CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
901 stories
ForeignMoviesNews
If you dig on my style of revoltin’ reviewin’ then let me clue you in on the latest book of fright flick commentary from my putrid pal Richard Glenn Schmidt; Giallo Meltdown 2! Unsurprisingly (unless you are incredibly dense or incredibly easily surprised), Giallo Meltdown 2 is the sequel to Richard’s 2015 beastly book of spaghetti shockers, Giallo Meltdown, and continues the author’s trademark stream of consciousness reviewing style! To add to that, picture sitting around the ol’ terror tube with a group of fiendish friends watching a seemingly endless parade of Italian crime thrillers while everyone offers up their thoughts on the picture at hand often to hilarious effect… this is that shit right there, but in book form! Of course I have already slapped my eerie eyeballs over each and every wicked word of this vicious volume, and it gets my sinister seal of approval both for fans of the genre looking for suggestions for film’s they may
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
When you sit down to The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, the debut feature from South Korean Director Park Sye-young, you may think you are settling in to a take on George Barry’s 1977 killer bed flick, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. Since both features contain killer beds… or more specifically in this film’s case a killer mattress… but the two experiences couldn’t be more different. While Death Bed is a more conventional horror movie, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is a melancholy, though completely bizarre, treatise on loneliness and emotion. Following the life cycle of a creature born of fungus that inhabits a mattress owned originally by a couple in a rather crummy relationship, the narrative moves from owner to owner (usually after it feeds on someone), allowing us to experience their sad existences. All of that packs quite an emotional punch that in a conventional drama would be almost overbearing in it’s depressive aesthetic, but since this is ostensibly a
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoForeignIndieK-HorrorMoviesNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Get ready for a chilling descent into the woods, where laughter curdles into screams. The Human Trap, a South Korean horror film, arrives on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms, promising to turn your next camping trip into a white-knuckle nightmare. A carefree weekend outing for four naïve teens takes a horrifying turn when they stumble into a hidden nightmare. Rounded up by a deranged Christian “doctor” and his sadistic assistant, they find themselves prisoners in a makeshift medical lab. The gruesome twist? To escape, they must sing the full Kumbaya hymn. But this ain’t your childhood campfire song. Infused with pitch-black humor and relentless suspense, The Human Trap unleashes a torrent of shocking violence. The terrified teens fight for their lives. Each desperate escape attempt was met with unimaginable brutality by their twisted captors. Director Lee Moon-young weaves dark humor into the fabric of his gruesome narrative. The film’s unpredictable twists and turns will keep you guessing until the
Continue reading →
AdaptationForeignIndieMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Sir Christopher Lee, legendary horror/exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco, the madman that was Klaus Kinski, and an absolute fang-banger of Gothic literature? Why you get a surprisingly more faithful than most, though by no means complete, retelling of Bram Stoker’s 1897 literary masterpiece Dracula of course! After encountering a number of locals that look at him like a dead man walking, lawyer Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) continues to the Borgo Pass where he is met by a mysterious coachman that takes him to his destination; the castle of Count Dracula (Lee), an aging aristocrat who wishes to secure property in England with Harker’s assistance. Right from the get-go things are off with ol’ Drac, as he casts no reflection in mirrors, has fangs like a wolf, gets excited around blood, and sleeps in a stone coffin… oh, he also has a trio of brides that sleep in coffins and eat the babies of the
Continue reading →
ForeignK-HorrorNetflixNewsStreaming TV
Prepare to face the darkness as the K-horror series “Gyeongseong Creature” claws its way onto Netflix this week with two edge-of-your-seat seasons. This period horror takes you back to Spring 1945. It was a time when Seoul (then known as Gyeongseong) was shrouded in the oppressive darkness of Japanese colonial rule. But even amidst the historical turmoil, something even more frightening lurks in the shadows. In this chilling series, the city is stalked by a monstrous entity spawned from human greed. Two brave young adults, Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-Joon) and Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee), are thrust into a desperate battle for survival against this horrifying creature. “Gyeongseong Creature” masterfully blends historical drama with monstrous suspense. As Tae-sang and Chae-ok navigate the dangers of Japanese occupation, they must also unravel the dark mystery behind the creature’s origins. Is it simply a product of human depravity, or is there something more sinister at play? The series boasts a star-studded cast ready to
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Beginning the way you’d imagine a live-action flick created in part by Go Nagai (Devilman, Violence Jack to name but a few… ) would; namely with a shit-ton of nudity (more on that in a bit) and folks turning into demons! After that bit of biz we learn that the world has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to meteor strikes with the resulting remains of said strikes turning compatible humans into space demons known as ANORAC (that’s Corona backwards, and more on that in a bit as well). Meanwhile Japan, now known as Neo-Nippon, has fallen under the rule of the tyrannical Shogun Nobuhide Fujinaga (Tomoki Kimura) and his cadre of bondage-gear clad samurai lead by Kaisei Kishi (the ever-popular Derek Mears, who has been in a ton of stuff, so let’s go with 2009’s Friday the 13th update and the 2019 Swamp Thing TV series… and really goes all-fuckin’-out in this role to comic book super-villain perfection!).
