CategoryDocumentaries
True-crime and horror documentaries — real cases, real crimes, and the films that retell them.
375 stories
DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers
Small Town Monsters is back with The Mothman Legacy, their latest addition to their cryptid documentary series from Seth Breedlove. The new trailer gives audiences a glimpse into some of the dark, haunting landscapes captured around West Virginia, along with sound clips from witnesses interviewed for the new film. The final chapter in Breedlove’s Mothman trilogy, The Mothman Legacy tells the story of dozens of sightings of a folk legend of dubious origin, who allegedly continues to be seen throughout the area today. With a dozen eyewitness interviews, the film promises to offer some of the most intense and terrifying encounters ever recorded. “Many believe the Mothman to be a 1960’s phenomenon, an omen only appearing before tragedy, and disappearing after a flap of sightings and the subsequent Silver Bridge collapse in 1967. But what if there’s more? What if the origins of this omen trace back much further and go much deeper than anyone realized? And what if…the sightings
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormal
MidWest WeirdFest— a cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird — has announced its first programming wave for 2020. The fourth annual installment of the festival takes place March 6–8, 2020 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “MidWest WeirdFest is back with the type of cutting edge genre, paranormal, and underground cinema that our regular attendees have come to expect, and that first-time fest-goers are going to adore,” said festival founder and programming director Dean Bertram. “We are delighted to announce this year’s first wave of feature programming. From murderous puppets and ghostly encounters, through legendary beasties and UFOs, to Lovecraftian nightmares and serial killers, the festival’s 2020 program is loaded with weirdness — some of it real, some of it imagined, and much of it from that mysterious twilight territory that lays in between.” The first seven feature films announced follow. I saw Puppet Killer as part of Canada’s Blood in
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesNetflixNewsStreaming TVTrailersTrue Story
Netflix’s latest exploration into the mind of serials killers will delve into the crimes of Henry Lee Lucas in the documentary “The Confession Killer“. The killer, who claims to have killed hundreds of victims in the 1980s was the inspiration for the 1986 film, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, starring Michael Rooker. Netflix and filmmakers Robert Kenner and Taki Oldham explore Lucas’ crimes and confessions of slaying multiple victims. Originally convicted of killing three people in 1998, including his own mother, he admitted to killing around 600 victims across the US. But many of his supposed victims were lies. Investigators and reporters’ research uncovered evidence that most of his confessions were false. “The Confession Killer‘s” synopsis reads: “During the early ’80s, Henry Lee Lucus confessed to hundreds of murders. Bringing closure to unsolved cases and grieving families. Even with no direct evidence linking Lucus to the crime scenes, he stunned authorities with his ability to sketch victims’ portraits of
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Good ol’ Wrinkles the clown came to our attention back in 2015 when a video of him scaring the shit out of a young girl went viral A.F. Come to find out, the dude hired his services out to parents to terrify their misbehaving children which had all the attention and backlash that you could imagine; some were excited about the service, others wanted that creepy clown dead… and naturally among the youth he became an urban legend, and one you could actually reach by phone. The videos continued to appear, and his legacy grew as his services began to be viewed as child abuse… because you know, it fuckin’ is. Of course Wrinkles is pragmatic about the whole affair, and considers his reign of terror to be “just a job”, and doesn’t feel bad about what he does in the slightest. That’s right, we get to hear from Wrinkles himself, who in reality is an old homeless dude who
Continue reading →
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DocumentariesNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Shout! Factory TV, the digital entertainment streaming service, is set to launch its first original digital docuseries “Cult-Tastic: Tales From the Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman.” Created, written and co-produced by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway, the 13-part series about the life and work of Roger and Julie Corman, provides viewers an extraordinary look inside the Cormans’ cinematic universe and features extensive in-depth interviews. In the series, the Cormans draw upon their vast filmography and footage from over 130 films spanning seven decades. Within each episode, the legendary filmmakers share insightful stories and defining moments from their movies, recall talent and young filmmakers they fostered, as well as provide behind-the-scenes perspectives on how they produced some of the smallest budget films that went on to achieve box-office gold. Known for their acute ability to recognize young talent, the Cormans’ lasting legacy will undoubtedly be the legion of producers, directors, writers, and actors they have cultivated. Throughout the series, Roger
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsThriller
After Midnight (formerly titled Something Else) is an odd beast, in the best way. It pushes boundaries on genre blending, resulting in a creature feature film that may be too slow for those hoping for an outright horror outing, but it will highly reward viewers interested in the current trend of quieter, personal fright fare. Writer and codirector (with the film’s cinematographer Christian Stella) Jeremy Gardner (who also helmed, scripted, and starred in The Battery [2012]) stars as Hank, a man content with settling down at his old family home, which is in a state of disrepair, and hunting with buddies when not comanaging the bar he owns with long-time girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant of Beyond the Gates [2016] and Dead Night [2017]). When Abby leaves suddenly with only a short note that doesn’t explain much to announce her departure, Hank becomes isolated and his behavior becomes erratic, including seemingly battling nightly with what he claims to be a monster.
