CategoryEvents
Horror events, screenings and experiences — premieres, festivals and one-night-only shows.
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EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Australian folk horror feature Alison’s Birthday (1981) is receiving its first release with the online NIGHTSTREAM film festival since its original VHS release. It’s a supernatural chiller that offers plenty of intriguing sequences and is worthy of finding a new audience. Writer/director Ian Coughlan’s film opens with 16-year-old Alison (Joanne Samuel of Mad Max) and two friends experimenting with a makeshift Ouija board, which results in Alison’s dead father contacting her by possessing one of the other girls, warning Alison to beware of her 19th birthday, before a bookshelf falls on the girl and kills her. If that’s not enough to hook you, parentless Alison reluctantly goes back to her hometown with her disc jockey boyfriend Peter (Lou Brown) to visit her Aunt Jennifer (Bunney Brooke) and Uncle Dean (John Bluthall) to celebrate said 19th birthday, and discovers a Stonehenge-like structure in the land behind their backyard. You can guess that business picks up from there, and you would be
Continue reading →
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SCI-FI-London Film Festival 2021 has announced its impressive full line-up, with incredible narrative films, engaging animated offerings, and intriguing documentaries. Following is the official press announcement. Today the SCI-FI-LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2021 launches its cosmic 21st annual programme, which will run from the 19 OCTOBER until 26 OCTOBER 2021 with seven days of fabulous film. It will showcase a fantastic lineup with 2 world film premieres, 8 UK film premieres, 11 world short premieres and 13 UK short premieres. It will host 13 features and 50 shorts alongside its regular classic cult events such as the 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE and SCI-FI-QUIZ. Opening this year’s festival on the 19th October is Agata Alexander’s WARNING. This film is dark, witty and spectacular. It has a stellar cast, including Annabelle Wallis, Thomas Jane, Alex Pettyfer, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Alice Eve, and the marvellous Rupert Everett. WARNING is a visually arresting, thought-provoking sci-fi exploring the meaning of life through multiple interconnected lives. This is
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsReviews
Cosmic Dawn In the science fiction/mystery feature Cosmic Dawn, as a child, Aurora saw her mother abducted by aliens. As a young adult, Aurora (Camille Rowe) has long been faced with psychological and medical professionals, along with those close to her, being highly skeptical about her claims. She has visions of a woman that lead her to a bookstore where employee Natalie (Emmanuelle Chriqui) explains about the woman, Elyse (Antonia Zegers), and invites her to a gathering of what turns out to be a UFO cult led by Elyse. Writer/director Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn takes place in three different time periods — the time of Aurora’s close encounter, her initial time with the cult about a decade after that, and four years later, when cult member Dieter (Philip Granger) locates her and insists she needs to return to the cult. The transitions during this nonlinear approach are not always smooth, but everything starts blending together at a certain point and
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignInterviewsMovies
London’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween event, taking place October 29th and 30th, will include an appearance from director/writer Romola Garai at the U.K. premiere screening of her film Amulet. Garai spoke with Arrow Video FrightFest press staff for this syndicated review in anticipation of the event. AMULET will receive its UK premiere at FrightFest’s Halloween event. Excited or what? So excited! It’s a great honour to have our UK premiere at such a brilliantly subversive festival. We are very grateful! You’re most well known as an actress but have you always wanted to write and direct films? I’ve been writing since my teens but it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized I wanted to direct as well and I made my short film SCRUBBER. Now what I’d love is to write, direct and act. Never all three together though! What was the writing process like? Were there any major inspirations and motivations that drove you? I was very
Continue reading →
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Super Channel and Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) — a top-notch fest featuring an incredible array of Canadian horror and science fiction films — are teaming up again for a hybrid edition of this year’s BITS with a Halloween weekend virtual portion. Following is the official press announcement. Super Channel and Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), a unique and imaginative showcase of contemporary Canadian horror films, are pleased to announce that they have joined forces once again to bring a hybrid edition of the upcoming 2021 BITS to Canadian horror film fans across the nation. This year’s festival is sure to shock and delight horror lovers with the virtual portion running on Super Channel Fuse over Halloween weekend from Friday, Oct 29 – Sunday Oct 31, and the in-person festival returning to the Royal Cinema November 18 to 23. “We are proud to be partnering once again with Kelly and the incredible team at BITS to
