CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
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The fine folks at Third Window Films release some of the wildest, weirdest Japanese genre fare imaginable. The company has just announced a special edition release of two films from names that J-horror devotees will instantly recognize: Hiroshi Takahashi, Hirohisa Sasaki, and Takashige Ichise. Brace yourselves for Crazy Lips and Gore from Outer Space! Coming September 14, 2026. Following is the official press announcement. A set of totally insane films from Japan’s Omega Pictures (Audition, Love Exposure), produced by Takashige Ichise (Juon, Dark Water), written by Hiroshi Takahashi (The Ring series) and directed by Hirohisa Sasaki (Tales of Terror from Tokyo). This 2-disc special edition release (limited to just 2,000 units) contains new director approved restorations of both these J-horror cult classics. CRAZY LIPS (2000) 発狂する唇 Satomi and her family are hounded by the press when her brother is accused of a vicious killing spree. Desperate to prove his innocence, Satomi goes to a psychic for help. The price the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Suzuki = Bakudan (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis from https://japansociety.org/events/suzukibakudan/ Based on the bestselling novel by Go Katsuhiro, SUZUKI=BAKUDAN is a big-budget blockbuster centered on Tagosaku Suzuki (Jiro Sato), a mysterious drunk who claims he can see the future. After successfully predicting a bomb will go off in Tokyo, Suzuki leads the police in a game of wits — they must solve his riddles to stop further explosions. While police fan out over the city to defuse these bombs, a young detective (Yuki Yamada) challenges Suzuki to uncover the truth behind his predictions. Is he psychic, is he lucky, is he a criminal mastermind, is he a con man? Or is he something worse? Jiro Sato delivers a tour-de-force performance and was honored with Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards for his role in SUZUKI=BAKUDAN. Review I had just seen Suzuuki=Bakudan’s star Jirō Satō as the antagonist of the thriller Nameless at another festival just a week before
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ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
If movies like Jumanji or Zathura taught us anything, it’s that whenever you find a dusty, ancient board game rotting away in a place it clearly doesn’t belong, you do not play it. You leave it alone. You put it back. Naturally, the characters in Chanathip Wongpoltree’s new Thai horror flick Ghost Board missed that memo entirely. The film follows a group of friends who stumble upon an ancient board game hidden deep inside a remote temple. Instead of calling an archaeologist or walking away like sensible human beings, they roll the dice. What happens? They accidentally summon a vengeful, ancient spirit and turned the tabletop game into a literal death trap. Now, to keep from becoming permanent game pieces, the crew has to figure out how to finish the game before it finishes them. The Team on the Board Directed by Wongpoltree, the film boasts a dynamic young Thai cast ready to face the supernatural music, including Panisara Rikulsurakan
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNewsThriller
London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Official Synopsis In the house where a father and daughter live together, a heavy silence lingers, and an unbridgeable distance remains. The father toils at an inexplicable task, while the daughter goes through her days in a quiet routine. But soon, a strange change overtakes his body. Review Kenichi Ugana has earned the title of auteur. He has been crafting independent genre features and shorts since 2010 that range from bizarre shockers (Visitors; Extraneous Matter: Complete Edition; Love Will Tear Us Apart) to a heartwarming rom-com ode to filmmaking (I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn), some decidedly more accessible than others. His latest film Oscillation looks at the strained relationship between a man (Haruki Itabashi) and his adult daughter (Reika Matsubara) and treads in both existential and body horror. The theme of distance and lack of connection runs throughout Oscillation. Not only do the father and daughter rarely speak, communicating through notes to each other almost
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Official synopsis Three decades ago, the Rose of Nevada vanished at sea, along with its crew. Now, it has returned. In a remote fishing village, its reappearance is embraced as an auspicious sign, with the local citizens convinced the luck of their economically devastated community may turn, if only the ship sails again. Joining the crew is Nick (George MacKay), desperate to provide for his young family, and Liam (Callum Turner), a mysterious drifter eager to escape his past. After a successful voyage, they return to harbor, only to find that nothing is as they remember it. Review Filmmaker Mark Jenkin is masterful at crafting haunting dramas with eerie genre-film elements shot and set in and around England’s coastal Cornwall area. He follows up his 2022 psychological horror Enys Men (reviewed here) with the gripping time-slip mindbender Rose of Nevada. As mentioned in the official synopsis above, the unexplained sudden reappearance of a fishing boat that was presumed lost in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
