CategoryFilm Festivals
Horror film festivals worldwide — lineups, awards and the titles that break out of the festival circuit.
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The London Rocks Film Festival will be hosting the World Premiere of Mute this November, the 22-minute short film adaptation of Stephen King’s tale. Directed by Kyle Dunbar Mute stars veteran actor Andrew Bee in the leading role of Monette, a recently separated book salesman who confides his grim story to both a priest and a hitchhiker, looking for absolution. The chilling short explores the complication of middle-aged marriage and the mental distortion resulting from sins and confessions. Mute delves into the territory of somber human behavior, making the story a fascinating psychological thriller. Inspired by hitchhiker tales, director Kyle Dubar clicked with Stephen King’s original short tale Mute. “I really wanted to execute the first feeling I had from reading the novel Mute and I didn’t want to overthink pace or style. Adapting Stephen King’s work is no easy doing, but being a devout fan I wanted to make one of his stories and render it justice with the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Father of Flies Director Ben Charles Edwards delivers gripping horror inspired by his childhood with U.S./U.K. coproduction Father of Flies (2021). This one is all about tension, unease, and an increasingly eerie atmosphere, all of which Edwards, who cowrote the screenplay with Nadia Doherty, delivers in spades. Richard (the late Nicholas Tucci in a stirring performance) — father to young, hearing-impaired son Michael (Keaton Tetlow) and rebellious teenage daughter Donna (Page Ruth) — has separated from the children’s mother Linda (Sandra Andreis) and forbidden her from coming to the house to see the children. Not only that, he has had his new girlfriend Coral (Camilla Rutherford) move in, much to the chagrin of the children — and something evil seems to have moved in with her. Neighbor Mrs. Start (Colleen Heidemann), who has some unusual mannerisms and interests, seems to be aware of this last point. The family’s rural home is as haunted by the problems and actions of all
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Writer-director Spencer King‘s highly anticipated horror-thriller Time Now is set to make its World Premiere this October at the Austin Film festival followed by its theatrical and On Demand debut a few days later. Eleanor Lambert (daughter of acclaimed actors Diane Lane and Christopher Lambert) and Claudia Black (“Farscape”, “The Nevers”), star in the film about a young woman, who after a falling out with her family, returns to the city she grew up in to mourn the sudden death of her twin brother. Upon meeting her brother’s eclectic group of friends, stepping into the scene he belonged to, and navigating the urban playground that is Detroit, she soon discovers that his death is not what it seems. Xxavier Polk, Paige Kendrick, Dwele, Sebastian Beacon, Jeannine Thompson, Peter Knox, Aaron Matthew Atkisson, Asher Atkisson, Dominique Alexander, and Ashley Sheri also star in the film. Featuring music from R&B star Dwele. Time Now makes its World premiere at the Austin Film
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Masking Threshold and Blood Moon screened as part of the 26th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which ran in-person in Portland, Oregon from October 1–3, 2021 and had a streaming edition October 8–12. Masking Threshold Director Johannes Grenzfurthener’s Austrian film Masking Threshold mashes up elements of Lovecraft and Poe with modern technology and social media, resulting in a highly disturbing, utterly unique take on the “descent into madness” subgenre of psychological horror. An unnamed IT professional (played by Grenzfurthener with voice acting by Ethan Haslam) — of whom viewers see only rare, partial glimpses — takes time off from work to do home experimentation in an attempt to find a cure for his rare form of tinnitus. Medical professionals, of whom he is skeptical, have been unable to help him, and as his research goes on, they combine with scientists to decry him as a crackpot conspiracy theorist. The nameless man is undeterred by such skepticism, and his rants become
Continue reading →
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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 →
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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 →
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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 →
More from Film Festivals
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
The London Rocks Film Festival will be hosting the World Premiere of Mute this November, the 22-minute short film adaptation of Stephen King’s tale. Directed by Kyle Dunbar Mute stars veteran actor Andrew Bee in the leading role of Monette, a recently separated book salesman who confides his grim story to both a priest and a hitchhiker, looking for absolution. The chilling short explores the complication of middle-aged marriage and the mental distortion resulting from sins and confessions. Mute delves into the territory of somber human behavior, making the story a fascinating psychological thriller. Inspired by hitchhiker tales, director Kyle Dubar clicked with Stephen King’s original short tale Mute. “I really wanted to execute the first feeling I had from reading the novel Mute and I didn’t want to overthink pace or style. Adapting Stephen King’s work is no easy doing, but being a devout fan I wanted to make one of his stories and render it justice with the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Father of Flies Director Ben Charles Edwards delivers gripping horror inspired by his childhood with U.S./U.K. coproduction Father of Flies (2021). This one is all about tension, unease, and an increasingly eerie atmosphere, all of which Edwards, who cowrote the screenplay with Nadia Doherty, delivers in spades. Richard (the late Nicholas Tucci in a stirring performance) — father to young, hearing-impaired son Michael (Keaton Tetlow) and rebellious teenage daughter Donna (Page Ruth) — has separated from the children’s mother Linda (Sandra Andreis) and forbidden her from coming to the house to see the children. Not only that, he has had his new girlfriend Coral (Camilla Rutherford) move in, much to the chagrin of the children — and something evil seems to have moved in with her. Neighbor Mrs. Start (Colleen Heidemann), who has some unusual mannerisms and interests, seems to be aware of this last point. The family’s rural home is as haunted by the problems and actions of all
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Writer-director Spencer King‘s highly anticipated horror-thriller Time Now is set to make its World Premiere this October at the Austin Film festival followed by its theatrical and On Demand debut a few days later. Eleanor Lambert (daughter of acclaimed actors Diane Lane and Christopher Lambert) and Claudia Black (“Farscape”, “The Nevers”), star in the film about a young woman, who after a falling out with her family, returns to the city she grew up in to mourn the sudden death of her twin brother. Upon meeting her brother’s eclectic group of friends, stepping into the scene he belonged to, and navigating the urban playground that is Detroit, she soon discovers that his death is not what it seems. Xxavier Polk, Paige Kendrick, Dwele, Sebastian Beacon, Jeannine Thompson, Peter Knox, Aaron Matthew Atkisson, Asher Atkisson, Dominique Alexander, and Ashley Sheri also star in the film. Featuring music from R&B star Dwele. Time Now makes its World premiere at the Austin Film
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Masking Threshold and Blood Moon screened as part of the 26th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which ran in-person in Portland, Oregon from October 1–3, 2021 and had a streaming edition October 8–12. Masking Threshold Director Johannes Grenzfurthener’s Austrian film Masking Threshold mashes up elements of Lovecraft and Poe with modern technology and social media, resulting in a highly disturbing, utterly unique take on the “descent into madness” subgenre of psychological horror. An unnamed IT professional (played by Grenzfurthener with voice acting by Ethan Haslam) — of whom viewers see only rare, partial glimpses — takes time off from work to do home experimentation in an attempt to find a cure for his rare form of tinnitus. Medical professionals, of whom he is skeptical, have been unable to help him, and as his research goes on, they combine with scientists to decry him as a crackpot conspiracy theorist. The nameless man is undeterred by such skepticism, and his rants become
Continue reading →
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 →