Continue reading →
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The deeply disturbing horror film The Family, from the creative duo Dan Slater (director, co-writer) and Adam Booth (producer, co-writer), is set to make its World Premiere at the Busan International Film Festival on October 8, 2021. Ahead of its debut, we’ve got the trailer. The Family delves into brooding and unpredictable family ethics. The feature redefines the notion of terror and explores psychological and physical trauma in a genre-bending sinister tale. Raised to fear what lurks beyond the borders of their farm, a young family must free themselves from the tyrannical rule of their merciless Father and Mother. The co-writers Slater and Booth were inspired by the vulnerability of people and the ability of cults to exploit their fears and beliefs to separate them from the rest of the world. This reflection led the filmmakers to invent a cult religion from scratch. “We’ve both always been fascinated by the idea of cults and people in society being indoctrinated by
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Darkland Distribution’s upcoming dark and disturbing British horror, Shepherd, is set to make its World Premiere this October at the BFI London Film Festival with its theatrical release to follow this November. To mark the occasion, the new trailer has been released, teasing a horror-filled film. Writer and Director of Shepherd, Russell Owen, was delighted with the news of the film’s selection, saying, “I’ve followed the BFI London Film Festival for decades, so to actually be a part of it is surreal and a massive honour. I can’t think of a better platform to bring Shepherd to an audience and I’m over the moon.” In the film, “running from grief after the mysterious death of his wife, Eric Black takes a job as a shepherd. Trapped alone on a majestic weather-beaten island with an ominous secret. One man’s spiraling madness meets a vengeful supernatural force. What starts as the perfect wind-swept escape becomes a race to save his sanity and
Continue reading →
EventsHalloweenMoviesStreaming TV
The Shudder Original Halloween special Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown will soon premiere. In what has become an annual tradition, iconic horror host and foremost drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs returns with the new special just in time for Halloween. You’ll have to tune in to find out what movies Joe Bob has selected, but you can count on something scary and perfect for the season. Special guests include director David Gordon Green of the upcoming Halloween franchise installment, Halloween Kills. But that’s not all, producer/Blumhouse CEO and founder Jason Blum announced today during Blumhouse’s second annual BlumFest celebration that he will be appearing as well. Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown premieres live on the Shudder TV feed at 9 pm ET/8c on October 8, 2021. Fans can also watch on demand on Shudder and within the Shudder offering in the AMC+ bundle on Sunday, October 10, 2021. The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is produced by Matt Manjourides and
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest celebrates Halloween with nine slices of cinematic scare-fare from around the globe, with aliens, creepy kids, locals gone loco, and much more. Following is the official press announcement. Following on from its hugely successful August five-day event, Arrow Video FrightFest is back at the Cineworld, Leicester Square with a bumper two-day Halloween event on Friday 29th Oct and Sat 30th October, presenting nine fear-packed premieres from around the world. The monstrous movie marathon embraces World, International and UK premieres, as we journey through an unholy celebration of mayhem, menace and murder. Kicking off the Black Friday gala ghoulishness is the UK premiere of THE SEED [pictured above], a gut-bursting alien creature feature from Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’ director Sam Walker. Walker will be attending, alongside the main cast – Lucy Martin, Sophie Vavasseur and Chelsea Edge – and SFX maestro Dan Martin. This is followed by the UK premiere of BARBARIANS with Game of Thrones star
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Eyes of Fire American folk horror feature Eyes of Fire (1983) is an underseen gem that has been unavailable on home video for decades. The ambitious film should find a well-deserved wider audience with its beautiful new 4K restoration from Severin Films, which was overseen by writer/director Avery Crounse. In the colonial 1700s before America was established, Reverend Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb) is known for burning witches and living with multiple women including married woman Eloise (Rebecca Stanley) and the mysterious Leah (Karlene Crockett). When he escapes a hanging attempt by his fellow colonists, the trio steals the colony’s only raft and sets sail with Eloise’s two daughters and a few other people. Eloise’s woodsman husband Marion Dalton (Guy Boyd) tracks down the group, who find a group of abandoned cabins in a wooded area where the local Shawnee people refuse to go. The band of settlers soon find out why — an evil lurks in the forest, and it
