CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
902 stories
Film FestivalsForeignReviews
Director Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood is a stylish vampire film that, like The Addiction (1995) and other entries in the genre, deals with these undead creatures’ thirst for blood as a chemical dependency. Anna (Alana Bale) is one such bloodsucker, and when she invites alcoholic and suddenly homeless Robbie (Luke Bilyk) to her place and tells him “I’m going to suck your blood and get high . . .”, he invites her to do that but after one last request. He then pours a bottle of booze down the sink and proclaims that he will never drink again as long as he lives. Intrigued by his oath, Anna refrains from biting him, and as she goes on to admire his determination to stick to his promise when giving in to his cravings would be so easy, she begins to rethink her lifestyle. Her vampire partners with whom she hunts, Nina (Ella Jonas Farlinger) and Boris (Benjamin Sutherland), are none too
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeign
Shocks and shudders abound during Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) hybrid event September 9–18, 2021, with in-person cinema screenings in Toronto and digital screenings available to viewers across Canada. Among the incredible international line-up of horror, science fiction, thriller, and other genre-cinema styles are the following six stand-outs, which Horror Fuel highly recommends. My comments follow in italics after descriptions adapted from TIFF’s official program and website. Kicking Blood “Blaine Thurier’s sultry, perma-stoned, ultra-modern spin on the vampire genre evokes cult-horror figures like George A. Romero and Stuart Gordon.” Fusing the grittiness of George Romero’s Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon’s early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier’s undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks. Vampire Anna (Alanna Bale) is disappointed
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieNewsTrailers
The award-winning Australian indie horror Ashburn Waters is coming to DVD this October, just in time for Halloween. Directed by David Pether, the film centers on Brett who has agreed to join his friends on a high school reunion camping trip. He thought the height of his worries would be dealing with his ex-girlfriend and her new flame, but little did he know that the campground, Ashburn Waters, has been closed due to unexplained murders and now his friends are in danger of falling victim to the campground’s curse, one by one. Kyal Scott, Jade Prechelt, and Maia Rose Michaels star in Ashburn Waters, landing on DVD on October 19, 2021, from Bayview Entertainment.
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ForeignNewsParanormalTrailers
Ahead of its November release, we’ve got the new trailer for The Possessed, inspired by terrifying true events. Starring Wolf Creek‘s John Jarratt, Lincoln Lewis, Angie Kent, Lauren Grimson, and Kevin Foster, The Possessed follows Jacob Chandler (Jarratt), an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift. Together with his nephew Liam (Lewis), the pair have forged a career clearing demons from the bodies of their clients. Of late, something has changed and demonic possessions are on the rise, together they face the wrath of unspeakable evil. Christine Hulsby, Sue Baldwin, Danny Baldwin, Mitchell Clough, and Chris Sun produce. The supernatural horror from writer-director Chris Sun opens in Aussie theaters on November 2, 2021, from Nexus Films, with a US release to follow.
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ForeignIndieMoviesNewsParanormalTrailers
This October witness a group of filmmakers set out to make a movie in the found footage film Perfect Horror, from Bayview Entertainment. In the English subtitled film, “An ambitious film director, Mr. Gang, brings his crew to an abandoned factory, which is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in northern China, to shoot a horror film. Mr. Gang ignores all common sense and tells his crew that they are staying for the night, despite the warnings against doing so. What happens to them that night is more terrible than anything Mr. Gang was conceiving for his perfect horror film. In Mandarin with English subtitles.” Dawei Lee wrote and directed Perfect Horror which is coming to DVD on October 19th, 2021, from Bayview Entertainment.
