CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
901 stories
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
This September, Dark Star Pictures will introduce you to the dark, twisted, and ultra-violent horror that is Megalomaniac from director Karim Ouelhaj. In the film, “Martha and Félix are the children of the Butcher of Mons, a notorious Belgian serial killer from the 1990s. Unstable and riddled with insecurities, Martha lives vicariously through social media. Her brother, crushed by the family legacy, takes over their father’s killings. Harassed and violently assaulted at work, the docile Martha falls into madness and goes through the looking glass into the strange and terrifying world inhabited by her brother.” Eline Schumacher, Wim Willaert, Benjamin Ramon, Pierre Nisse, and Raphaëlle Lubansu star in this French (English subtitled) film that is one of the most brutal films of the year. Megalomaniac opens in theaters on September 8, 2023.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Subject (2023) Australian shocker Subject centers on Willem (Stephen Phillips), who we meet when he is under arrest and in a police van, only to be taken away by mysterious agent Dalesky (director Tristan Barr), who offers him an alternative to prison. Willem, who proclaims innocence of any crime, accepts the offer, which involves observing a monster in the room next to his while being denied contact with any other human other than Dalesky, who conducts occasional question-and-answer sessions involving electrical shocks. Memories reminiscent of home movies cloud Willem’s mind, bringing back thoughts of his late wife Carrie (Cecilia Low) and their two daughters, most of which are unpleasant. Barr, working from a screenplay by Vincent Befi, builds the mystery and suspense terrifically, leaving open to viewer interpretation exactly what is happening to the highly troubled Willem. Phillips is on screen for the majority of the film, and he gives a fine performance depicting his complex character. Challenging, intriguing, and
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
A woman desperate to be reunited with her husband turns to black magic in the French indie horror The Thing Behind the Door (aka La Chose Derriere La Porte). The film tells the story of a young woman haunted by the death of her husband, who was killed in a trench during World War I. Unable to accept the tragic loss, the young woman turns to black magic in the hopes of bringing her lover back but gets far more than she’s bargained for. Séverine Ferrer, David Doukhan, Quentin Surtel, Yves Lecat, and Fabien Jegoudez star in this dark tale of desperation and evil directed by Fabrice Blin. The Thing Behind the Door, which features English subtitles, is now available on VOD and Digital, from Freestyle Digital Media.
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
An apartment building is plunged into darkness, and people are forced to choose a side in the upcoming French horror-thriller The Tower. “This bone-chilling thriller brings a whole new meaning to being scared of the dark. Inhabitants of a tower block wake up one morning to find a black veil shrouding all the windows and doors of the building – a black veil that devours anything and anyone who tries to go through it. Stuck inside together, families organize themselves, but time passes, and nothing changes. They gradually return to their most primitive instincts and now respond to a single watchword: survival.” Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux, this action-packed film stars Angéle Mac Hatik, Kylian Larmonie, Merveille Nsombi, Nicolas Pignon, Igor Kovalsky, Marie Rémond, and Ahmed Abdel Laoui. Witness a fight for survival when The Tower debuts on September 25, 2023, on VOD and Digital.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Convenience Story (2022) is a surreal odyssey with film noir elements. If that sounds like a reference to David Lynch’s work or to the many Lynchian knock-offs, sure, there are shared concepts here, but writer/director Satoshi Miki’s Japanese feature leans more to the whimsical and weird than the dark. The 24/7 convenience store (konbini) is a major part of Japanese culture, and Miki places his deadpan, struggling screenwriter protagonist Kato (Ryo Narita) in a decidedly bizarre remote one after he abandons his actress girlfriend Zigzag’s (Yuki Katayama) dog nearby. With the rented truck that he drove there suddenly not running, he takes up the somewhat eager offer of married-couple convenience store owners Keiko (Atsuko Maeda) and Nagumo (Seiji Rokkaku) to stay the night. While Nagumo spends time in the forest air-conducting classical music, Keiko and Kato find themselves in an offbeat relationship reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Giving away any more of the plot would be a disservice
