CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
902 stories
ForeignMoviesNetflixNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Hold your breath and prepare to plunge into the chilling depths of The Abyss. The new Swedish horror-thriller will make you question the ground beneath your feet. It was directed by Richard Holm and co-written by Holm, Robin Sherlock Holm, and Nicola Sinclair. The film takes viewers on a harrowing journey into the depths of the Kiirunavaara mine. Viewers are transported to a seemingly ordinary town thrown into chaos as the earth begins to crumble. A Precarious Balancing Act At the center of the story is Frigga (played by Tuva Novotny), a security manager at the mine who must juggle the demands of her high-risk job and the challenges of being a single mother. However, as the ground beneath the town begins to shift, Frigga finds herself thrust into a desperate fight to save the ones she loves and herself. Facing the Unfathomable Frigga and the other residents must confront the physical dangers of the collapsing earth and the terrifying
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
I’m a very hard sell on new zombie movies. In a subgenre of horror films that I personally feel is growing ever weaker on originality, I’m open minded, however, in finding new discoveries with a unique take on things. Director Thea Hvistendahl’s Norwegian feature Handling the Undead — adapted from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s (Let The Right One In) novel, with a screenplay cowritten by the pair — is one such film, a remarkable dramatic take on the undead. Handling the Undead focuses on grief rather than gore as three families who have lost loved ones find that their deceased members have returned to life — in a sense — after a mysterious phenomenon occurs. The returned ones are weak, barely breathing and sometimes barely moving. The hope from their family members and lovers is felt along with confusion and unease. They have already been grieving, and some now fear that they may lose their loved ones once again.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Jon Bell combines post-pregnancy horror with social commentary in his Australian feature The Moogai, the 2024 expansion of his 2021 short film. The result is a mixed bag, as Bell addresses the tragic aspect of Australia’s infamous “Stolen Generations” — when thousands of mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal descent between 1910–1970 were forcibly taken from their homes by the white government in an assimilation effort — using a monster as a metaphor. Expectant mother Sarah (Shari Sebbens) has recently come into contact with her Indigenous birth mother Ruth (Tessa Rose). She feels she has nothing in common with Ruth and is short-tempered with her and dismissive of her traditional beliefs. Sarah’s husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) and their young daughter Chloe (Jahdeana Mary), however, are very affectionate toward Ruth. After the birth of the couple’s son Jacob, Ruth attempts to ward off the coming of the child-stealing spirit called The Moogai in her daughter’s home using traditional rituals, which is
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Jess Franco made himself an adaption of Bram Stoker’s classic fang bang terror tome Dracula back in 1970 (refresh your memory on that release, the Christopher Lee starring Count Dracula, right here) and hired Spanish filmmaker Pere Portabella to film a lil’ behind-the-scenes action for what was supposed to be turned into a documentary concerning the film’s creation… but it wasn’t and here we are… Instead, Portabella conjured forth 1971’s Cuadecuc, Vampir; a black and white, hour-and-change, nearly silent (there is ambient (frequently not very) musical accompaniment, and closing remarks from Lee however) experimental film that certainly does present a fly-on-the-wall glimpse (no matter how impressionistic) into the film’s production along with it’s own loosey-goosey narrative. To that end we get a visual tone-poem showcasing cast and crew toiling away… and it is a fascinating, if unconventional viewing experience. Additionally, viewing Franco’s footage in stark, crisp (sometimes purposefully over-exposed) chiaroscuro gives it that classic Universal monster movie vibe! But wait,
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNews
For its 16th edition, A Night of Horror International Film Festival moves from Australia to the United States — Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to be exact — from March 1–3, 2024, and the fest’s first wave announcement promises something for horror fans of every stripe. Following is the official press announcement. A Night of Horror International Film Festival announces its first programming wave for 2024 today. Long known as Australia’s premier genre film event, the festival now takes place in the United States. This year, the festival’s 16th edition – and first in the US – screens from March 1-3, at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “To move a fest I co-founded in Sydney, Australia, back in 2006, to America feels surreal”, says festival director Dean Bertram. “A Night of Horror has long taken pride in being recognized for its excellence in showcasing the best and bloodiest new horror films from around the globe. And this year’s program
