CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
901 stories
ForeignMoviesReviews
If there’s one thing about Jens Jørgen Thorsen’s 1970 adaptation of author Henry Miller’s 1956 semi-autobiographical novel Quiet Days in Clichy it’s that it’s light on plot… like lighter than a feather from a rather tiny bird light… and that is very light y’all, dig? The long and the short of it all is this; American writer-type Joey (Paul Valjean) and his euro-roomie Carl (Wayne Rodda) live in an apartment in Clichy in Paris. They are broke and horny, so what follows is a non-narrative debauchery free-for-all involving tons of nudity, un-simulated sex, and dubious choices in sexual partners… all set to the stirring tunes of Country Joe McDonald no less! By changing the setting from the 1930’s of the novel to the recently emerged sexual revolution of late 1960’s era Paris it becomes a natural for presenting the story without as much coherent narrative as one would expect (though the novel itself was no slouch in that department), Thorsen
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Today the first-person mystery horror Charon’s Staircase was released for all consoles and PC in time for Halloween to give you some chills over the weekend, does it deliver? Let’s find out, but first, I would like to thank SOEDESCO and Indigo Studios for the reviewing opportunity. Charon’s Staircase (pronounced Karen) takes place in an unidentified (presumably) Eastern European country in the 1970s that will be joining the European Union but wants the totalitarian skeleton in its closet to be erased. This is where agent “Desmond” comes in. Desmond is assigned to retrieve and destroy secret documents relating to human experiments conducted at the Oak Grove estate. Once there Desmond uncovers darker secrets he wishes to share with the world…if he survives. Now onto the game itself! Charon’s Staircase‘s controls are limited as the game focuses mainly on exploring and puzzle-solving. The game is fully voice acted as it’s narrated at points of the game as Desmond tells his story.
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Red Water Entertainment has just announced the North American VOD debut of Carlo Lavagna‘s Shadows, the Irish-Italian psychological thriller coming to Digital this November. Today, we have to new trailer to share with you. Shadows is the second feature from director Carlo Lavagna, with a script by Fabio Mollo, Damiano Bruè, Vanessa Picciarelli, and Tiziana Triana. The film stars Mia Threapleton, Lola Petticrew, and Saskia Reeves as a family of survivors living in an abandoned hotel after the apparent end of the world. In the film, Alma and Alex, two teenage sisters, are survivors of a catastrophic event. They live deep in the woods with their Mother, a strict, overprotective woman who has sheltered them from ominous presences, the Shadows, which live in the daylight and infest the world beyond the river. When they follow Mother out for hunting, Alma and Alex start a series of events that will lead them to discover the truth about the “Shadows” and their
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNews
Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) presents another exciting hybrid version serving up homegrown horror features and shorts both on the big screen and online from November 21 – 26, 2022. Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre will host the live screenings, which include world premieres and festival favorites from this year. Online screenings will be available on Super Channel Fuse. 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 a hybrid version of the BITS film festival will return again this November. The on-air portion of the festival features six harrowing horror films and a variety of bone-chilling shorts for fans across the country to enjoy nightly on Super Channel Fuse from November 21 – 26, including the World Premiere of The Devil Comes at Night from writer/director Scott Leaver. The in-theatre portion of BITS will be
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Giallo is a genre in Italian cinema, think of Noir films but with horror elements thrown into the story and occasional eroticism… can’t be European (especially Italian) without that right? Now combine that with old folklore from Sardinia and what do you get? You get Saturnalia, a survival horror game where players must uncover the truth in order to survive their stay in an ancient Italian village. I want to give thanks to Santa Ragione for the reviewing opportunity! Saturnalia takes place in an old village on the island of Sardinia where they play as one of four playable characters trying to make sense of the events going on in the village surrounding a mysterious ritual where a horned creature stalks the streets at night. Now onto the game itself. The controls for Saturnalia are limited but surprisingly a tad difficult to grasp at first. At the start of the game, it would have been nice to have a tutorial
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMovies