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Japanese feature Best Wishes to All (2023) tackles that country’s problem with its aging population in a fright-fare context that combines folk horror and supernatural elements. The result is an intriguing work that starts off in slow-burn style but delivers a jaw-dropping revelation that kicks off a dizzying whirl of suspense and paranoia. Kotone Furukawa gives an excellent performance as a young nursing student from Tokyo (all characters in the film are nameless) who visits her grandparents in the small rural town in which she grew up. As a little girl, she was greatly bothered by a locked door in their house so much that it haunted her dreams even as an adult. After her grandparents display decidedly odd behavior — which she at first considers might be dementia — she soon learns that he fears about what might be behind that door were nowhere near what she could imagine. Director Yūta Shimotsu, working from a screenplay cowritten with Rumi
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Paris Zarcilla’s U.K. feature Raging Grace (2023) combines social commentary about class divisions with classic elements of both British horror and British farce. Joy (Max Eigenmann) is a Filipina working illegally as a house cleaner in London, sleeping in different houses with her young daughter Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) when she knows the owners are away. Joy is trying to raise money for a man to supposedly get her U.K. citizenship, and he is getting impatient with her inability to come up with the amount he demands. Meanwhile, while checking in on an elderly man named Mr. Garrett (David Hayman) as a favor to her pastor, she is offered a live-in job by Garrett’s niece Katherine (Leanne Best) that pays a high rate, with the expectation that Joy will keep mum about the goings-on in the abode. Joy sneaks Grace — who has a decidedly naughty and curious streak about her — into the house in a suitcase, and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviewsThriller
Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023) Followers of Fortean phenomena and aficionados of surreal and sylvan horror should find plenty to admire in writer/director Teresa Sutherland’s slow-burn creeper Lovely, Dark, and Deep. Ranger Lennon (Georgina Campbell [Barbarian] in an engaging lead performance) has finally been assigned a job she has long waited for: being in charge, for 90 days, of a backcountry area that requires being taken there by helicopter and that leaves her virtually cut off from civilization except for communication by walkie-talkie and contact with hikers, campers, and fellow rangers. Riffing on what is discussed in David Paulides’ Missing 411 books and videos, the forest in which Lennon works is the site of many missing-person disappearances and occasional solved cases. Lennon’s backstory and motivation for being assigned to the remote spot she has requested involves that scenario, and giving away anything more about the plot would be traversing into spoiler territory. Sutherland, who wrote the screenplay for The Wind,
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsSci-FiThriller
London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest announces its 24th edition with a new headline sponsor and 70 drool-worthy horror and genre films from around the world. From world premieres of cutting-edge independent fare to anniversary screenings of classics and longtime favorites, the fest truly has something for hear-fare fans of every stripe, with creepy creatures, violent slashers, supernatural spookiness, and loads more. Following is the official press announcement. FrightFest, the UK’s biggest, best and most beloved community-driven horror & fantasy film festival, returns in a blaze of gory glory to the Cineworld Leicester Square, London, for its 24th edition, this year with pioneering technology & entertainment company Pigeon Shrine as its headline sponsor. The company is the brainchild of Tom Paton, working alongside industry finance veterans Jamie McLeod-Ross and Charley McDougall. Running from Thursday August 24–Monday 28 August, Pigeon Shrine FrightFest is a joyful big screen celebration of genre cinema, offering a carnival of carnage, a smorgasbord of shock and a tableau
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsSci-FiThriller
U.K. science fiction thriller Coyote (2023) combines current social issues with lo-fi science fiction elements. The result is a film that boasts solid performances and thought-provoking themes. Partners Ekaterina (Therica Wilson-Read) and Anya (Borislava Stratieva) pay heavily to have one of them instantly transported using cutting-edge tech from Rasskazovo, where a violent crackdown on LGBTQ people is taking place, to a safe house in London for female immigrants. Orla Miller (Ailish Symons), the woman in charge of the safe house, is hospitable at first before she eventually informs Ekaterina that, as an immigrant, she stands to make money more quickly and in greater amounts if she provides sexual services to highly-placed men, which Ekaterina learns that the other women staying there are doing. Coyote is a lower-budget indie effort that wisely relies on minimal special effects, and the teleportation scenes are well done courtesy of Visual Effects Supervisor Howard Gardner. As with many good speculative fiction films, the focus is