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
It is January 22, 2024 as I write this review, and I have my first strong candidate for my list of best films of 2024: writer/director Fabio D’Orta’s genre-blending Italian chiller The Complex Forms. With his film, which he himself lensed in luscious black-and-white, D’Orta uses for inspiration classic cinema both Italian and international, investing these inspirations with a modern sensibility and a maverick vision. The budget may have been low, but the look of the film — including fantastical, beautifully rendered creature design — belies that fact. Christian Del Ben (David White) is down on his luck to the point that he has agreed to sell the use of his body to a mysterious entity for a sum of money that will help him get back on his feet. This takes place in a mysterious villa, the location of which none of the men who have made the pact know about. Del Ben is roommates with the affable Luh
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
This may be the first published game review of 2024 from us but this is actually the second with the official first review on its way on February 6th, so keep an eye out for that one! Let’s get to some exorcising with QU Byte Interactive and Mr. Skull Game Studio’s Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil. Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil is about Father August Heylel, a Vatican-recognized Exorcist who is penning a letter describing his most haunting exorcist case that began in 1984 where he failed to save the family but was able to banish the evil within the house. Over the years he’s been watching over the house and the families that moved in who all have lived in peace till in 2020, the evil returned. The controls for the game are limited and easy to remember. One of the things I wish you had in this game are meters letting you know how much health
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Being the forgetful fiend that I am, yours cruelly oft forgets that our pals South of the Border can deliver the gory goods among the best of them… and Unearthed Film’s new Blu-ray release of arcane anthology México Bárbaro II (the follow up to 2014’s México Bárbaro) reminded me with a nice, big, bloody open-handed slap right across my putrid puss! Let’s put our eerie eyeballs on the sinister segments that comprise this fright flick one by one and see just what makes this picture tick! La Leyenda De Juan Soldado: Coming from writer/director Abraham Sánchez; our first yarn concerns a soldier by the name of Juan (Uri Meza), who is accused of rape and left to die in the desert by his commanding officer. The thing is, our hero is innocent… so naturally the denizens of hell give him a chance to settle the score with those that wronged him! Entertaining, fast-paced, and full of a pseudo-EC Comics vibe
Continue reading →
ForeignK-HorrorMoviesNewsSci-FiThrillerTrailers
Brace for liftoff as acclaimed director Kim Yong Hwa (the Along With the Gods franchise) takes viewers on a thrilling voyage to the dark side in The Moon, debuting on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 27th from Well Go USA Entertainment. The Story: Disaster strikes seven years after Korea’s first lunar mission left an astronaut stranded on the moon. With time running out for another stranded astronaut in the face of a malfunctioning spacecraft, Korea’s Naro Space Center must desperately seek redemption in the form of their former disgraced director. Veteran actor Sul Kyung Gu (Public Enemy, Memoir of a Murderer) tackles the challenging role of the ex-director, haunted by past failures and now tasked with leading a seemingly impossible rescue mission. He’s joined by rising star Doh Kyung Soo (Along With the Gods” franchise) as the stranded astronaut clinging to life. Kim Hee Ae (“Herstory”) stars as a key decision-maker amid the crisis. The Moon promises a gripping
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
You know what’s better than a flick featuring good ol’ Peter Cushing? A flick featuring Peter Cushing you haven’t seen 3,457 times! To that end Severin’s new boxset, Cushing Curiosities; a 6 disc collection of Cushing-starring rarities will fit that bill nicely indeed! The whole shebang kicks off with 1960’s Cone of Silence… Cushing stars as pilot Clive Judd; a douche-par-excellence that has nothing better to do than fuck with an investigation into a fatal airline disaster. Why would he do that you may ask? Well, he kinda-sorta had everything to do with it and he’s sweating that shit in a major way. Defending the pilot of the doomed craft, Captain George Gort (Bernard Lee) by name, is Captain Hugh Dallas (Michael Craig)… but how pure are his motives what with his being in a romance with Gort’s daughter, Charlotte (Elizabeth Seal)? Directed by Charles Frend (Scott of the Antarctic,The Cruel Sea), Cone of Silence is a solid courtroom-centric thriller