Flowing Italian/Belgian coproduction Flowing (Piove, 2022)finds the city of Rome infected by steam that rises from the city’s manholes and through open drains in homes. The steam causes people to hallucinate and face their most negative emotions and darkest thoughts, driving them to violence. At the center of the story is the fractured family of father Thomas (Fabrizio Rongione) and his children, troubled teenage son Enrico (Francesco Gheghi), and young wheelchair-bound daughter Barbara (Aurora Menenti). Thomas blames Enrico for the automobile accident that claimed his wife’s life and crippled Barbara, and the father and son show open contempt for each other, so once that steam infects the pair, bad things are bound to happen. Director Paolo Strippoli invests his film, which won the Special Jury Mention Award at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, with a strong sense of dread throughout, and no small amount of goo and gunk to permeate the visuals. The family trauma and drama is presented in a
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
French comedy/thriller Stéphane from filmmakers Timothée Hochet and Lucas Pastor is a mockumentary about aspiring short-film director Timothée (Bastien Garcia) and Stéphane (Pastor), the unaware subject of Timothée’s documentary about “a loser.” The pair meet randomly while Timothée is shooting a short film, with Stéphane volunteering to provide some pyrotechnics. One red flag after another about Stéphane goes up and eventually Timothée finds himself staying the night on Stéphane’s private boat before sailing to the latter’s island home. Why Timothée would want to get further involved with the obviously strange Stéphane is a valid question, but this being both a comedy and a thriller, poor decisions make sense to advance this story, and to send things into weirder and more disturbing territory. Both characters are full of themselves in different ways, and lines are blurred about just who is in charge of the crazy wartime-themed short that Timothée wants to complete for a film festival. Hochet and Pastor deliver a
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Codirectors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein have unleashed on the world Mad Heidi (Switzerland, 2002), the first Swissploitation film, and it is a bonkers blend of horror, action, and comedy, filled with blood, bare breasts, and cheese of both the comedic and edible kinds. Casper Van Dien chews up scenery like the ubiquitous cheese in the film as dictatorial President Meili, who has dreams of global domination and who owns the only legal cheese factory in Switzerland. His henchmen are developing a new type of cheese, which they discover turns men into mighty mutants — perfect for building an unstoppable army. Meanwhile, mountain girl Heidi (Alice Lucy in a super comic and physical performance) sees her boyfriend Goat Peter (Kel Matsena) — who got his nickname from his, ahem, special way with goats to produce superb cheese — and her grandfather slain by Kommandant Knorr (Max Rüdlinger), ruthless leader of Meili’s Nazi-like army. After some high-level training, Heidi is prepared
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Your Love Is Mine Aficionados of “But is it horror?” films should find plenty to like about the Australian feature Your Love Is Mine, cowritten and codirected by Luke J.S. and Luke Wijayasinha-Gray. Emotionally distant bartender Violet (Senie Priti) and her mechanic boyfriend Sam (Lester Ellis Jr.) are in a troubled relationship, though both dream of escaping the doldrums of their small-town lives and moving to the big city. Violet is the more pragmatic, and pessimistic, of the couple, while Sam is more of the dreamer. When tragedy strikes one of them — no spoilers here — the other person comes up with a decidedly unusual and even bizarre plan, sending the film from romantic drama into more chilling territory. Your Love Is Mine certainly serves up some fear-fare overtones, but treads more in dark drama and even fantasy territory. Priti and Ellis Jr. are splendid in their lead roles, and the film’s supporting players provide added depth with solid
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The classic fright-fare movie tagline “Not for the squeamish!” deserves to be resurrected for the horror comedy Feed Me (U.K., 2022), cowritten and codirected by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes (Hosts, 2020). This tale of a cannibal and his willing meat supply provides a good deal of gags of both the humorous and queasy varieties. Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) is depressed to the point of ending it all after his wife succumbs to an eating disorder. Lionel Flack (Neal Ward), who knows of Jed’s grief, introduces himself at a bar and tells Jed that he can make all of his troubles disappear. Jed eventually agrees to being eaten by Lionel, and their extremely weird relationship begins. Ward is terrific as the deeply disturbed Lionel, stopping just short of scenery chewing at times, and at others, giving harrowing emotional performances. He goes all in, and he and Mulvin play off each other superbly. Production Designer Amy Lucas (as Amy Lukas), Propmaker