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ForeignMoviesReviews
Picture it, France, 1764 a giant beast stalks the lands of Gévaudan and gives zero fucks when it comes to eating women and children. Enter: the knight Grégoire de Fronsac, (Samuel Le Bihan), the royal naturalist of King Louis XV of France, and his Iroquois/Mohawk martial-artist companion Mani (Mark Dacascos, who’s been in a ton of great stuff, but you doubtless know him as the host of Iron Chef America) two dudes hellbent on figuring out the exact nature of the beast… a beast all who have glimpsed it swear is a giant wolf! While investigatin’, Fronsac gets the hot n’ hornies for comely Marianne de Morangias (Émilie Dequenne), the daughter of a local count… who just so happens to have a one-armed brother named Jean-François (Vincent Cassel); the victim of a lion attack and a big-time hunter/pain-in-the-ass in his own right. Oh, Fronsac also fucks an Italian, fortune telling prostitute named by Sylvia (Monica Bellucci)… Relationship Status: It’s complicated
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Jet-setting, gold diggin’ beauty Elisa (Carmen Sevilla delivering the sexy in spades) peeps her neighbor Miguel (Vincente Parra), chucking his dead wife, Nuria (María Asquerino) down an elevator shaft… but it’s a double-peep back-fire as Miguel sees her seeing him and forces her to help him thus making her an accomplice and more likely to keep her flappin’ yapper closed, ya see? As you may not expect, Elisa digs on this action and goes balls deep in helping Miguel keep that lil’ indiscretion on the down low… until she doesn’t and tries to kill him… and then things go completely sideways. Spanish giallo (sort of) ensues! Coming hot on the heels of the previous year’s Cannibal Man (which I set my eerie eyeballs right here), but predating perhaps his most well-known work; the juvenile delinquent pictures he dove head first into in the early ‘80s (and which I covered right here), Eloy de la Iglesia’s No One Heard the Scream
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Eloy de la Iglesia… now there is a mother fucker that wasn’t afraid to bring the seedy side of life to the silver screen (check out my review of his classic home invasion shocker Cannibal Man right here to bear witness to this) and Quinqui; a three-movie collection of his work, will only drive that point further home… not unlike a hypodermic needle straight to the ol’ hairy beanbag! Comprised of a trio of juvenile delinquent crime thrillers, Navajeros, El Pico & El Pico 2 to put a name to ‘em, these flicks are gritty, street-level, feel bad flicks through and through! Navajeros (1980) concerns José Manuel Gomez Perales or “El Jaro” ( José Luis Manzano) as he’s known among friends; a fifteen year-old criminal with a record a mile and a fuckin’ half long. Thankfully he spends most of his free time practicing the wholesome art of stealing purses with his rough n’ tumble pals. At night, El Jaro
Continue reading →
ForeignReviewsTrailersTrue CrimeTrue Story
Being a bit of a history nerd with a love of horror, it would be no surprise that interesting things pop up in my online searches, especially when some sites have a “you may be interested in…” section, and it always seems that this film titled Come and See pops up, finally I looked into it and watched the film and HOLY SHIT does not even begin to describe what I saw. Everywhere I looked afterward it seems everyone has said the same thing over and over, this film is a “non-horror horror movie” which after seeing, I have to agree, let me tell you about Come and See. Come and See is a surrealist anti-war film made in the Soviet Union in 1985. The film was directed by Elem Klimov and was his last as he felt after making the film that he went as far as he could creatively as a director which was not far from the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
A giant samurai statue goes a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ in The Daimajin Trilogy, a new box-set release covering Daiei’s classic kaiju creation courtesy of the sexy devils over at Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment)! First up comes 1966’s Daimajin: In medieval Japan, peasants cower in fear as the Earth trembles. These rustic folk believe that this is the result of a giant imprisoned within a nearby mountain attempting to make a jailbreak somewhere in this town (they are right btw)… As that is going on, the samurai lord of the village falls victim to samurai treachery, which causes his children to flee deep into the wicked woods that surround the village. They soon find themselves at the shrine of that aforementioned giant, the god Daimajin (played to perfection by Chikara “Riki” Hashimoto who would essay the role for the entire series); a huge-ass solid stone samurai that proves that in this particular village a hard man is indeed good to