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesReviews
Memory: The Origins of Alien, the new film from Director Alexandre O. Philippe takes a whole new tack in investigating the creation of Ridley Scott’s Alien; he sets his eerie eyeballs mostly on the period of time before the film began shooting, rather than showing us yet another “making-of” piece… and that is refreshing as all fuck boils n’ ghouls! To that end, much heed is paid to what may have influenced Writer Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead) to create this story in the first place with the much mentioned It: The Terror From Beyond Space and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, to lesser known (but obvious) inspiration culled from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and E.C. Comics, while creating his own unforgettable mythology and world building. Time is also spent examining cool-as-all-fuck late artist H.R. Giger’s undeniable influence on all things xenomorph, as well as what Scott brought to the table (though as the only surviving
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Blackburn’s Cryptid Casefiles, hosted by cryptid expert/author Lyle Blackburn, sets it’s sights on the events of the ol’ summer of ’72; when a hairy sumbitch bugged the shit outta the residents of Louisiana, Missouri. Locations are visited, the locals are chatted up… business as usual; but the real feather in the creepy cap is the presentation of clips from a rediscovered film on the subject from decades past. All of this blurs the line between fantasy and reality as Seth Breedlove and Small Town Monsters have changed up their basic straight-up documentary style format and have presented some elaborate re-enactments with the inclusion of the faux fright film footage (not to mention the addition of Blackburn rather than having Breedlove himself narrate the events) in the style of one of my fav flicks The Legend of Boggy Creek, and the end result is a ton of fearsome fun! As one would expect, the events presented in the “lost” film don’t
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Director Craig Anderson is like a lot of us… a middle-aged man who hasn’t given up the dream of making his own fright flick. So he leaves his television gig and actually makes a film; 2016’s Red Christmas (which I reviewed in another life right here); a lil’ ditty about an aborted fetus that lives, grows up and decides to get sweet revenge on mommy dearest come Yuletide. Now you may say; “Why in the unholy fuck would I give two generous shits about the making of a film I (probably) never saw?” The answer to that is simple; “Because you need to see the absolute hell filmmaking can be if you aren’t properly prepared.” The main area that unpreparedness shows is in the budgeting of the film… Anderson’s budget, meager to begin with, continues to grow, and he has to bust ass and make many a sacrifice (including totally sucking the teat of his life savings dry as a
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers
Screen Media and Legion M announced today that they have acquired the North American rights to Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary feature film Memory: The Origins of Alien. The film premiered to rave reviews in the Midnight Section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, and many others. Screen Media and Legion M plan to release the film in theaters this summer, timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of Alien. The deal comes on the heels of Screen Media’s recent acquisition of Corporate Animals starring Demi Moore, which also premiered in the Midnight Section of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Paris-based Indie Sales is handling sales for the rest of the world. Memory: The Origins of Alien unearths the largely untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s cinematic masterpiece, and reveals a treasure trove of never-before-seen materials from the archives of Alien creators Dan O’Bannon and
Continue reading →
More from Documentaries
DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers
Small Town Monsters is back with The Mothman Legacy, their latest addition to their cryptid documentary series from Seth Breedlove. The new trailer gives audiences a glimpse into some of the dark, haunting landscapes captured around West Virginia, along with sound clips from witnesses interviewed for the new film. The final chapter in Breedlove’s Mothman trilogy, The Mothman Legacy tells the story of dozens of sightings of a folk legend of dubious origin, who allegedly continues to be seen throughout the area today. With a dozen eyewitness interviews, the film promises to offer some of the most intense and terrifying encounters ever recorded. “Many believe the Mothman to be a 1960’s phenomenon, an omen only appearing before tragedy, and disappearing after a flap of sightings and the subsequent Silver Bridge collapse in 1967. But what if there’s more? What if the origins of this omen trace back much further and go much deeper than anyone realized? And what if…the sightings
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormal
MidWest WeirdFest— a cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird — has announced its first programming wave for 2020. The fourth annual installment of the festival takes place March 6–8, 2020 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “MidWest WeirdFest is back with the type of cutting edge genre, paranormal, and underground cinema that our regular attendees have come to expect, and that first-time fest-goers are going to adore,” said festival founder and programming director Dean Bertram. “We are delighted to announce this year’s first wave of feature programming. From murderous puppets and ghostly encounters, through legendary beasties and UFOs, to Lovecraftian nightmares and serial killers, the festival’s 2020 program is loaded with weirdness — some of it real, some of it imagined, and much of it from that mysterious twilight territory that lays in between.” The first seven feature films announced follow. I saw Puppet Killer as part of Canada’s Blood in
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesNetflixNewsStreaming TVTrailersTrue Story
Netflix’s latest exploration into the mind of serials killers will delve into the crimes of Henry Lee Lucas in the documentary “The Confession Killer“. The killer, who claims to have killed hundreds of victims in the 1980s was the inspiration for the 1986 film, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, starring Michael Rooker. Netflix and filmmakers Robert Kenner and Taki Oldham explore Lucas’ crimes and confessions of slaying multiple victims. Originally convicted of killing three people in 1998, including his own mother, he admitted to killing around 600 victims across the US. But many of his supposed victims were lies. Investigators and reporters’ research uncovered evidence that most of his confessions were false. “The Confession Killer‘s” synopsis reads: “During the early ’80s, Henry Lee Lucus confessed to hundreds of murders. Bringing closure to unsolved cases and grieving families. Even with no direct evidence linking Lucus to the crime scenes, he stunned authorities with his ability to sketch victims’ portraits of
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Good ol’ Wrinkles the clown came to our attention back in 2015 when a video of him scaring the shit out of a young girl went viral A.F. Come to find out, the dude hired his services out to parents to terrify their misbehaving children which had all the attention and backlash that you could imagine; some were excited about the service, others wanted that creepy clown dead… and naturally among the youth he became an urban legend, and one you could actually reach by phone. The videos continued to appear, and his legacy grew as his services began to be viewed as child abuse… because you know, it fuckin’ is. Of course Wrinkles is pragmatic about the whole affair, and considers his reign of terror to be “just a job”, and doesn’t feel bad about what he does in the slightest. That’s right, we get to hear from Wrinkles himself, who in reality is an old homeless dude who
Continue reading →
DocumentariesNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Shout! Factory TV, the digital entertainment streaming service, is set to launch its first original digital docuseries “Cult-Tastic: Tales From the Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman.” Created, written and co-produced by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway, the 13-part series about the life and work of Roger and Julie Corman, provides viewers an extraordinary look inside the Cormans’ cinematic universe and features extensive in-depth interviews. In the series, the Cormans draw upon their vast filmography and footage from over 130 films spanning seven decades. Within each episode, the legendary filmmakers share insightful stories and defining moments from their movies, recall talent and young filmmakers they fostered, as well as provide behind-the-scenes perspectives on how they produced some of the smallest budget films that went on to achieve box-office gold. Known for their acute ability to recognize young talent, the Cormans’ lasting legacy will undoubtedly be the legion of producers, directors, writers, and actors they have cultivated. Throughout the series, Roger
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsThriller
After Midnight (formerly titled Something Else) is an odd beast, in the best way. It pushes boundaries on genre blending, resulting in a creature feature film that may be too slow for those hoping for an outright horror outing, but it will highly reward viewers interested in the current trend of quieter, personal fright fare. Writer and codirector (with the film’s cinematographer Christian Stella) Jeremy Gardner (who also helmed, scripted, and starred in The Battery [2012]) stars as Hank, a man content with settling down at his old family home, which is in a state of disrepair, and hunting with buddies when not comanaging the bar he owns with long-time girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant of Beyond the Gates [2016] and Dead Night [2017]). When Abby leaves suddenly with only a short note that doesn’t explain much to announce her departure, Hank becomes isolated and his behavior becomes erratic, including seemingly battling nightly with what he claims to be a monster.