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
ForeignMoviesReviews
If there’s one thing about Jens Jørgen Thorsen’s 1970 adaptation of author Henry Miller’s 1956 semi-autobiographical novel Quiet Days in Clichy it’s that it’s light on plot… like lighter than a feather from a rather tiny bird light… and that is very light y’all, dig? The long and the short of it all is this; American writer-type Joey (Paul Valjean) and his euro-roomie Carl (Wayne Rodda) live in an apartment in Clichy in Paris. They are broke and horny, so what follows is a non-narrative debauchery free-for-all involving tons of nudity, un-simulated sex, and dubious choices in sexual partners… all set to the stirring tunes of Country Joe McDonald no less! By changing the setting from the 1930’s of the novel to the recently emerged sexual revolution of late 1960’s era Paris it becomes a natural for presenting the story without as much coherent narrative as one would expect (though the novel itself was no slouch in that department), Thorsen
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Today the first-person mystery horror Charon’s Staircase was released for all consoles and PC in time for Halloween to give you some chills over the weekend, does it deliver? Let’s find out, but first, I would like to thank SOEDESCO and Indigo Studios for the reviewing opportunity. Charon’s Staircase (pronounced Karen) takes place in an unidentified (presumably) Eastern European country in the 1970s that will be joining the European Union but wants the totalitarian skeleton in its closet to be erased. This is where agent “Desmond” comes in. Desmond is assigned to retrieve and destroy secret documents relating to human experiments conducted at the Oak Grove estate. Once there Desmond uncovers darker secrets he wishes to share with the world…if he survives. Now onto the game itself! Charon’s Staircase‘s controls are limited as the game focuses mainly on exploring and puzzle-solving. The game is fully voice acted as it’s narrated at points of the game as Desmond tells his story.
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsThrillerTrailers
Red Water Entertainment has just announced the North American VOD debut of Carlo Lavagna‘s Shadows, the Irish-Italian psychological thriller coming to Digital this November. Today, we have to new trailer to share with you. Shadows is the second feature from director Carlo Lavagna, with a script by Fabio Mollo, Damiano Bruè, Vanessa Picciarelli, and Tiziana Triana. The film stars Mia Threapleton, Lola Petticrew, and Saskia Reeves as a family of survivors living in an abandoned hotel after the apparent end of the world. In the film, Alma and Alex, two teenage sisters, are survivors of a catastrophic event. They live deep in the woods with their Mother, a strict, overprotective woman who has sheltered them from ominous presences, the Shadows, which live in the daylight and infest the world beyond the river. When they follow Mother out for hunting, Alma and Alex start a series of events that will lead them to discover the truth about the “Shadows” and their
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNews
Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) presents another exciting hybrid version serving up homegrown horror features and shorts both on the big screen and online from November 21 – 26, 2022. Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre will host the live screenings, which include world premieres and festival favorites from this year. Online screenings will be available on Super Channel Fuse. 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 a hybrid version of the BITS film festival will return again this November. The on-air portion of the festival features six harrowing horror films and a variety of bone-chilling shorts for fans across the country to enjoy nightly on Super Channel Fuse from November 21 – 26, including the World Premiere of The Devil Comes at Night from writer/director Scott Leaver. The in-theatre portion of BITS will be
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Giallo is a genre in Italian cinema, think of Noir films but with horror elements thrown into the story and occasional eroticism… can’t be European (especially Italian) without that right? Now combine that with old folklore from Sardinia and what do you get? You get Saturnalia, a survival horror game where players must uncover the truth in order to survive their stay in an ancient Italian village. I want to give thanks to Santa Ragione for the reviewing opportunity! Saturnalia takes place in an old village on the island of Sardinia where they play as one of four playable characters trying to make sense of the events going on in the village surrounding a mysterious ritual where a horned creature stalks the streets at night. Now onto the game itself. The controls for Saturnalia are limited but surprisingly a tad difficult to grasp at first. At the start of the game, it would have been nice to have a tutorial
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMovies
