Foreign

International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.

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Movie Reviews: “Peppergrass” and “Flee the Light” (Blood in the Snow Film Festival)

Peppergrass Eula Baek (Chantelle Han) and Morris Weiss (Charles Boyland) are in a relationship — and quite obviously not a happy one, judging from their constant sniping and bickering — and are driven to desperation during the COVID lockdown for her titular restaurant and his bar. They hatch a plan to scam veteran Captain Reuben Lom (Michael Copeman) — who lives in a very rural area and who was friends with Eula’s father — into giving them some valuable truffles that they can resell to try to make ends meet. Morris gets greedy and aggressive, and suddenly the three people are fighting for their lives. Peppergrass (Canada, 2021) toys with the “home invasion goes south” style of fear fare before diving headlong into survival horror, but rather than fully committing to the more grueling side of the latter, focuses instead on being more of a dread-filled mood piece with lots of wandering around in the woods. Codirectors Steven Garbas and

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Joseph Perry

Nov 22, 2021

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Reviews: “Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes” and “Two Witches” (FilmQuest)

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes Similar to how films like The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears and Berberian Sound Studio have evoked giallo, director Kevin Kopacka’s Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (Germany, 2021) draws its inspiration from European arthouse films, of the horror genre and otherwise. It’s best to go into this outing cold, so I will only give a brief, spoiler-free set-up regarding its plot: Margot (Luisa Taraz) and her husband Deiter (Frederik von Lüttichau) have inherited a remote castle — with Bava influences in more than just lighting — and as the tension between the couple rises, gothic-horror madness sets in. Try learning nothing more than that for maximum surprise from the film. Kopacka, who cowrote the screenplay with Lili Villányi, has crafted a mind-bender of a movie that fairly drips eerie atmosphere, with scenes that range from the tried-and-true method of having off-screen occurrences for viewers to fill in with their imagination, to a graphic gore

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Joseph Perry

Nov 22, 2021

Shudder Shares New Clip From 'The Advent Calander' Ahead Of Its Release

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Shudder Moves Up Premiere Of French Horror Film ‘The Advent Calander’

Shudder, AMC Networks’ streamer for horror, thrillers, and the supernatural has announced a new release date for writer-director Patrick Ridremont’s ornate and elegant French horror-fantasy The Advent Calendar. Combining Faustian themes and allusions with European folklore and tense, chilling terror, the Shudder Original film provides some highly original holiday season horror produced by Alain Benguigui, Virginie Ogouz, Jean-Yves Roubin, and Cassandre Warnauts. In the film, “Eva (Eugénie Derouand, Paris Police 1900), an ex-dancer, is now using a wheelchair, unable to walk. When her friend Sophie (Honorine Magnier, Tomorrow is Ours) gives her an old wooden antique advent calendar before Christmas, she realizes each window contains a surprise that triggers repercussions in real life. Some of them are good, but most of them are bad, really bad. Now Eva will have to choose between getting rid of the calendar or walking again – even if it causes death and destruction to everyone she holds dear around her.” The Advent Calendar, which

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: The Chinese Boxer (1970)

So peep this shit; a real ballsy mother fucker by the name of Diao Erh-yeh (Chao Hsiung) strolls on into the Chung Yi Chinese kung-fu school and starts whipping ass like a human tornado… until the school’s Master arrives and delivers an absolutely savage beating to that crass Judo master! Defeat goes over like a fart in church for Diao, and he vows revenge in the form of “karate-men” … and indeed, men that know karate (eventually joined by a couple of samurai, because fuck yeah!) bestow an absolute shitstorm of karate-based murder and mayhem on the student body of Chung Yi… which leaves the town rather defenseless and an easy target for karate-men conquest… which involves more casino ownership than karate… This doesn’t sit well with Chung Yi star pupil/karate abuse survivor Lei Ming (Jimmy Wang Yu… who wrote and directed this picture with production from the legendary Shaw Brothers Studios) so he decides to undergo some of that