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
This September, Dark Star Pictures will introduce you to the dark, twisted, and ultra-violent horror that is Megalomaniac from director Karim Ouelhaj. In the film, “Martha and Félix are the children of the Butcher of Mons, a notorious Belgian serial killer from the 1990s. Unstable and riddled with insecurities, Martha lives vicariously through social media. Her brother, crushed by the family legacy, takes over their father’s killings. Harassed and violently assaulted at work, the docile Martha falls into madness and goes through the looking glass into the strange and terrifying world inhabited by her brother.” Eline Schumacher, Wim Willaert, Benjamin Ramon, Pierre Nisse, and Raphaëlle Lubansu star in this French (English subtitled) film that is one of the most brutal films of the year. Megalomaniac opens in theaters on September 8, 2023.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Subject (2023) Australian shocker Subject centers on Willem (Stephen Phillips), who we meet when he is under arrest and in a police van, only to be taken away by mysterious agent Dalesky (director Tristan Barr), who offers him an alternative to prison. Willem, who proclaims innocence of any crime, accepts the offer, which involves observing a monster in the room next to his while being denied contact with any other human other than Dalesky, who conducts occasional question-and-answer sessions involving electrical shocks. Memories reminiscent of home movies cloud Willem’s mind, bringing back thoughts of his late wife Carrie (Cecilia Low) and their two daughters, most of which are unpleasant. Barr, working from a screenplay by Vincent Befi, builds the mystery and suspense terrifically, leaving open to viewer interpretation exactly what is happening to the highly troubled Willem. Phillips is on screen for the majority of the film, and he gives a fine performance depicting his complex character. Challenging, intriguing, and
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
A woman desperate to be reunited with her husband turns to black magic in the French indie horror The Thing Behind the Door (aka La Chose Derriere La Porte). The film tells the story of a young woman haunted by the death of her husband, who was killed in a trench during World War I. Unable to accept the tragic loss, the young woman turns to black magic in the hopes of bringing her lover back but gets far more than she’s bargained for. Séverine Ferrer, David Doukhan, Quentin Surtel, Yves Lecat, and Fabien Jegoudez star in this dark tale of desperation and evil directed by Fabrice Blin. The Thing Behind the Door, which features English subtitles, is now available on VOD and Digital, from Freestyle Digital Media.
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
An apartment building is plunged into darkness, and people are forced to choose a side in the upcoming French horror-thriller The Tower. “This bone-chilling thriller brings a whole new meaning to being scared of the dark. Inhabitants of a tower block wake up one morning to find a black veil shrouding all the windows and doors of the building – a black veil that devours anything and anyone who tries to go through it. Stuck inside together, families organize themselves, but time passes, and nothing changes. They gradually return to their most primitive instincts and now respond to a single watchword: survival.” Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux, this action-packed film stars Angéle Mac Hatik, Kylian Larmonie, Merveille Nsombi, Nicolas Pignon, Igor Kovalsky, Marie Rémond, and Ahmed Abdel Laoui. Witness a fight for survival when The Tower debuts on September 25, 2023, on VOD and Digital.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Convenience Story (2022) is a surreal odyssey with film noir elements. If that sounds like a reference to David Lynch’s work or to the many Lynchian knock-offs, sure, there are shared concepts here, but writer/director Satoshi Miki’s Japanese feature leans more to the whimsical and weird than the dark. The 24/7 convenience store (konbini) is a major part of Japanese culture, and Miki places his deadpan, struggling screenwriter protagonist Kato (Ryo Narita) in a decidedly bizarre remote one after he abandons his actress girlfriend Zigzag’s (Yuki Katayama) dog nearby. With the rented truck that he drove there suddenly not running, he takes up the somewhat eager offer of married-couple convenience store owners Keiko (Atsuko Maeda) and Nagumo (Seiji Rokkaku) to stay the night. While Nagumo spends time in the forest air-conducting classical music, Keiko and Kato find themselves in an offbeat relationship reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Giving away any more of the plot would be a disservice
