Film Festivals

Horror film festivals worldwide — lineups, awards and the titles that break out of the festival circuit.

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Film Review: TALK TO ME (Sundance Film Festival)

One of the finest fright-fare features in recent memory that involves teenagers making contact with spirits of the deceased is Talk to Me (Australia, 2023) from codirectors Danny Philippou and Michael Philppou. I finished this film about 24 hours ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since — that’s how much impact it has had on me. Not content with mere ouija boards and seances, a group of teens has begun communicating with the dead using a ceramic-covered embalmed hand of a medium and sharing the wicked results on social media. Mia (Sophie Wilde) is working through the emotions of having lost her mother to an accidental overdose of pills two years earlier when she, her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) and some of their friends, acquaintances, and frenemies attend and start participating in sessions in which teens are tied to chairs, inviting spirits to inhabit their bodies for 90 seconds or less —

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Joseph Perry

Jan 25, 2023

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Film Reviews: NEW RELIGION and THE UNDERBUG (Slamdance Film Festival)

New Religion Writer/director Keishi Kondo’s haunting debut feature New Religion (Japan, 2022) offers a unique take on ghost stories. Focusing on existential horror and a dread-filled atmosphere rather than easy jump scares and CGI effects, Kondo unveils the tale of Miyabi (Kaho Seto), a divorced woman whose daughter died when the youngster was watering plants on the balcony and fell off while Miyabi was reading a book indoors. On a decidedly downward spiral, Miyabi begins work as a call girl, taking over a mysterious client when one of her coworkers begins a murderous spree. The client, shut-in Oka (Satoshi Oka), speaks using a mechanical voice box and only wants to photograph Miyabi one body part at a time, with the woman requesting he not take pictures of her eyes. The more photos he takes over time, the stronger the sensation Miyabi feels that she is making contact with the ghost of her daughter. Besides being visually hypnotic, New Religion also

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Joseph Perry

Jan 25, 2023

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Film Review: In My Mother’s Skin (Sundance Film Festival)

From its blood-soaked, batty beginning to its harrowing third act, writer/director Kenneth Dagatan’s dark fairy tale horror feature In My Mother’s Skin (Philippines/Singapore/Taiwan, 2023) is a masterful tale of terror. Tala (Felicity Kyle Napuli) is a young girl living in The Philippines at the end of World War II, when Japanese forces are still occupying the county. Her father has been accused of stealing gold from the Japanese and leaves to meet with American contacts. With barely any food to eat, Tala, her younger brother Bayani (James Mavie Estrella), and her mother Ligaya (Beauty Gonzalez) must fend for themselves, and as Ligaya grows ever sicker, times get desperate. Tala meets a fairy (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) in the nearby woods who offers to help with a cure for Ligaya’s ailment, but she says that Tala must make the decision as to whether to use it or not. As fright-fare fans might surmise, the fairy has a dark side and Tala’s decision to

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Joseph Perry

Jan 24, 2023

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FrightFest Glasgow 2023 Line-up Promises Shocks and Shivers Aplenty

Whether you are in the mood for the dark and demonic or whether you prefer chuckles with your chills, FrightFest Glasgow has you covered. The film festival offers a diabolical baker’s dozen of fear-fare features from around the world. Following is the official press announcement. Be prepared to devour a devilish feast of dread-filled delights as the UK’s favourite horror fantasy event returns to the renowned Glasgow Film Festival for an 18th year, from Thurs 9 March to Sat 11 March 2023. This year’s daring line-up, once again housed at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre, embraces the latest genre discoveries from around the world, spanning nine countries with an eclectic mix of World, International and UK premieres. Passes are on sale from noon on Wednesday 18 Jan. Festival co-director Alan Jones says, “FrightFest is one of the most potent forces on the horror, science fiction and extreme thriller landscape, a reputation that has firmly placed it in the Top 10

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Joseph Perry

Jan 17, 2023

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MidWest WeirdFest’s First Wave Announcement Serves Up the Eerie and the Imaginative

MidWest WeirdFest offers up an array of the mystifying and the mind-bending this year with its first-wave announcement for its seventh edition. Taking place March 3–5, 2023 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the fest presents inspired documentaries and vanguard narrative films. Have a look-see at this first wave and check back with Horror Fuel for the second announcement! MidWest WeirdFest announces its first programming wave for 2023 today. The cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird, is now in its 7th year. The festival takes place March 3-5, 2023 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “The weirdest festival of the season is less than two months away, and I’m delighted to announce some of the genre, underground and esoteric gems we’re offering audiences this year,” says MidWest WeirdFest founder and programming director Dean Bertram. “From brand new UFO and Bigfoot documentaries, through offbeat and ultra-violent comedies, to nightmare

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Joseph Perry

Jan 13, 2023

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SXSW Announces First Wave of Horror Films for 2023