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DanXIII

Nov 22, 2021

ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers

Foreign Horror ‘Achuora’ Coming To DVD And Digital

Director Talal Selhami’s foreign horror film Achoura is set to arrive on DVD and Digital this December from Dark Star Pictures. Following rave reviews at Cinepocalypse, Brussels Fantastic Film Festival, Bucheon Fantastic Film Festival, and more, North America gets to now witness the terrifying tale of a Moroccan legend. In the film, four friends reconnect when one of them, who disappeared 25 years ago, suddenly comes back into their lives. Together, they will have to confront the terrifying events of their youth and fight a monstrous creature born of a terrifying legend, a Djinn, who during a religious festival, seizes the young in order to devour them. It is sociologically proven that fantasy and horror cinema has always enjoyed a renewed interest from audiences and critics in times of social and economic turmoil.” Franco–Moroccan filmmaker Selhami said. “Fear cinema is therefore a kind of outlet for the viewer, unfortunately today too used to seeing atrocities through the media. Stories of

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Review: “Sunod” (A Night of Horror International Film Festival)

Director Carlo Ledesma takes viewers on a wild ride of the supernatural in Sunod (AKA Followed; Philippines, 2019), which captured the awards for Best International Feature Film, Best Performance in an International Feature Film (Carmina Villarroel), and Best International Feature Film Director (Ledesma) at the recent A Night of Horror International Film Festival in Australia. Although the film sometimes deals in familiar fear-fare trappings, the overall result is a gripping chiller well worth a watch. Villarroel portrays Olivia, a single mother to teen daughter Anelle (Krystal Brimner) who is hospitalized with a heart condition. Olivia asserts herself, out of financial desperation, into a new night job at a call center. Her place of employment happens to be the same building that served as a hospital in the 1970s, and savvy horror movie viewers know that nothing good ever comes of being in a former hospital. Below the call center are abandoned floors. When Olivia finds herself on one of those

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

ForeignIndieMoviesNewsStreaming TVThrillerTrailers

Shudder Announces New Premiere Date For French Thriller ‘The Advent Calander’

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Review: “Lair” (A Night of Horror International Film Festival)

You’ll rarely find a character that you can’t wait to see get his as much as you will with paranormal researcher/exploiter Steven Caramore (Corey Johnson) in the U.K. feature Lair. As if being responsible for his business partner Ben’s (Oded Fehr) slaughtering of his wife and child, Caramore then sets up shop in a London apartment building, outfitting one flat with allegedly cursed objects while rigging up cameras in a neighboring one to watch what happens to an unsuspecting family in the first flat. The vacationing family in question brings their own personal demons into the mix — lots of arguing, bickering, bruised egos, and teen rebellion — and really they should have demanded a refund on their vacation rental as soon as Caramore told them — on their second day of the stay — that he placed a cursed doll in their flat, a toy to which little Lily (Lara Mount) took an instant liking. But Lily and her

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Review: “The Righteous” (Blood in the Snow Film Festival)

Writer/director Mark O’Brien’s The Righteous is a gripping, slow-burn gothic horror that examines the dark hearts of people and the secrets they hide. Conflicts in religious faith and the consequences of sins are at the forefront, with top-notch performances and brilliant use of light and shadow driving the film. Former priest Frederic Mason (Henry Czerny) left the church to marry his wife Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk). As the film opens, the two have just lost their young, adopted daughter in an accident. Frederic prays and seeks the advice of a practicing priest. Soon thereafter, a stranger who claims he is named Aaron Smith (O’Brien) shows up on the Mason’s property, injured and pleading for help. Frederic uncharacteristically allows him to spend the night in their home, even lying to a local police officer who the couple knows well, saying that the man is someone he knows. Ethel is shocked by Frederic’s invitation but soon becomes fond of the young stranger, who

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Joseph Perry

Nov 22, 2021

ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers

New Clip From Folk Horror ‘Roh’ Will Leave You Fearing A Child

Writer-director Emir Ezwan‘s ROH, an entry for Malaysia’s Official Oscars, is set to premiere in just a few days. Ahead of its release, we’ve got several exclusive clips, that will leave you fearing the forest. In the film, cut off from civilization, a single mother puts her children on high alert when they bring home a strange young girl caked in clay. She tells of spirits and spirit hunters and after spending the night she delivers an ominous prophecy: the family will all soon die. As strangers begin to show up on her doorstep, and terrible events crop up around them, she quickly finds another reason to fear the forest. Farah Ahmad, Mhia Farhana, Harith Haziq, Nam Ron, Junainah M. Lojong, and Putri Syahadah Nurqasehhis star in this eerily atmospheric folk horror tale marks the stunning directorial debut of seasoned visual effects artist, Emir Ezwan. From the ominous lighting, off-kilter tone, isolated locations, and strange goings-on, ROH is a visceral,

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Nov 22, 2021

Foreign

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