CategoryFilm Festivals
Horror film festivals worldwide — lineups, awards and the titles that break out of the festival circuit.
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Film FestivalsReviews
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Lacey (Sonia Sawkar) become concerned about their friend Jules (Puja Tolton), who has been using ReKomoZe and is now withdrawn.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)
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
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
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
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
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Carlson Young makes a flashy-looking splash with her debut feature film The Blazing World, which she directs, cowrites (with Pierce Brown), and stars in. The film is rich in gorgeous imagery and dreamlike set pieces, but could use a bit more in characterization and story. Young twin sisters Margaret (Josie Fink) and Elizabeth (Lillie Fink) are playing in a field with fireflies around them. Inside their stately home, their parents — Tom (Dermot Mulroney) and Alice (Vinessa Shaw) Winter — are fighting, verbally and physically. Elizabeth falls into the family’s pool and drowns, with the parents running outside when they hear Margaret’s screams. As the parents pull Elizabeth out of the pool, Margaret turns to look away from the horror and notices an odd man — Udo Kier as Lained — beckoning her to join him as he stands near a wormhole-like portal. Flash forward about 20 years to Margaret (Carlson Young of Scream: The TV Series), who is now
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Horror film icons Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden make the most of headlining the horror comedy Jakob’s Wife. Their on-screen chemistry togethers drives the film, making it and them a blast to watch as Crampton’s character is possessed by a newfound will for independence that goes hand in hand with a new thirst for blood, and there are certainly bucketloads of the red stuff on display. Crampton plays Anne Fedder, a woman who gave up a wild younger lifestyle and dreams of exploring the world 30 years earlier to marry Pastor Jakob Fedder (Fessenden), a seemingly mild-mannered man given to religion and a life of routine. When Anne’s old flame Tom Low (Robert Rusler) returns to the Fedder’s small town to explore a business deal, he and Anne explore the old mill where they used to hang out together. Old Feelings flare up, they kiss, and mere moments later, Tom is attacked by a pack of rats and Anne finds
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
A frustrated, unpublished novelist who writes vampire romances finds what may be either the chance of a lifetime or a fast ticket to doom in writer/director Sean Nichols Lynch’s Christmas-set horror comedy Red Snow. Taking its horror as seriously as its dark and sometimes daffy humor is funny, the film strikes a fine balance of the two elements and delivers a fun, fast-paced viewing experience. Dennice Cisneros stars as Olivia Romo, a twentysomething writer who holes up in the Lake Tahoe house that she recently inherited after her mother’s passing. When a bat flies against her home and appears to be seriously injured, she tries to nurse it back to health in her garage. The bat turns out to be an actual vampire named Luke (Nico Bellamy), who is being sought after by vampire hunter Julius King (Vernon Wells of Death House [2017], Await the Dawn [2020], and more than 200 other appearances). Olivia hides Luke and assists him in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
You may have taken wrong turns with horror movie protagonists and wound up in terrifying rural areas with them before, but you have never been on a ride quite like the one the main characters go through in director Devereux Milburn’s macabre Honeydew. The film is a dizzying, discomfiting experience full of surprises that gives a new flavor to backwoods fright fare. Rylie (Malin Barr) is a PhD student researching a strain of fungus that affects wheat crops. She and her actor boyfriend Sam (Sawyer Spielberg) travel to a rural area affected by the fungus as part of her work for dissertation. When a landowner tells them that they must leave his property immediately but their car won’t start, they stumble upon a house owned by eldery farmer Karen (Barbara Kingsley), who calls her neighbor to come give their battery a jump. He doesn’t show, so the young couple winds up eating a meal with Karen and her adult son
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Director Maximillano Contenti’s Uruguayan shocker The Last Matinee (AKA Red Screening and its original title of Al morir la matinée) goes all in on the thrills and gore in its telling of a murderer going on a bloody rampage inside a cinema. The film is a hybrid of slasher movie motifs and giallo film aesthetics, with an obvious love for cinemas — from the ticket and projection booths to the seats to areas you never knew existed — added for good measure. Ana (Luciana Grasso) is a university student whose father works as a projectionist in a Montevideo cinema in the early 1990s. She insists one rainy night that he go home and rest rather than working a double shift, as she has watched him enough over the years to know how to work the equipment. Planning to study while a horror movie unspools for the audience — which includes a couple on an awkward date, three drunk minors and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsNews
The Fantasia International Film Festival had a hugely successful virtual version in 2020, and the fest will be online again this year as it celebrates its 25th edition. Today Fantasia announced that its opening film will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo, and revealed the ultracool poster for its 2021 edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, with a dynamic program of scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops running from August 5 through August 25, 2021, once again using the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. As the summer approaches, the festival will be following advice from local health authorities, with the possibility of also adding a range of flagship physical events to the lineup. Last summer’s virtual edition was a phenomenal success, screening to 85000 spectators and amassing a record amount of
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Decal, the newly formed home entertainment distributor from Neon and Bleecker Street, has obtained the North American rights to the South African horror-thriller Gaia, directed by Jaco Bouwer. Set to be released this summer, the film stars Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Anthony Oseyemi, and Alex Van Dyk and made its debut at SXSW. The film centers on a park ranger on a surveillance mission in a primordial forest who encounters two survivalists living a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. The boy and his philosophical father seem to have their own religion and a mysterious relationship to nature. Tertius Kapp penned the screenplay and is producing the film along with Bouwer and Jorrie van der Walt, Deadline reports.