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Japanese feature Best Wishes to All (2023) tackles that country’s problem with its aging population in a fright-fare context that combines folk horror and supernatural elements. The result is an intriguing work that starts off in slow-burn style but delivers a jaw-dropping revelation that kicks off a dizzying whirl of suspense and paranoia. Kotone Furukawa gives an excellent performance as a young nursing student from Tokyo (all characters in the film are nameless) who visits her grandparents in the small rural town in which she grew up. As a little girl, she was greatly bothered by a locked door in their house so much that it haunted her dreams even as an adult. After her grandparents display decidedly odd behavior — which she at first considers might be dementia — she soon learns that he fears about what might be behind that door were nowhere near what she could imagine. Director Yūta Shimotsu, working from a screenplay cowritten with Rumi
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Paris Zarcilla’s U.K. feature Raging Grace (2023) combines social commentary about class divisions with classic elements of both British horror and British farce. Joy (Max Eigenmann) is a Filipina working illegally as a house cleaner in London, sleeping in different houses with her young daughter Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) when she knows the owners are away. Joy is trying to raise money for a man to supposedly get her U.K. citizenship, and he is getting impatient with her inability to come up with the amount he demands. Meanwhile, while checking in on an elderly man named Mr. Garrett (David Hayman) as a favor to her pastor, she is offered a live-in job by Garrett’s niece Katherine (Leanne Best) that pays a high rate, with the expectation that Joy will keep mum about the goings-on in the abode. Joy sneaks Grace — who has a decidedly naughty and curious streak about her — into the house in a suitcase, and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviewsThriller
Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023) Followers of Fortean phenomena and aficionados of surreal and sylvan horror should find plenty to admire in writer/director Teresa Sutherland’s slow-burn creeper Lovely, Dark, and Deep. Ranger Lennon (Georgina Campbell [Barbarian] in an engaging lead performance) has finally been assigned a job she has long waited for: being in charge, for 90 days, of a backcountry area that requires being taken there by helicopter and that leaves her virtually cut off from civilization except for communication by walkie-talkie and contact with hikers, campers, and fellow rangers. Riffing on what is discussed in David Paulides’ Missing 411 books and videos, the forest in which Lennon works is the site of many missing-person disappearances and occasional solved cases. Lennon’s backstory and motivation for being assigned to the remote spot she has requested involves that scenario, and giving away anything more about the plot would be traversing into spoiler territory. Sutherland, who wrote the screenplay for The Wind,
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsSci-FiThriller
London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest announces its 24th edition with a new headline sponsor and 70 drool-worthy horror and genre films from around the world. From world premieres of cutting-edge independent fare to anniversary screenings of classics and longtime favorites, the fest truly has something for hear-fare fans of every stripe, with creepy creatures, violent slashers, supernatural spookiness, and loads more. Following is the official press announcement. FrightFest, the UK’s biggest, best and most beloved community-driven horror & fantasy film festival, returns in a blaze of gory glory to the Cineworld Leicester Square, London, for its 24th edition, this year with pioneering technology & entertainment company Pigeon Shrine as its headline sponsor. The company is the brainchild of Tom Paton, working alongside industry finance veterans Jamie McLeod-Ross and Charley McDougall. Running from Thursday August 24–Monday 28 August, Pigeon Shrine FrightFest is a joyful big screen celebration of genre cinema, offering a carnival of carnage, a smorgasbord of shock and a tableau
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsSci-FiThriller
U.K. science fiction thriller Coyote (2023) combines current social issues with lo-fi science fiction elements. The result is a film that boasts solid performances and thought-provoking themes. Partners Ekaterina (Therica Wilson-Read) and Anya (Borislava Stratieva) pay heavily to have one of them instantly transported using cutting-edge tech from Rasskazovo, where a violent crackdown on LGBTQ people is taking place, to a safe house in London for female immigrants. Orla Miller (Ailish Symons), the woman in charge of the safe house, is hospitable at first before she eventually informs Ekaterina that, as an immigrant, she stands to make money more quickly and in greater amounts if she provides sexual services to highly-placed men, which Ekaterina learns that the other women staying there are doing. Coyote is a lower-budget indie effort that wisely relies on minimal special effects, and the teleportation scenes are well done courtesy of Visual Effects Supervisor Howard Gardner. As with many good speculative fiction films, the focus is
Continue reading →