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNews
Get ready to be chilled to the bone with The Ghost Station, directed by JEONG Yong-Ki (The Doll Master, Once Upon a Time) and written by TAKAHASHI Hiroshi (The Ring, The Ring 2) and LEE So-Young (Robot Sound). KIM Bo-Ra (Ghost Mansion), KIM Jae-Hyun (Love You as the World Ends), and SHIN So-Yul (A Violent Prosecutor) star. A young reporter, determined to uncover the truth behind a suspicious accident, stumbles upon a shocking discovery. Her source, who provided crucial information, is revealed to be deceased, raising a multitude of unsettling questions. As more mysterious and unexplained deaths plague the city, the reporter and her partner embark on a dangerous investigation. They delve deeper into the darkness, unearthing secrets threatening to shatter everything they thought they knew. Their relentless pursuit of the truth leads them to a horrifying revelation: a sinister entity lurks in the shadows, orchestrating a deadly game. The lines between life and death blur as they confront unimaginable
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsThriller
Utah’s Sundance Film Festival announced its slate of selections for its 2024 edition today, and we have the horror and related features for you. The following information is from the fest’s official press announcement. Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 82 films, eight episodic titles, and a New Frontier interactive experience selected for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival will take place January 18–28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from January 25–28, 2024. This year marks the 40th edition of the Festival, bringing together audiences in Utah and beyond to celebrate Sundance’s rich history of supporting engaging new stories and groundbreaking independent artists. In-Person Ticket Packages and Passes and Online Ticket Packages and Passes are currently on sale and single film tickets go on sale January 11 at 10 a.m. MT. To kick things off, the Festival will begin at noon MT on January 18
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoForeignMoviesNewsStreaming TVThrillerTrailers
Directed by Jaco Minnaar, who co-wrote the film with David Cornwell, Peacock is an upcoming South African gothic horror film that is set to make its U.S. debut this December. The film follows Anna Pohl, played by Tarryn Wyngaard. A young woman who was raised in a strict and brutal Authoritarian institute called “The Foundation.” After violating the institute’s strict moral standards, Anna is sent to care for one of the founding members, Sarel Cilliers (Johan Botha), an Apartheid-era theologian who is living out his days on his isolated farm in a state of paranoia and demonic hallucinations. As Anna tries to unravel the mysteries of Sarel’s farm and The Foundation, she is slowly pulled into his terrifying world. Her own feelings of guilt also haunt her. Peacock is described as an “erotic” and “evocative” horror film that explores the dark recesses of paranoia, as well as the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past. The film is directed by Jaco
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
eVil Sublet (U.S., 2023) Like most things in life, if rent sounds too good to be true, there must be some sort of problem. In writer/director/cinematographer/editor/producer Allan Piper’s horror comedy eVil Sublet — eVil referring to New York City’s East Village — couple Alex (Jennifer Leigh Houston, Piper’s wife and also a producer on the film) and Ben (Charley Tucker) find that out first-hand when they rent a fully-furnished apartment for incredibly low rent that turns out to be not only haunted, but the site of multiple past murders. The film aims more for satire and silliness than scares, though plenty of creepiness is certainly on hand. eVil Sublet sends up the housing crisis, pharmaceutical companies, political and sexual politics, and more as Alex and Ben try to cope with their spooky situation with the help of a large cast of supporting characters, including Sally Struthers as a woman living in a storage facility, Stephen Mosher and Pat Dwyer as
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
ForeignMoviesNews
If you dig on my style of revoltin’ reviewin’ then let me clue you in on the latest book of fright flick commentary from my putrid pal Richard Glenn Schmidt; Giallo Meltdown 2! Unsurprisingly (unless you are incredibly dense or incredibly easily surprised), Giallo Meltdown 2 is the sequel to Richard’s 2015 beastly book of spaghetti shockers, Giallo Meltdown, and continues the author’s trademark stream of consciousness reviewing style! To add to that, picture sitting around the ol’ terror tube with a group of fiendish friends watching a seemingly endless parade of Italian crime thrillers while everyone offers up their thoughts on the picture at hand often to hilarious effect… this is that shit right there, but in book form! Of course I have already slapped my eerie eyeballs over each and every wicked word of this vicious volume, and it gets my sinister seal of approval both for fans of the genre looking for suggestions for film’s they may
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
