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

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Focusing on SLASH Filmfestival 2023's Short Films

Focusing on SLASH Filmfestival 2023’s Short Films

The 14th edition of Austria’s superb SLASH Filmfestival is underway! From September 21 through October 1, this renowned fest screens a selection of incredible short films from around the globe along with its fine feature films. From the terrifying to the hilarious, the SLASH Filmfestival shorts programs are a highlight of the fest. Following is the official press announcement. For more information including a full listing of films scheduled, visit https://slashfilmfestival.com/en/. The programs Five carefully curated programs and various shorts before features bring a total of 48 short films from all corners of the world to Vienna. With over 34 World, International, European or Austrian premieres, the 14th edition of SLASH Filmfestival has its largest short-film lineup ever and sees the festival take new initiatives to celebrate the short form in its own right. In addition to program mainstays Fantastic Shorts Competition Chapters 1 and 2, SLASH is delighted to bring back “My First SLASH” to continue guiding young viewers

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 21, 2023
Spoiler-Free Film Review: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose

Spoiler-Free Film Review: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose

Writer/director Adam Sigal’s Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose (U.K., 2023) is not a horror film, but for fellow fans of Fortean phenomena, it’s an entertaining watch based on the true-life story of Gef the Talking Mongoose, AKA the Dalby Spook. It wavers from the amusing to the comical to the philosophical throughout, never quite settling on any of these tones. Simon Pegg portrays Dr. Nandor Fodor, who was a real-life parapsychologist and psychoanalyst. Fodor learns about Gef from Dr. Harry Price (Christopher Lloyd playing another real-life person, a psychic researcher and author), who implores him to travel from London to a rural area of the United Kingdom to investigate the absurd-sounding mystery. Price claims to have heard Gef speak without ever seeing the animal, so Fodor is skeptical from the get-go. Fodor travels with his assistant Anne (Minnie Driver) to the farm of the Irvings (Tim Downie and Ruth Connell), who claim that Gef (voice of Neil Gaiman) is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 20, 2023
A Mysterious Darkness Consumes 'The Tower' This Month (Trailer)

A Mysterious Darkness Consumes ‘The Tower’ This Month (Trailer)

An apartment building is plunged into darkness, and people are forced to choose a side in the French horror-thriller The Tower. This bone-chilling horror brings a whole new meaning to being scared of the dark. Inhabitants of a tower block wake up one morning to find a black veil shrouding all the windows and doors of the building – a black veil that devours anything and anyone who tries to go through it. Stuck inside together, families organize themselves, but time passes, and nothing changes. They gradually return to their most primitive instincts and must fight to survive. Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux, this action-packed film stars Angéle Mac Hatik, Kylian Larmonie, Merveille Nsombi, Nicolas Pignon, Igor Kovalsky, Marie Rémond, and Ahmed Abdel Laoui. Witness a fight for survival when The Tower debuts on September 25, 2023, on VOD and Digital.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Sep 16, 2023
Aberrance: First Mongolian Horror To Be Released In US Gets An October Release (Trailer)

Aberrance: First Mongolian Horror To Be Released In US Gets An October Release (Trailer)

Freestyle Digital Media has now acquired the North American theatrical rights. It has set a theatrical release date for the Mongolian horror feature film Aberrance, the first Mongolian horror film to be released in the US. In the film, “when city dwellers Erkhmee and Selenge arrive at an old cabin deep in the Mongolian wilds, a sense of foreboding settles over the couple. Erkhmee’s seemingly keen desire to provide a safe and nurturing space for his artistic wife is at odds with the violent actions and mannerisms their quizzical neighbor observes. As the neighbor digs deeper for the reason behind this aberrant behavior, only more questions and trouble arise.” Aberrance is the theatrical directing debut film by Baatar Batsukh, who also co-wrote the film with Erdene Orosoo (Kinsman of the Sun) and Byambasuren Ganbat. The film stars an ensemble Mongolian cast of Selenge Chadraabal (Six Feet), Erkhembayar Ganbat, Yalalt Namsrai (Snowman), Oyundary Jamsranjav (Disorder), Badamtsetseg Batmunkh Bayarsanaa Batchuluun and Ariunbyamba

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Sep 15, 2023
Film Review: A BLOODTHIRSTY KILLER (Film at Lincoln Center’s Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s Series)

Film Review: A BLOODTHIRSTY KILLER (Film at Lincoln Center’s Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s Series)

Writer/director Yong-Min Lee’s South Korean horror film A Bloodthirsty Killer is absolutely bonkers! First-time viewers will join protagonist Shi-Mok Lee (Ye-Chun Lee) in having no idea what is going on for many of the opening scenes, and after that it’s nigh on impossible to guess what is coming next, straight through to the rather sappy ending. Businessman Lee is first seen wandering through a deserted museum where he finds nothing but a melting painting of his first wife Ae-ja (Geum-Bong Do) and is then transported by a mysterious taxi driver to a secluded house where he witnesses a murder at the hands of the ghost of Ae-ja. I don’t want to give much more away because the ride with A Bloodthirsty Killer is a wild one, full of what-could-possibly-happen-next? surprises, so suffice it to say that the supernatural — in more forms than one — and familial drama are among the elements at play, with all-in performances ranging from the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 13, 2023
Movie Review: City of the Living Dead (1980) - Cauldron 4K/DVD