Continue reading →
More from Events
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Australian folk horror feature Alison’s Birthday (1981) is receiving its first release with the online NIGHTSTREAM film festival since its original VHS release. It’s a supernatural chiller that offers plenty of intriguing sequences and is worthy of finding a new audience. Writer/director Ian Coughlan’s film opens with 16-year-old Alison (Joanne Samuel of Mad Max) and two friends experimenting with a makeshift Ouija board, which results in Alison’s dead father contacting her by possessing one of the other girls, warning Alison to beware of her 19th birthday, before a bookshelf falls on the girl and kills her. If that’s not enough to hook you, parentless Alison reluctantly goes back to her hometown with her disc jockey boyfriend Peter (Lou Brown) to visit her Aunt Jennifer (Bunney Brooke) and Uncle Dean (John Bluthall) to celebrate said 19th birthday, and discovers a Stonehenge-like structure in the land behind their backyard. You can guess that business picks up from there, and you would be
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
SCI-FI-London Film Festival 2021 has announced its impressive full line-up, with incredible narrative films, engaging animated offerings, and intriguing documentaries. Following is the official press announcement. Today the SCI-FI-LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2021 launches its cosmic 21st annual programme, which will run from the 19 OCTOBER until 26 OCTOBER 2021 with seven days of fabulous film. It will showcase a fantastic lineup with 2 world film premieres, 8 UK film premieres, 11 world short premieres and 13 UK short premieres. It will host 13 features and 50 shorts alongside its regular classic cult events such as the 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE and SCI-FI-QUIZ. Opening this year’s festival on the 19th October is Agata Alexander’s WARNING. This film is dark, witty and spectacular. It has a stellar cast, including Annabelle Wallis, Thomas Jane, Alex Pettyfer, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Alice Eve, and the marvellous Rupert Everett. WARNING is a visually arresting, thought-provoking sci-fi exploring the meaning of life through multiple interconnected lives. This is
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsReviews
Cosmic Dawn In the science fiction/mystery feature Cosmic Dawn, as a child, Aurora saw her mother abducted by aliens. As a young adult, Aurora (Camille Rowe) has long been faced with psychological and medical professionals, along with those close to her, being highly skeptical about her claims. She has visions of a woman that lead her to a bookstore where employee Natalie (Emmanuelle Chriqui) explains about the woman, Elyse (Antonia Zegers), and invites her to a gathering of what turns out to be a UFO cult led by Elyse. Writer/director Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn takes place in three different time periods — the time of Aurora’s close encounter, her initial time with the cult about a decade after that, and four years later, when cult member Dieter (Philip Granger) locates her and insists she needs to return to the cult. The transitions during this nonlinear approach are not always smooth, but everything starts blending together at a certain point and
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignInterviewsMovies
London’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween event, taking place October 29th and 30th, will include an appearance from director/writer Romola Garai at the U.K. premiere screening of her film Amulet. Garai spoke with Arrow Video FrightFest press staff for this syndicated review in anticipation of the event. AMULET will receive its UK premiere at FrightFest’s Halloween event. Excited or what? So excited! It’s a great honour to have our UK premiere at such a brilliantly subversive festival. We are very grateful! You’re most well known as an actress but have you always wanted to write and direct films? I’ve been writing since my teens but it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized I wanted to direct as well and I made my short film SCRUBBER. Now what I’d love is to write, direct and act. Never all three together though! What was the writing process like? Were there any major inspirations and motivations that drove you? I was very
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNews
Super Channel and Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) — a top-notch fest featuring an incredible array of Canadian horror and science fiction films — are teaming up again for a hybrid edition of this year’s BITS with a Halloween weekend virtual portion. Following is the official press announcement. Super Channel and Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), a unique and imaginative showcase of contemporary Canadian horror films, are pleased to announce that they have joined forces once again to bring a hybrid edition of the upcoming 2021 BITS to Canadian horror film fans across the nation. This year’s festival is sure to shock and delight horror lovers with the virtual portion running on Super Channel Fuse over Halloween weekend from Friday, Oct 29 – Sunday Oct 31, and the in-person festival returning to the Royal Cinema November 18 to 23. “We are proud to be partnering once again with Kelly and the incredible team at BITS to