When you sit down to The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, the debut feature from South Korean Director Park Sye-young, you may think you are settling in to a take on George Barry’s 1977 killer bed flick, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. Since both features contain killer beds… or more specifically in this film’s case a killer mattress… but the two experiences couldn’t be more different. While Death Bed is a more conventional horror movie, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is a melancholy, though completely bizarre, treatise on loneliness and emotion. Following the life cycle of a creature born of fungus that inhabits a mattress owned originally by a couple in a rather crummy relationship, the narrative moves from owner to owner (usually after it feeds on someone), allowing us to experience their sad existences. All of that packs quite an emotional punch that in a conventional drama would be almost overbearing in it’s depressive aesthetic, but since this is ostensibly a
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoForeignIndieK-HorrorMoviesNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Get ready for a chilling descent into the woods, where laughter curdles into screams. The Human Trap, a South Korean horror film, arrives on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms, promising to turn your next camping trip into a white-knuckle nightmare. A carefree weekend outing for four naïve teens takes a horrifying turn when they stumble into a hidden nightmare. Rounded up by a deranged Christian “doctor” and his sadistic assistant, they find themselves prisoners in a makeshift medical lab. The gruesome twist? To escape, they must sing the full Kumbaya hymn. But this ain’t your childhood campfire song. Infused with pitch-black humor and relentless suspense, The Human Trap unleashes a torrent of shocking violence. The terrified teens fight for their lives. Each desperate escape attempt was met with unimaginable brutality by their twisted captors. Director Lee Moon-young weaves dark humor into the fabric of his gruesome narrative. The film’s unpredictable twists and turns will keep you guessing until the
Continue reading →
AdaptationForeignIndieMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Sir Christopher Lee, legendary horror/exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco, the madman that was Klaus Kinski, and an absolute fang-banger of Gothic literature? Why you get a surprisingly more faithful than most, though by no means complete, retelling of Bram Stoker’s 1897 literary masterpiece Dracula of course! After encountering a number of locals that look at him like a dead man walking, lawyer Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) continues to the Borgo Pass where he is met by a mysterious coachman that takes him to his destination; the castle of Count Dracula (Lee), an aging aristocrat who wishes to secure property in England with Harker’s assistance. Right from the get-go things are off with ol’ Drac, as he casts no reflection in mirrors, has fangs like a wolf, gets excited around blood, and sleeps in a stone coffin… oh, he also has a trio of brides that sleep in coffins and eat the babies of the
Continue reading →
ForeignK-HorrorNetflixNewsStreaming TV
Prepare to face the darkness as the K-horror series “Gyeongseong Creature” claws its way onto Netflix this week with two edge-of-your-seat seasons. This period horror takes you back to Spring 1945. It was a time when Seoul (then known as Gyeongseong) was shrouded in the oppressive darkness of Japanese colonial rule. But even amidst the historical turmoil, something even more frightening lurks in the shadows. In this chilling series, the city is stalked by a monstrous entity spawned from human greed. Two brave young adults, Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-Joon) and Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee), are thrust into a desperate battle for survival against this horrifying creature. “Gyeongseong Creature” masterfully blends historical drama with monstrous suspense. As Tae-sang and Chae-ok navigate the dangers of Japanese occupation, they must also unravel the dark mystery behind the creature’s origins. Is it simply a product of human depravity, or is there something more sinister at play? The series boasts a star-studded cast ready to
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Beginning the way you’d imagine a live-action flick created in part by Go Nagai (Devilman, Violence Jack to name but a few… ) would; namely with a shit-ton of nudity (more on that in a bit) and folks turning into demons! After that bit of biz we learn that the world has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to meteor strikes with the resulting remains of said strikes turning compatible humans into space demons known as ANORAC (that’s Corona backwards, and more on that in a bit as well). Meanwhile Japan, now known as Neo-Nippon, has fallen under the rule of the tyrannical Shogun Nobuhide Fujinaga (Tomoki Kimura) and his cadre of bondage-gear clad samurai lead by Kaisei Kishi (the ever-popular Derek Mears, who has been in a ton of stuff, so let’s go with 2009’s Friday the 13th update and the 2019 Swamp Thing TV series… and really goes all-fuckin’-out in this role to comic book super-villain perfection!).