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
ForeignMoviesNetflixNewsStreaming TVTrailers
Hold your breath and prepare to plunge into the chilling depths of The Abyss. The new Swedish horror-thriller will make you question the ground beneath your feet. It was directed by Richard Holm and co-written by Holm, Robin Sherlock Holm, and Nicola Sinclair. The film takes viewers on a harrowing journey into the depths of the Kiirunavaara mine. Viewers are transported to a seemingly ordinary town thrown into chaos as the earth begins to crumble. A Precarious Balancing Act At the center of the story is Frigga (played by Tuva Novotny), a security manager at the mine who must juggle the demands of her high-risk job and the challenges of being a single mother. However, as the ground beneath the town begins to shift, Frigga finds herself thrust into a desperate fight to save the ones she loves and herself. Facing the Unfathomable Frigga and the other residents must confront the physical dangers of the collapsing earth and the terrifying
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
I’m a very hard sell on new zombie movies. In a subgenre of horror films that I personally feel is growing ever weaker on originality, I’m open minded, however, in finding new discoveries with a unique take on things. Director Thea Hvistendahl’s Norwegian feature Handling the Undead — adapted from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s (Let The Right One In) novel, with a screenplay cowritten by the pair — is one such film, a remarkable dramatic take on the undead. Handling the Undead focuses on grief rather than gore as three families who have lost loved ones find that their deceased members have returned to life — in a sense — after a mysterious phenomenon occurs. The returned ones are weak, barely breathing and sometimes barely moving. The hope from their family members and lovers is felt along with confusion and unease. They have already been grieving, and some now fear that they may lose their loved ones once again.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Jon Bell combines post-pregnancy horror with social commentary in his Australian feature The Moogai, the 2024 expansion of his 2021 short film. The result is a mixed bag, as Bell addresses the tragic aspect of Australia’s infamous “Stolen Generations” — when thousands of mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal descent between 1910–1970 were forcibly taken from their homes by the white government in an assimilation effort — using a monster as a metaphor. Expectant mother Sarah (Shari Sebbens) has recently come into contact with her Indigenous birth mother Ruth (Tessa Rose). She feels she has nothing in common with Ruth and is short-tempered with her and dismissive of her traditional beliefs. Sarah’s husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) and their young daughter Chloe (Jahdeana Mary), however, are very affectionate toward Ruth. After the birth of the couple’s son Jacob, Ruth attempts to ward off the coming of the child-stealing spirit called The Moogai in her daughter’s home using traditional rituals, which is
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Jess Franco made himself an adaption of Bram Stoker’s classic fang bang terror tome Dracula back in 1970 (refresh your memory on that release, the Christopher Lee starring Count Dracula, right here) and hired Spanish filmmaker Pere Portabella to film a lil’ behind-the-scenes action for what was supposed to be turned into a documentary concerning the film’s creation… but it wasn’t and here we are… Instead, Portabella conjured forth 1971’s Cuadecuc, Vampir; a black and white, hour-and-change, nearly silent (there is ambient (frequently not very) musical accompaniment, and closing remarks from Lee however) experimental film that certainly does present a fly-on-the-wall glimpse (no matter how impressionistic) into the film’s production along with it’s own loosey-goosey narrative. To that end we get a visual tone-poem showcasing cast and crew toiling away… and it is a fascinating, if unconventional viewing experience. Additionally, viewing Franco’s footage in stark, crisp (sometimes purposefully over-exposed) chiaroscuro gives it that classic Universal monster movie vibe! But wait,
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNews
For its 16th edition, A Night of Horror International Film Festival moves from Australia to the United States — Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to be exact — from March 1–3, 2024, and the fest’s first wave announcement promises something for horror fans of every stripe. Following is the official press announcement. A Night of Horror International Film Festival announces its first programming wave for 2024 today. Long known as Australia’s premier genre film event, the festival now takes place in the United States. This year, the festival’s 16th edition – and first in the US – screens from March 1-3, at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “To move a fest I co-founded in Sydney, Australia, back in 2006, to America feels surreal”, says festival director Dean Bertram. “A Night of Horror has long taken pride in being recognized for its excellence in showcasing the best and bloodiest new horror films from around the globe. And this year’s program