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
Film FestivalsForeignReviews
Director Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood is a stylish vampire film that, like The Addiction (1995) and other entries in the genre, deals with these undead creatures’ thirst for blood as a chemical dependency. Anna (Alana Bale) is one such bloodsucker, and when she invites alcoholic and suddenly homeless Robbie (Luke Bilyk) to her place and tells him “I’m going to suck your blood and get high . . .”, he invites her to do that but after one last request. He then pours a bottle of booze down the sink and proclaims that he will never drink again as long as he lives. Intrigued by his oath, Anna refrains from biting him, and as she goes on to admire his determination to stick to his promise when giving in to his cravings would be so easy, she begins to rethink her lifestyle. Her vampire partners with whom she hunts, Nina (Ella Jonas Farlinger) and Boris (Benjamin Sutherland), are none too
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeign
Shocks and shudders abound during Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) hybrid event September 9–18, 2021, with in-person cinema screenings in Toronto and digital screenings available to viewers across Canada. Among the incredible international line-up of horror, science fiction, thriller, and other genre-cinema styles are the following six stand-outs, which Horror Fuel highly recommends. My comments follow in italics after descriptions adapted from TIFF’s official program and website. Kicking Blood “Blaine Thurier’s sultry, perma-stoned, ultra-modern spin on the vampire genre evokes cult-horror figures like George A. Romero and Stuart Gordon.” Fusing the grittiness of George Romero’s Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon’s early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier’s undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks. Vampire Anna (Alanna Bale) is disappointed
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieNewsTrailers
The award-winning Australian indie horror Ashburn Waters is coming to DVD this October, just in time for Halloween. Directed by David Pether, the film centers on Brett who has agreed to join his friends on a high school reunion camping trip. He thought the height of his worries would be dealing with his ex-girlfriend and her new flame, but little did he know that the campground, Ashburn Waters, has been closed due to unexplained murders and now his friends are in danger of falling victim to the campground’s curse, one by one. Kyal Scott, Jade Prechelt, and Maia Rose Michaels star in Ashburn Waters, landing on DVD on October 19, 2021, from Bayview Entertainment.
Continue reading →
ForeignNewsParanormalTrailers
Ahead of its November release, we’ve got the new trailer for The Possessed, inspired by terrifying true events. Starring Wolf Creek‘s John Jarratt, Lincoln Lewis, Angie Kent, Lauren Grimson, and Kevin Foster, The Possessed follows Jacob Chandler (Jarratt), an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift. Together with his nephew Liam (Lewis), the pair have forged a career clearing demons from the bodies of their clients. Of late, something has changed and demonic possessions are on the rise, together they face the wrath of unspeakable evil. Christine Hulsby, Sue Baldwin, Danny Baldwin, Mitchell Clough, and Chris Sun produce. The supernatural horror from writer-director Chris Sun opens in Aussie theaters on November 2, 2021, from Nexus Films, with a US release to follow.
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesNewsParanormalTrailers
This October witness a group of filmmakers set out to make a movie in the found footage film Perfect Horror, from Bayview Entertainment. In the English subtitled film, “An ambitious film director, Mr. Gang, brings his crew to an abandoned factory, which is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in northern China, to shoot a horror film. Mr. Gang ignores all common sense and tells his crew that they are staying for the night, despite the warnings against doing so. What happens to them that night is more terrible than anything Mr. Gang was conceiving for his perfect horror film. In Mandarin with English subtitles.” Dawei Lee wrote and directed Perfect Horror which is coming to DVD on October 19th, 2021, from Bayview Entertainment.