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNews
Get ready to be chilled to the bone with The Ghost Station, directed by JEONG Yong-Ki (The Doll Master, Once Upon a Time) and written by TAKAHASHI Hiroshi (The Ring, The Ring 2) and LEE So-Young (Robot Sound). KIM Bo-Ra (Ghost Mansion), KIM Jae-Hyun (Love You as the World Ends), and SHIN So-Yul (A Violent Prosecutor) star. A young reporter, determined to uncover the truth behind a suspicious accident, stumbles upon a shocking discovery. Her source, who provided crucial information, is revealed to be deceased, raising a multitude of unsettling questions. As more mysterious and unexplained deaths plague the city, the reporter and her partner embark on a dangerous investigation. They delve deeper into the darkness, unearthing secrets threatening to shatter everything they thought they knew. Their relentless pursuit of the truth leads them to a horrifying revelation: a sinister entity lurks in the shadows, orchestrating a deadly game. The lines between life and death blur as they confront unimaginable
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsThriller
Utah’s Sundance Film Festival announced its slate of selections for its 2024 edition today, and we have the horror and related features for you. The following information is from the fest’s official press announcement. Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 82 films, eight episodic titles, and a New Frontier interactive experience selected for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival will take place January 18–28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from January 25–28, 2024. This year marks the 40th edition of the Festival, bringing together audiences in Utah and beyond to celebrate Sundance’s rich history of supporting engaging new stories and groundbreaking independent artists. In-Person Ticket Packages and Passes and Online Ticket Packages and Passes are currently on sale and single film tickets go on sale January 11 at 10 a.m. MT. To kick things off, the Festival will begin at noon MT on January 18
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoForeignMoviesNewsStreaming TVThrillerTrailers
Directed by Jaco Minnaar, who co-wrote the film with David Cornwell, Peacock is an upcoming South African gothic horror film that is set to make its U.S. debut this December. The film follows Anna Pohl, played by Tarryn Wyngaard. A young woman who was raised in a strict and brutal Authoritarian institute called “The Foundation.” After violating the institute’s strict moral standards, Anna is sent to care for one of the founding members, Sarel Cilliers (Johan Botha), an Apartheid-era theologian who is living out his days on his isolated farm in a state of paranoia and demonic hallucinations. As Anna tries to unravel the mysteries of Sarel’s farm and The Foundation, she is slowly pulled into his terrifying world. Her own feelings of guilt also haunt her. Peacock is described as an “erotic” and “evocative” horror film that explores the dark recesses of paranoia, as well as the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past. The film is directed by Jaco
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
eVil Sublet (U.S., 2023) Like most things in life, if rent sounds too good to be true, there must be some sort of problem. In writer/director/cinematographer/editor/producer Allan Piper’s horror comedy eVil Sublet — eVil referring to New York City’s East Village — couple Alex (Jennifer Leigh Houston, Piper’s wife and also a producer on the film) and Ben (Charley Tucker) find that out first-hand when they rent a fully-furnished apartment for incredibly low rent that turns out to be not only haunted, but the site of multiple past murders. The film aims more for satire and silliness than scares, though plenty of creepiness is certainly on hand. eVil Sublet sends up the housing crisis, pharmaceutical companies, political and sexual politics, and more as Alex and Ben try to cope with their spooky situation with the help of a large cast of supporting characters, including Sally Struthers as a woman living in a storage facility, Stephen Mosher and Pat Dwyer as
Continue reading →
