Festival, one of the world’s premiere genre film fests, is forging ahead with its first-ever virtual edition so that Canadian movie lovers can partake of the festival’s outstanding programs despite the current pandemic and the uncertainty it brings to the world. The official press release for Fantasia’s 24th edition follows. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 24th edition as a virtual event accessible to movie lovers across Canada, with a wild assortment of scheduled screenings, panels, and workshops taking place online from August 20 through September 2, 2020. The decision to launch a digital edition of the famed genre festival was born from Fantasia’s desire to keep the health and safety of its attendees a top priority during the current global health crisis, while still offering daring, much-needed new genre entertainment to residents of Canada and supporting the breakout filmmakers of the year. The festival’s full lineup will be announced in early August.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 10, 2020
Horror Fuel

Portland Horror Film Festival Announces Its Terrific Virtual Edition Lineup

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a new trend of film festivals going virtual this year. Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere horror genre film festival, is the latest fest to announce that it is offering a virtual version, and as a selection and awards judge on the fest’s film jury, I can tell Horror Fuel readers first-hand that the quality of fright fare selected for this outing is high, indeed. Best of all, you can partake of the terror from anywhere in the United States! Horror fans can dig into a selection of more than 60 short and feature films during the 6-night event, beginning June 10th with the first shorts block and a preview of the festival’s upcoming features. The terror continues June 17–21 with more shorts and feature films from around the world. Following is the official press release from Portland Horror Film Festival: In the midst of this pandemic, some businesses are finally starting

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Becky

Something seems hidden below the surface of the young teenage title character in Becky. Alas, quite a bit also seems hidden from viewers — though that is certainly not the case in the gore department — in this horror thriller that sees a dating pair of single parents and their children rudely interrupted (to put it mildly) by a quartet of neo-Nazis who have just escaped from prison. Lulu Wilson (Anabelle: Creation, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and The Haunting of Hill House series) stars as 13-year-old Becky, who is still mourning the death of her mother and is angry at her father Jeff (Joel McHale of Deliver Us from Evil and the Community comedy series) for, among other things, inviting his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel of the Snowpiercer and The Handmaid’s Tale series) and her young son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe, also of The Handmaid’s Tale series) to what Becky thought was going to be a weekend alone with her

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 2, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Confessional

The central conceit of director Brad T. Gottfred’s Confessional is an updated, low-budget approach to the old chestnut of a mysterious host inviting people to a certain location and having them crack under pressure, or killing them — think The Beast Must Die (1974), The Cat and the Canary (1939), or Ten Little Indians (1965). In the case of Confessional, a group of college students come to a specially built booth that records their deepest, darkest secrets, to which they have been invited by an unknown host after the death of two mutually known fellow students. The film is an exercise that stays true to its technique, but it gets convoluted and has the issue of not presenting any characters for viewers to truly get solidly behind. Film student Amelia Lincoln (Mia Xitlali) and star swimmer Zach Turner (Brandon Larracuente) both die puzzling deaths. Seven students from their university are blackmailed by an unknown person into revealing what they know

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Chattanooga Film Festival): Skull; The Wanting Mare

Skull and The Wanting Mare are part of Chattanooga Film Festival’s 2020 virtual edition, which runs May 22–25, and these films may be viewed anytime during those dates. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org. Please note that the festival is open to residents of the United States only. Fest badges can be purchased at www.chattfilmfest.org/badges. Skull If a demonic monster/slasher mashup sounds right up your alley, don’t hesitate on catching Skull (AKA Skull: The Mask), a grue-filled, giddy romp that delivers action and carnage at a frenetic pace. This Brazilian fright flick centers on the excavated Mask of Anhangá — the executioner of Tahawantinsupay, a Pre-Columbian God — which viewers learn during a jaw-dropping cold open is a deadly false face, indeed. Police officer Beatriz Obdias (Natalia Rodrigues) gets tangled up with mysterious creep Tack Waelder (Ivo Müller of The Devil Lives Here) after a double murder in which the killer ripped out the victims’ hearts, because Waelder wants the mask

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Chattanooga Film Festival Features Vampires, a Sacrifice-Seeking Mask, and Other Horror Galore in Its 2020 Virtual Edition

The Chattanooga Film Festival, known and loved by horror and genre film fans for its eclectic cinematic fare and incredible special events, has announced a breathtaking lineup for its virtual edition, headed to a computer near you next week! The May 22–25 event is a doozy, with film offerings such as the world premiere of the Brazilian shocker Skull, science fiction/horror outing The Beach House, and vintage 1970 nugget Hollywood Horror House, to name but a few. Some of the special events include Joe Dante receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Joe Bob Briggs hosting a talk with filmmaker/producer Mick Garris on the making of Stephen King’s pandemic classic The Stand. Following is the full press release from Chattanooga Film Festival, which is well worth poring through! The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF), along with its presenting sponsor Gunpowder & Sky’s ALTER and media partner Bloody-Disgusting.com, are thrilled to announce their innovative lineup of features, panels and live events set

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 14, 2020
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