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Picture it, France, 1764 a giant beast stalks the lands of Gévaudan and gives zero fucks when it comes to eating women and children. Enter: the knight Grégoire de Fronsac, (Samuel Le Bihan), the royal naturalist of King Louis XV of France, and his Iroquois/Mohawk martial-artist companion Mani (Mark Dacascos, who’s been in a ton of great stuff, but you doubtless know him as the host of Iron Chef America) two dudes hellbent on figuring out the exact nature of the beast… a beast all who have glimpsed it swear is a giant wolf! While investigatin’, Fronsac gets the hot n’ hornies for comely Marianne de Morangias (Émilie Dequenne), the daughter of a local count… who just so happens to have a one-armed brother named Jean-François (Vincent Cassel); the victim of a lion attack and a big-time hunter/pain-in-the-ass in his own right. Oh, Fronsac also fucks an Italian, fortune telling prostitute named by Sylvia (Monica Bellucci)… Relationship Status: It’s complicated
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Jet-setting, gold diggin’ beauty Elisa (Carmen Sevilla delivering the sexy in spades) peeps her neighbor Miguel (Vincente Parra), chucking his dead wife, Nuria (María Asquerino) down an elevator shaft… but it’s a double-peep back-fire as Miguel sees her seeing him and forces her to help him thus making her an accomplice and more likely to keep her flappin’ yapper closed, ya see? As you may not expect, Elisa digs on this action and goes balls deep in helping Miguel keep that lil’ indiscretion on the down low… until she doesn’t and tries to kill him… and then things go completely sideways. Spanish giallo (sort of) ensues! Coming hot on the heels of the previous year’s Cannibal Man (which I set my eerie eyeballs right here), but predating perhaps his most well-known work; the juvenile delinquent pictures he dove head first into in the early ‘80s (and which I covered right here), Eloy de la Iglesia’s No One Heard the Scream
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Eloy de la Iglesia… now there is a mother fucker that wasn’t afraid to bring the seedy side of life to the silver screen (check out my review of his classic home invasion shocker Cannibal Man right here to bear witness to this) and Quinqui; a three-movie collection of his work, will only drive that point further home… not unlike a hypodermic needle straight to the ol’ hairy beanbag! Comprised of a trio of juvenile delinquent crime thrillers, Navajeros, El Pico & El Pico 2 to put a name to ‘em, these flicks are gritty, street-level, feel bad flicks through and through! Navajeros (1980) concerns José Manuel Gomez Perales or “El Jaro” ( José Luis Manzano) as he’s known among friends; a fifteen year-old criminal with a record a mile and a fuckin’ half long. Thankfully he spends most of his free time practicing the wholesome art of stealing purses with his rough n’ tumble pals. At night, El Jaro
Continue reading →
ForeignReviewsTrailersTrue CrimeTrue Story
Being a bit of a history nerd with a love of horror, it would be no surprise that interesting things pop up in my online searches, especially when some sites have a “you may be interested in…” section, and it always seems that this film titled Come and See pops up, finally I looked into it and watched the film and HOLY SHIT does not even begin to describe what I saw. Everywhere I looked afterward it seems everyone has said the same thing over and over, this film is a “non-horror horror movie” which after seeing, I have to agree, let me tell you about Come and See. Come and See is a surrealist anti-war film made in the Soviet Union in 1985. The film was directed by Elem Klimov and was his last as he felt after making the film that he went as far as he could creatively as a director which was not far from the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
A giant samurai statue goes a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ in The Daimajin Trilogy, a new box-set release covering Daiei’s classic kaiju creation courtesy of the sexy devils over at Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment)! First up comes 1966’s Daimajin: In medieval Japan, peasants cower in fear as the Earth trembles. These rustic folk believe that this is the result of a giant imprisoned within a nearby mountain attempting to make a jailbreak somewhere in this town (they are right btw)… As that is going on, the samurai lord of the village falls victim to samurai treachery, which causes his children to flee deep into the wicked woods that surround the village. They soon find themselves at the shrine of that aforementioned giant, the god Daimajin (played to perfection by Chikara “Riki” Hashimoto who would essay the role for the entire series); a huge-ass solid stone samurai that proves that in this particular village a hard man is indeed good to
Continue reading →