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesReviews
Memory: The Origins of Alien, the new film from Director Alexandre O. Philippe takes a whole new tack in investigating the creation of Ridley Scott’s Alien; he sets his eerie eyeballs mostly on the period of time before the film began shooting, rather than showing us yet another “making-of” piece… and that is refreshing as all fuck boils n’ ghouls! To that end, much heed is paid to what may have influenced Writer Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead) to create this story in the first place with the much mentioned It: The Terror From Beyond Space and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, to lesser known (but obvious) inspiration culled from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and E.C. Comics, while creating his own unforgettable mythology and world building. Time is also spent examining cool-as-all-fuck late artist H.R. Giger’s undeniable influence on all things xenomorph, as well as what Scott brought to the table (though as the only surviving
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Blackburn’s Cryptid Casefiles, hosted by cryptid expert/author Lyle Blackburn, sets it’s sights on the events of the ol’ summer of ’72; when a hairy sumbitch bugged the shit outta the residents of Louisiana, Missouri. Locations are visited, the locals are chatted up… business as usual; but the real feather in the creepy cap is the presentation of clips from a rediscovered film on the subject from decades past. All of this blurs the line between fantasy and reality as Seth Breedlove and Small Town Monsters have changed up their basic straight-up documentary style format and have presented some elaborate re-enactments with the inclusion of the faux fright film footage (not to mention the addition of Blackburn rather than having Breedlove himself narrate the events) in the style of one of my fav flicks The Legend of Boggy Creek, and the end result is a ton of fearsome fun! As one would expect, the events presented in the “lost” film don’t
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Director Craig Anderson is like a lot of us… a middle-aged man who hasn’t given up the dream of making his own fright flick. So he leaves his television gig and actually makes a film; 2016’s Red Christmas (which I reviewed in another life right here); a lil’ ditty about an aborted fetus that lives, grows up and decides to get sweet revenge on mommy dearest come Yuletide. Now you may say; “Why in the unholy fuck would I give two generous shits about the making of a film I (probably) never saw?” The answer to that is simple; “Because you need to see the absolute hell filmmaking can be if you aren’t properly prepared.” The main area that unpreparedness shows is in the budgeting of the film… Anderson’s budget, meager to begin with, continues to grow, and he has to bust ass and make many a sacrifice (including totally sucking the teat of his life savings dry as a
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers
Screen Media and Legion M announced today that they have acquired the North American rights to Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary feature film Memory: The Origins of Alien. The film premiered to rave reviews in the Midnight Section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, and many others. Screen Media and Legion M plan to release the film in theaters this summer, timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of Alien. The deal comes on the heels of Screen Media’s recent acquisition of Corporate Animals starring Demi Moore, which also premiered in the Midnight Section of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Paris-based Indie Sales is handling sales for the rest of the world. Memory: The Origins of Alien unearths the largely untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s cinematic masterpiece, and reveals a treasure trove of never-before-seen materials from the archives of Alien creators Dan O’Bannon and
Continue reading →