MARGINALIA (U.S., 2025) Official synopsis: Summoned to Karnstein Abbey to serve as a mourner at the funeral of their recently deceased abbess, Sister Trista discovers a dark secret involving demons, witchcraft and killer rabbits. But Sister Trista has a secret of her own. Nunsploitation, a Hammer Films’ horror vibe, and the retro charm and surreal qualities of filmmaker Guy Maddin’s work: Writer/director/editor/cinematographer Mark Beal’s beautifully bizarre Marginalia has all this and more. This black-and-white supernatural feature will win cinephiles over with its atmosphere to spare, which includes impressive practical effects work, cool stop-motion creatures, and wonderful medieval set design, costumes, and illustrations. Composer Alexander Hellonious’s evocative score fits the proceedings perfectly. Beal kicks things off right away with one of the most imaginative demises you’re likely to see this year. The cast members do a fine job with their committed performances, led by Jessica Bell as Sister Trista. Beal does assured work at the helm, and as he did with
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Official Synopsis An indie rock band struggling to make its mark finds a possible meal ticket in an infectious new guitar riff. Unfortunately, it’s also a cursed melody that just so happens to open a portal to another, much scarier dimension. Review Writer/director Sam Scott mashes up horror elements, weird science, and razor-sharp comedy in the Canadian feature Turn It Up!. The result is a fun, frenetic film that boasts some cool rock numbers to accompany its frenzied goings-on. Alternative rock group members AC (Justine Nelson), Berg (Jonathan Craig), Court (Gwenlyn Cumyn), and Russ (Xavier Lopez) are doing the unsigned band grind when a song that may or may not be called “The Odyssey” — depending on which member you talk to — catches the attention of famous manager Miss Vee (Liv Collins). She promises them their way to a big break, but this being a genre film, naturally she has ulterior motives. Scott delivers a nice twist on the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Lilico (Erika Sawajiri, a real-life model with her own troubled history who plays the role to perfection) has the modeling world by the short n’ curlies. Every woman wants to be her, every man wants to fuck her (good luck on that one unless you are a vacuous status-seeking pretty boy star or producer that can advance her career)… and while she rules the glamour world, her success may be fleeting… Controlled by an alcoholic “stage mom”, Lilico’s enduring flawless beauty is the result of experimental medical techniques that must be maintained regularly or else things begin to go shockingly south… and those rapidly spreading bruises are going to take a toll on her already fractured mental state! Brought to the screen by former fashion photographer turned director Mika Ninagawa (working from a screenplay by Arisa Kaneko adapting the manga from Kyôko Okazaki), Helter Skelter does the whole beauty and fame are fleeting bag and takes things to dynamic extremes.
Continue reading →
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ForeignMoviesNewsProduct
The fine folks at Third Window Films release some of the wildest, weirdest Japanese genre fare imaginable. The company has just announced a special edition release of two films from names that J-horror devotees will instantly recognize: Hiroshi Takahashi, Hirohisa Sasaki, and Takashige Ichise. Brace yourselves for Crazy Lips and Gore from Outer Space! Coming September 14, 2026. Following is the official press announcement. A set of totally insane films from Japan’s Omega Pictures (Audition, Love Exposure), produced by Takashige Ichise (Juon, Dark Water), written by Hiroshi Takahashi (The Ring series) and directed by Hirohisa Sasaki (Tales of Terror from Tokyo). This 2-disc special edition release (limited to just 2,000 units) contains new director approved restorations of both these J-horror cult classics. CRAZY LIPS (2000) 発狂する唇 Satomi and her family are hounded by the press when her brother is accused of a vicious killing spree. Desperate to prove his innocence, Satomi goes to a psychic for help. The price the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Suzuki = Bakudan (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis from https://japansociety.org/events/suzukibakudan/ Based on the bestselling novel by Go Katsuhiro, SUZUKI=BAKUDAN is a big-budget blockbuster centered on Tagosaku Suzuki (Jiro Sato), a mysterious drunk who claims he can see the future. After successfully predicting a bomb will go off in Tokyo, Suzuki leads the police in a game of wits — they must solve his riddles to stop further explosions. While police fan out over the city to defuse these bombs, a young detective (Yuki Yamada) challenges Suzuki to uncover the truth behind his predictions. Is he psychic, is he lucky, is he a criminal mastermind, is he a con man? Or is he something worse? Jiro Sato delivers a tour-de-force performance and was honored with Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards for his role in SUZUKI=BAKUDAN. Review I had just seen Suzuuki=Bakudan’s star Jirō Satō as the antagonist of the thriller Nameless at another festival just a week before
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
If movies like Jumanji or Zathura taught us anything, it’s that whenever you find a dusty, ancient board game rotting away in a place it clearly doesn’t belong, you do not play it. You leave it alone. You put it back. Naturally, the characters in Chanathip Wongpoltree’s new Thai horror flick Ghost Board missed that memo entirely. The film follows a group of friends who stumble upon an ancient board game hidden deep inside a remote temple. Instead of calling an archaeologist or walking away like sensible human beings, they roll the dice. What happens? They accidentally summon a vengeful, ancient spirit and turned the tabletop game into a literal death trap. Now, to keep from becoming permanent game pieces, the crew has to figure out how to finish the game before it finishes them. The Team on the Board Directed by Wongpoltree, the film boasts a dynamic young Thai cast ready to face the supernatural music, including Panisara Rikulsurakan