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsIndieMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
The deeply disturbing horror film The Family, from the creative duo Dan Slater (director, co-writer) and Adam Booth (producer, co-writer), is set to make its World Premiere at the Busan International Film Festival on October 8, 2021. Ahead of its debut, we’ve got the trailer. The Family delves into brooding and unpredictable family ethics. The feature redefines the notion of terror and explores psychological and physical trauma in a genre-bending sinister tale. Raised to fear what lurks beyond the borders of their farm, a young family must free themselves from the tyrannical rule of their merciless Father and Mother. The co-writers Slater and Booth were inspired by the vulnerability of people and the ability of cults to exploit their fears and beliefs to separate them from the rest of the world. This reflection led the filmmakers to invent a cult religion from scratch. “We’ve both always been fascinated by the idea of cults and people in society being indoctrinated by
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Darkland Distribution’s upcoming dark and disturbing British horror, Shepherd, is set to make its World Premiere this October at the BFI London Film Festival with its theatrical release to follow this November. To mark the occasion, the new trailer has been released, teasing a horror-filled film. Writer and Director of Shepherd, Russell Owen, was delighted with the news of the film’s selection, saying, “I’ve followed the BFI London Film Festival for decades, so to actually be a part of it is surreal and a massive honour. I can’t think of a better platform to bring Shepherd to an audience and I’m over the moon.” In the film, “running from grief after the mysterious death of his wife, Eric Black takes a job as a shepherd. Trapped alone on a majestic weather-beaten island with an ominous secret. One man’s spiraling madness meets a vengeful supernatural force. What starts as the perfect wind-swept escape becomes a race to save his sanity and
Continue reading →
EventsHalloweenMoviesStreaming TV
The Shudder Original Halloween special Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown will soon premiere. In what has become an annual tradition, iconic horror host and foremost drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs returns with the new special just in time for Halloween. You’ll have to tune in to find out what movies Joe Bob has selected, but you can count on something scary and perfect for the season. Special guests include director David Gordon Green of the upcoming Halloween franchise installment, Halloween Kills. But that’s not all, producer/Blumhouse CEO and founder Jason Blum announced today during Blumhouse’s second annual BlumFest celebration that he will be appearing as well. Joe Bob’s Halloween Hoedown premieres live on the Shudder TV feed at 9 pm ET/8c on October 8, 2021. Fans can also watch on demand on Shudder and within the Shudder offering in the AMC+ bundle on Sunday, October 10, 2021. The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is produced by Matt Manjourides and
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
Arrow Video FrightFest celebrates Halloween with nine slices of cinematic scare-fare from around the globe, with aliens, creepy kids, locals gone loco, and much more. Following is the official press announcement. Following on from its hugely successful August five-day event, Arrow Video FrightFest is back at the Cineworld, Leicester Square with a bumper two-day Halloween event on Friday 29th Oct and Sat 30th October, presenting nine fear-packed premieres from around the world. The monstrous movie marathon embraces World, International and UK premieres, as we journey through an unholy celebration of mayhem, menace and murder. Kicking off the Black Friday gala ghoulishness is the UK premiere of THE SEED [pictured above], a gut-bursting alien creature feature from Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’ director Sam Walker. Walker will be attending, alongside the main cast – Lucy Martin, Sophie Vavasseur and Chelsea Edge – and SFX maestro Dan Martin. This is followed by the UK premiere of BARBARIANS with Game of Thrones star
Continue reading →
Film Festivals
Eyes of Fire American folk horror feature Eyes of Fire (1983) is an underseen gem that has been unavailable on home video for decades. The ambitious film should find a well-deserved wider audience with its beautiful new 4K restoration from Severin Films, which was overseen by writer/director Avery Crounse. In the colonial 1700s before America was established, Reverend Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb) is known for burning witches and living with multiple women including married woman Eloise (Rebecca Stanley) and the mysterious Leah (Karlene Crockett). When he escapes a hanging attempt by his fellow colonists, the trio steals the colony’s only raft and sets sail with Eloise’s two daughters and a few other people. Eloise’s woodsman husband Marion Dalton (Guy Boyd) tracks down the group, who find a group of abandoned cabins in a wooded area where the local Shawnee people refuse to go. The band of settlers soon find out why — an evil lurks in the forest, and it
Continue reading →