Flowing Italian/Belgian coproduction Flowing (Piove, 2022)finds the city of Rome infected by steam that rises from the city’s manholes and through open drains in homes. The steam causes people to hallucinate and face their most negative emotions and darkest thoughts, driving them to violence. At the center of the story is the fractured family of father Thomas (Fabrizio Rongione) and his children, troubled teenage son Enrico (Francesco Gheghi), and young wheelchair-bound daughter Barbara (Aurora Menenti). Thomas blames Enrico for the automobile accident that claimed his wife’s life and crippled Barbara, and the father and son show open contempt for each other, so once that steam infects the pair, bad things are bound to happen. Director Paolo Strippoli invests his film, which won the Special Jury Mention Award at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, with a strong sense of dread throughout, and no small amount of goo and gunk to permeate the visuals. The family trauma and drama is presented in a
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
French comedy/thriller Stéphane from filmmakers Timothée Hochet and Lucas Pastor is a mockumentary about aspiring short-film director Timothée (Bastien Garcia) and Stéphane (Pastor), the unaware subject of Timothée’s documentary about “a loser.” The pair meet randomly while Timothée is shooting a short film, with Stéphane volunteering to provide some pyrotechnics. One red flag after another about Stéphane goes up and eventually Timothée finds himself staying the night on Stéphane’s private boat before sailing to the latter’s island home. Why Timothée would want to get further involved with the obviously strange Stéphane is a valid question, but this being both a comedy and a thriller, poor decisions make sense to advance this story, and to send things into weirder and more disturbing territory. Both characters are full of themselves in different ways, and lines are blurred about just who is in charge of the crazy wartime-themed short that Timothée wants to complete for a film festival. Hochet and Pastor deliver a
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Codirectors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein have unleashed on the world Mad Heidi (Switzerland, 2002), the first Swissploitation film, and it is a bonkers blend of horror, action, and comedy, filled with blood, bare breasts, and cheese of both the comedic and edible kinds. Casper Van Dien chews up scenery like the ubiquitous cheese in the film as dictatorial President Meili, who has dreams of global domination and who owns the only legal cheese factory in Switzerland. His henchmen are developing a new type of cheese, which they discover turns men into mighty mutants — perfect for building an unstoppable army. Meanwhile, mountain girl Heidi (Alice Lucy in a super comic and physical performance) sees her boyfriend Goat Peter (Kel Matsena) — who got his nickname from his, ahem, special way with goats to produce superb cheese — and her grandfather slain by Kommandant Knorr (Max Rüdlinger), ruthless leader of Meili’s Nazi-like army. After some high-level training, Heidi is prepared
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Your Love Is Mine Aficionados of “But is it horror?” films should find plenty to like about the Australian feature Your Love Is Mine, cowritten and codirected by Luke J.S. and Luke Wijayasinha-Gray. Emotionally distant bartender Violet (Senie Priti) and her mechanic boyfriend Sam (Lester Ellis Jr.) are in a troubled relationship, though both dream of escaping the doldrums of their small-town lives and moving to the big city. Violet is the more pragmatic, and pessimistic, of the couple, while Sam is more of the dreamer. When tragedy strikes one of them — no spoilers here — the other person comes up with a decidedly unusual and even bizarre plan, sending the film from romantic drama into more chilling territory. Your Love Is Mine certainly serves up some fear-fare overtones, but treads more in dark drama and even fantasy territory. Priti and Ellis Jr. are splendid in their lead roles, and the film’s supporting players provide added depth with solid
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The classic fright-fare movie tagline “Not for the squeamish!” deserves to be resurrected for the horror comedy Feed Me (U.K., 2022), cowritten and codirected by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes (Hosts, 2020). This tale of a cannibal and his willing meat supply provides a good deal of gags of both the humorous and queasy varieties. Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) is depressed to the point of ending it all after his wife succumbs to an eating disorder. Lionel Flack (Neal Ward), who knows of Jed’s grief, introduces himself at a bar and tells Jed that he can make all of his troubles disappear. Jed eventually agrees to being eaten by Lionel, and their extremely weird relationship begins. Ward is terrific as the deeply disturbed Lionel, stopping just short of scenery chewing at times, and at others, giving harrowing emotional performances. He goes all in, and he and Mulvin play off each other superbly. Production Designer Amy Lucas (as Amy Lukas), Propmaker
Continue reading →