The 2023 SXSW Conference & Festivals, taking place in Austin, TX from March 10–19, has unleashed information about the first wave of horror and horror-adjacent titles premiering at the fest, and it’s a doozy! Have a gander at what’s on tap so far, and check back here for the next announcement wave. For ticketing and other information, visit https://www.sxsw.com/. Evil Dead Rise Director/Screenwriter: Lee Cronin, Producer: Rob Tapert Evil Dead Rise tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Sutherland and Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. Executive Producers include Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Cast List: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher Deadland Director: Lance Larson, Producers: Elizabeth Avellan, Bob Bastarache, Jas Shelton, Lance Larson, Tara Pirnia, Chris Wilks, Screenwriters: Lance Larson, Jas Shelton A U.S. Border Patrol Agent

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Joseph Perry

Jan 13, 2023

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Horror Fuel’s Top 10 Film Festival Premieres of 2022

Outstanding horror and horror-adjacent movies were in strong supply at film festivals this year, and whittling down my “best of 2022” list was no easy feat. Here are the selections on which I decided. Some are now available through digital, on-demand, subscription services, and physical media, while others are still making the rounds on the fest circuit. (1) Evil Eye (A Night of Horror) Awash in the atmosphere, visually beautiful, and boasting terrific performances and superb set design, Mexican chiller Evil Eye — from one of my favorite directors, Isaac Ezban — is a dark fairy tale/folk horror outing that is woven together masterfully in its telling of a teen girl’s suspicions that her grandmother may be a witch. (2) Skinamarink (Fantasia) This goosebumps-inducing, lo-fi slice of fear-fare cinema became an instant year-end best candidate when I saw it for its Fantasia run in the summer. It induces the feeling of fright we had as children, which is no small

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Joseph Perry

Dec 24, 2022

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Shorts Reviews: SPECIAL DELIVERY, STUCK, and THE GIFT (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)

Special Delivery A fun horror comedy that could also serve as a tongue-in-cheek educational birth control film, director Andrew Melzer’s short Special Delivery (2022) finds a couple having their lives as they know them threatened by the news of a certain bundle of joy on the way. As they fight through their emotions, a stork intent on delivering its traditional package looms eerily nearby. The laughs come hard and fast here, with a subject highly relatable to parents and anyone who ever considered — or freaked out about — becoming one. Stuck Sophia (Ianua Coeli Linhart) is having second thoughts about moving into a new home with her significant other, and the demonic discovery she makes in the attic isn’t going to help matters any. With Stuck (Italy, 2022), writer/director David A. Roncone has crafted an eerie supernatural short that wrings a good deal of suspense from its classic set-up of a person alone in a new house who finds

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Joseph Perry

Dec 6, 2022

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Shorts Reviews: RINGWORMS, SHADOWBAN, and FAMILIAR (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)

Ringworms Director Will Lee’s Ringworms (2022) is a blast — an insane, splatterific, mind-boggling trip that finds a young woman named Abbie (Faye Nightingale) on what was supposed to be a romantic weekend trip to a cabin with her boyfriend Jacob (Skylar Okerstrom-Lang). When she discovers that he plans to propose, she goes through doubts about whether she wants such a commitment with him. Meanwhile, something’s going on in the cabin basement that will make her worries about marriage seem miniscule in comparison to what goes down. Lee, who cowrote the screenplay with Ian Hedman, packs plenty of thrills, grue, and even some laughs into this high-energy affair that boasts solid direction and acting, along with some fantastic practical effects. Shadowban The modern phenomenon of social influencing crashes headlong into folk horror traditions in writer/director Shane W. Brennan’s solid Irish horror short Shadowban (2022). Fiona (Fiona Bergin) is livestreaming her side hustle deliveries on a lonely country road on Halloween

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Joseph Perry

Dec 1, 2022

Film FestivalsMoviesReviews

Film Review: Screamfest Horror Film Festival Winner “8 Found Dead”

You would think that a film giving away its body count in its title and told by way of nonlinear fashion in which the fate of its characters are shown early on would be lacking in suspense, but 8 Found Dead defies the odds. Director Travis Greene, working from a screenplay by Jonathan Buchanan, wrings tension from an initially awkward situation that escalates to chilling, thanks in large part to characters that create highly uncomfortable edginess throughout. Four twenty-something friends with uncomfortable ties in both the present and the past plan a weekend retreat so that social influencer Sam (Alisha Soper) can make a big announcement to her boyfriend Dwayne (William Gabriel Grier) and couple Carrie (Aly Trasher) and Ricky (Eddy Acosta). The group books a short-term rental house only to find, as they arrive in separate pairs, that older couple Richard (Tim Simek) and Liz (Roseanna Limeres) are already ensconced and have no plans to leave. As the younger

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Joseph Perry

Dec 1, 2022

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