Continue reading →
More from Film Festivals
Film FestivalsReviews
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)
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
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
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
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
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Carlson Young makes a flashy-looking splash with her debut feature film The Blazing World, which she directs, cowrites (with Pierce Brown), and stars in. The film is rich in gorgeous imagery and dreamlike set pieces, but could use a bit more in characterization and story. Young twin sisters Margaret (Josie Fink) and Elizabeth (Lillie Fink) are playing in a field with fireflies around them. Inside their stately home, their parents — Tom (Dermot Mulroney) and Alice (Vinessa Shaw) Winter — are fighting, verbally and physically. Elizabeth falls into the family’s pool and drowns, with the parents running outside when they hear Margaret’s screams. As the parents pull Elizabeth out of the pool, Margaret turns to look away from the horror and notices an odd man — Udo Kier as Lained — beckoning her to join him as he stands near a wormhole-like portal. Flash forward about 20 years to Margaret (Carlson Young of Scream: The TV Series), who is now
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Horror film icons Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden make the most of headlining the horror comedy Jakob’s Wife. Their on-screen chemistry togethers drives the film, making it and them a blast to watch as Crampton’s character is possessed by a newfound will for independence that goes hand in hand with a new thirst for blood, and there are certainly bucketloads of the red stuff on display. Crampton plays Anne Fedder, a woman who gave up a wild younger lifestyle and dreams of exploring the world 30 years earlier to marry Pastor Jakob Fedder (Fessenden), a seemingly mild-mannered man given to religion and a life of routine. When Anne’s old flame Tom Low (Robert Rusler) returns to the Fedder’s small town to explore a business deal, he and Anne explore the old mill where they used to hang out together. Old Feelings flare up, they kiss, and mere moments later, Tom is attacked by a pack of rats and Anne finds
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
A frustrated, unpublished novelist who writes vampire romances finds what may be either the chance of a lifetime or a fast ticket to doom in writer/director Sean Nichols Lynch’s Christmas-set horror comedy Red Snow. Taking its horror as seriously as its dark and sometimes daffy humor is funny, the film strikes a fine balance of the two elements and delivers a fun, fast-paced viewing experience. Dennice Cisneros stars as Olivia Romo, a twentysomething writer who holes up in the Lake Tahoe house that she recently inherited after her mother’s passing. When a bat flies against her home and appears to be seriously injured, she tries to nurse it back to health in her garage. The bat turns out to be an actual vampire named Luke (Nico Bellamy), who is being sought after by vampire hunter Julius King (Vernon Wells of Death House [2017], Await the Dawn [2020], and more than 200 other appearances). Olivia hides Luke and assists him in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
You may have taken wrong turns with horror movie protagonists and wound up in terrifying rural areas with them before, but you have never been on a ride quite like the one the main characters go through in director Devereux Milburn’s macabre Honeydew. The film is a dizzying, discomfiting experience full of surprises that gives a new flavor to backwoods fright fare. Rylie (Malin Barr) is a PhD student researching a strain of fungus that affects wheat crops. She and her actor boyfriend Sam (Sawyer Spielberg) travel to a rural area affected by the fungus as part of her work for dissertation. When a landowner tells them that they must leave his property immediately but their car won’t start, they stumble upon a house owned by eldery farmer Karen (Barbara Kingsley), who calls her neighbor to come give their battery a jump. He doesn’t show, so the young couple winds up eating a meal with Karen and her adult son
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsReviews
Director Maximillano Contenti’s Uruguayan shocker The Last Matinee (AKA Red Screening and its original title of Al morir la matinée) goes all in on the thrills and gore in its telling of a murderer going on a bloody rampage inside a cinema. The film is a hybrid of slasher movie motifs and giallo film aesthetics, with an obvious love for cinemas — from the ticket and projection booths to the seats to areas you never knew existed — added for good measure. Ana (Luciana Grasso) is a university student whose father works as a projectionist in a Montevideo cinema in the early 1990s. She insists one rainy night that he go home and rest rather than working a double shift, as she has watched him enough over the years to know how to work the equipment. Planning to study while a horror movie unspools for the audience — which includes a couple on an awkward date, three drunk minors and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsNews
The Fantasia International Film Festival had a hugely successful virtual version in 2020, and the fest will be online again this year as it celebrates its 25th edition. Today Fantasia announced that its opening film will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo, and revealed the ultracool poster for its 2021 edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, with a dynamic program of scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops running from August 5 through August 25, 2021, once again using the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. As the summer approaches, the festival will be following advice from local health authorities, with the possibility of also adding a range of flagship physical events to the lineup. Last summer’s virtual edition was a phenomenal success, screening to 85000 spectators and amassing a record amount of
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Decal, the newly formed home entertainment distributor from Neon and Bleecker Street, has obtained the North American rights to the South African horror-thriller Gaia, directed by Jaco Bouwer. Set to be released this summer, the film stars Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Anthony Oseyemi, and Alex Van Dyk and made its debut at SXSW. The film centers on a park ranger on a surveillance mission in a primordial forest who encounters two survivalists living a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. The boy and his philosophical father seem to have their own religion and a mysterious relationship to nature. Tertius Kapp penned the screenplay and is producing the film along with Bouwer and Jorrie van der Walt, Deadline reports.
Continue reading →