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
It is January 22, 2024 as I write this review, and I have my first strong candidate for my list of best films of 2024: writer/director Fabio D’Orta’s genre-blending Italian chiller The Complex Forms. With his film, which he himself lensed in luscious black-and-white, D’Orta uses for inspiration classic cinema both Italian and international, investing these inspirations with a modern sensibility and a maverick vision. The budget may have been low, but the look of the film — including fantastical, beautifully rendered creature design — belies that fact. Christian Del Ben (David White) is down on his luck to the point that he has agreed to sell the use of his body to a mysterious entity for a sum of money that will help him get back on his feet. This takes place in a mysterious villa, the location of which none of the men who have made the pact know about. Del Ben is roommates with the affable Luh
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
This may be the first published game review of 2024 from us but this is actually the second with the official first review on its way on February 6th, so keep an eye out for that one! Let’s get to some exorcising with QU Byte Interactive and Mr. Skull Game Studio’s Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil. Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil is about Father August Heylel, a Vatican-recognized Exorcist who is penning a letter describing his most haunting exorcist case that began in 1984 where he failed to save the family but was able to banish the evil within the house. Over the years he’s been watching over the house and the families that moved in who all have lived in peace till in 2020, the evil returned. The controls for the game are limited and easy to remember. One of the things I wish you had in this game are meters letting you know how much health
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Being the forgetful fiend that I am, yours cruelly oft forgets that our pals South of the Border can deliver the gory goods among the best of them… and Unearthed Film’s new Blu-ray release of arcane anthology México Bárbaro II (the follow up to 2014’s México Bárbaro) reminded me with a nice, big, bloody open-handed slap right across my putrid puss! Let’s put our eerie eyeballs on the sinister segments that comprise this fright flick one by one and see just what makes this picture tick! La Leyenda De Juan Soldado: Coming from writer/director Abraham Sánchez; our first yarn concerns a soldier by the name of Juan (Uri Meza), who is accused of rape and left to die in the desert by his commanding officer. The thing is, our hero is innocent… so naturally the denizens of hell give him a chance to settle the score with those that wronged him! Entertaining, fast-paced, and full of a pseudo-EC Comics vibe
Continue reading →
ForeignK-HorrorMoviesNewsSci-FiThrillerTrailers
Brace for liftoff as acclaimed director Kim Yong Hwa (the Along With the Gods franchise) takes viewers on a thrilling voyage to the dark side in The Moon, debuting on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 27th from Well Go USA Entertainment. The Story: Disaster strikes seven years after Korea’s first lunar mission left an astronaut stranded on the moon. With time running out for another stranded astronaut in the face of a malfunctioning spacecraft, Korea’s Naro Space Center must desperately seek redemption in the form of their former disgraced director. Veteran actor Sul Kyung Gu (Public Enemy, Memoir of a Murderer) tackles the challenging role of the ex-director, haunted by past failures and now tasked with leading a seemingly impossible rescue mission. He’s joined by rising star Doh Kyung Soo (Along With the Gods” franchise) as the stranded astronaut clinging to life. Kim Hee Ae (“Herstory”) stars as a key decision-maker amid the crisis. The Moon promises a gripping
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
You know what’s better than a flick featuring good ol’ Peter Cushing? A flick featuring Peter Cushing you haven’t seen 3,457 times! To that end Severin’s new boxset, Cushing Curiosities; a 6 disc collection of Cushing-starring rarities will fit that bill nicely indeed! The whole shebang kicks off with 1960’s Cone of Silence… Cushing stars as pilot Clive Judd; a douche-par-excellence that has nothing better to do than fuck with an investigation into a fatal airline disaster. Why would he do that you may ask? Well, he kinda-sorta had everything to do with it and he’s sweating that shit in a major way. Defending the pilot of the doomed craft, Captain George Gort (Bernard Lee) by name, is Captain Hugh Dallas (Michael Craig)… but how pure are his motives what with his being in a romance with Gort’s daughter, Charlotte (Elizabeth Seal)? Directed by Charles Frend (Scott of the Antarctic,The Cruel Sea), Cone of Silence is a solid courtroom-centric thriller
Continue reading →