Continue reading →
DocumentariesEventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesNewsThriller
London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Official Synopsis In the house where a father and daughter live together, a heavy silence lingers, and an unbridgeable distance remains. The father toils at an inexplicable task, while the daughter goes through her days in a quiet routine. But soon, a strange change overtakes his body. Review Kenichi Ugana has earned the title of auteur. He has been crafting independent genre features and shorts since 2010 that range from bizarre shockers (Visitors; Extraneous Matter: Complete Edition; Love Will Tear Us Apart) to a heartwarming rom-com ode to filmmaking (I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn), some decidedly more accessible than others. His latest film Oscillation looks at the strained relationship between a man (Haruki Itabashi) and his adult daughter (Reika Matsubara) and treads in both existential and body horror. The theme of distance and lack of connection runs throughout Oscillation. Not only do the father and daughter rarely speak, communicating through notes to each other almost
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Official synopsis Three decades ago, the Rose of Nevada vanished at sea, along with its crew. Now, it has returned. In a remote fishing village, its reappearance is embraced as an auspicious sign, with the local citizens convinced the luck of their economically devastated community may turn, if only the ship sails again. Joining the crew is Nick (George MacKay), desperate to provide for his young family, and Liam (Callum Turner), a mysterious drifter eager to escape his past. After a successful voyage, they return to harbor, only to find that nothing is as they remember it. Review Filmmaker Mark Jenkin is masterful at crafting haunting dramas with eerie genre-film elements shot and set in and around England’s coastal Cornwall area. He follows up his 2022 psychological horror Enys Men (reviewed here) with the gripping time-slip mindbender Rose of Nevada. As mentioned in the official synopsis above, the unexplained sudden reappearance of a fishing boat that was presumed lost in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
MARGINALIA (U.S., 2025) Official synopsis: Summoned to Karnstein Abbey to serve as a mourner at the funeral of their recently deceased abbess, Sister Trista discovers a dark secret involving demons, witchcraft and killer rabbits. But Sister Trista has a secret of her own. Nunsploitation, a Hammer Films’ horror vibe, and the retro charm and surreal qualities of filmmaker Guy Maddin’s work: Writer/director/editor/cinematographer Mark Beal’s beautifully bizarre Marginalia has all this and more. This black-and-white supernatural feature will win cinephiles over with its atmosphere to spare, which includes impressive practical effects work, cool stop-motion creatures, and wonderful medieval set design, costumes, and illustrations. Composer Alexander Hellonious’s evocative score fits the proceedings perfectly. Beal kicks things off right away with one of the most imaginative demises you’re likely to see this year. The cast members do a fine job with their committed performances, led by Jessica Bell as Sister Trista. Beal does assured work at the helm, and as he did with
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Official Synopsis An indie rock band struggling to make its mark finds a possible meal ticket in an infectious new guitar riff. Unfortunately, it’s also a cursed melody that just so happens to open a portal to another, much scarier dimension. Review Writer/director Sam Scott mashes up horror elements, weird science, and razor-sharp comedy in the Canadian feature Turn It Up!. The result is a fun, frenetic film that boasts some cool rock numbers to accompany its frenzied goings-on. Alternative rock group members AC (Justine Nelson), Berg (Jonathan Craig), Court (Gwenlyn Cumyn), and Russ (Xavier Lopez) are doing the unsigned band grind when a song that may or may not be called “The Odyssey” — depending on which member you talk to — catches the attention of famous manager Miss Vee (Liv Collins). She promises them their way to a big break, but this being a genre film, naturally she has ulterior motives. Scott delivers a nice twist on the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Lilico (Erika Sawajiri, a real-life model with her own troubled history who plays the role to perfection) has the modeling world by the short n’ curlies. Every woman wants to be her, every man wants to fuck her (good luck on that one unless you are a vacuous status-seeking pretty boy star or producer that can advance her career)… and while she rules the glamour world, her success may be fleeting… Controlled by an alcoholic “stage mom”, Lilico’s enduring flawless beauty is the result of experimental medical techniques that must be maintained regularly or else things begin to go shockingly south… and those rapidly spreading bruises are going to take a toll on her already fractured mental state! Brought to the screen by former fashion photographer turned director Mika Ninagawa (working from a screenplay by Arisa Kaneko adapting the manga from Kyôko Okazaki), Helter Skelter does the whole beauty and fame are fleeting bag and takes things to dynamic extremes.
Continue reading →