Movie Review: City of the Living Dead (1980) – Cauldron 4K/DVD

New York City medium Theresa (Adelaide Aste) is up to her usual shit… namely conducting a séance when something goes dreadfully wrong… one of the participants, Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl, 1981’s The Beyond and The House By the Cemetery… all parts of Lucio Fulci’s “Gates of Hell” trilogy, of which City of the Living Dead is the first part… though none of the films are connected except by general themes) up and dies of fright after she has a vision of a priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) hanging himself in a New England cemetery (or the closest Savannah. Georgia can come to faking it) as the dead rise. Enter: Journalist Peter Bell (Christopher George, star of stage, screen, and Juan Piquer Simón’s 1982 batshit slasher flick Pieces) who snoops into Mary’s case, only to find she is still alive just as she’s being buried! Before you can say “H.P. Lovecraft”, our heroes consult with Theresa and are soon off to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 10, 2023
Movie Review: Gangnam Zombie (2023) - WellGo USA Blu-ray

Movie Review: Gangnam Zombie (2023) – WellGo USA Blu-ray

During the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, two dudes get the shit-hot (minus the hot) idea of robbing a shipping container down South Korea way. Once said container is pried open a feral cat leaps out and attacks one of the would-be criminals, who then turns into a flesh-hungry zombie-like creature (of the fast moving variety) before falling in the drink and floating un-merrily down the stream to the posh Gangnam district. This spells impending disaster for former Taekwondo ass-kicker now office worker Hyeon-seok (Ji Il-joo) and his officemate/unrequited crush Min-jeong (Park Ji-yeon), because guess who shows up at work (after some wacky hijinks accompanied by cartoon music, naturally)? It’s the cat attack dude… c’mon, did any of you actually get that wrong? Anyhow, he’s now in the building biting mother fuckers willy-nilly and creating even more of a monster-based mess, and the impossibly bitchy owner of the building has ordered the doors sealed shut so no one will associate

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 10, 2023
Movie Review: The Girl From Rio (1969) - Blue Underground 4K/Blu-ray combo

Movie Review: The Girl From Rio (1969) – Blue Underground 4K/Blu-ray combo

Arrogant ass/our hero/James Bond surrogate Jeff Sutton (Richard Stapley) arrives in Rio with a hot wad of stolen dough. This factoid becomes known to local crime-lord Sir Macius (George Sanders, the voice of the tiger Shere Khan in Disney’s 1967 animated adaptation of The Jungle Book) who sends out his masked assassins (one of many pieces of imaginative comic book style art design this flick possesses) to grab the cash, which puts the kibosh on his hot date with manicurist Lesley (Maria Rohm, a regular in the films of absolute legend Jess Franco… who just so happened to direct this film as well). Speaking of Lesley, she is in fact a resident of the retro-futuristic city Femina run by the female super-villain Sunanda (Shirley Eaton, whom you may remember covered in gold in 1964’s Bond flick, Goldfinger)… who just so happens to be assembling an army of women warriors (who dress as if they just walked out of an Alex

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 9, 2023
Spoiler-Free Reviews: COLD MEAT and THE DIVE (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: COLD MEAT and THE DIVE (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

COLD MEAT (2023) Cold Meat should be gone into — no pun intended — as cold as possible. Learning too much about director Sébastien Drouin’s winter-set horror thriller before watching it would be doing a great disservice to yourself. Suffice it to give you the initial set-up: traveler David (Allen Leech) is traveling through an extremely snowy area in Colorado. He stops off at a diner, where he calmly intervenes when waitress Ana (Nina Bergman) is physically and verbally harassed by her drunken ex Vincent (Yan Tual), who leaves without further incident. When David gets back on the road, Vincent pursues him in a larger vehicle and David strands his car in deep snow when trying to elude the violent man. What follows is a combination of survival horror — taking place mostly in David’s car and its immediate surroundings — and another fear-fare element that would be a big spoiler to give away here, and there may be something

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 8, 2023
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival Announces Its 2023 Lineup

Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival Announces Its 2023 Lineup

Fear-fare fanatics in Australia will have an abundance of unsettling selections from which to choose when A Night of Horror International Film Festival presents its 2023 edition in Sydney from September 29th to October 1st. Scintillating slices of cinema from around the world are scheduled. Following is the official press announcement. Australia’s longest running showcase of horror and dark genre cinema, A Night of Horror International Film Festival (ANOH) is back for its 15th year, with a frighteningly fantastic program. From 28th September to 1st October, the Festival will take over Dendy Cinema, screening the very best in freaky, macabre and spine-chilling film from around the globe. Spanning across four days, ANOH is gearing up to present a total of ten features and 31 short films, hailing from different corners of the world, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Lithuania, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Denmark, India, and New Zealand. “The calibre, ingenuity, and range of submissions this year truly

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 6, 2023

More from Foreign

Focusing on SLASH Filmfestival 2023's Short Films

Focusing on SLASH Filmfestival 2023’s Short Films

The 14th edition of Austria’s superb SLASH Filmfestival is underway! From September 21 through October 1, this renowned fest screens a selection of incredible short films from around the globe along with its fine feature films. From the terrifying to the hilarious, the SLASH Filmfestival shorts programs are a highlight of the fest. Following is the official press announcement. For more information including a full listing of films scheduled, visit https://slashfilmfestival.com/en/. The programs Five carefully curated programs and various shorts before features bring a total of 48 short films from all corners of the world to Vienna. With over 34 World, International, European or Austrian premieres, the 14th edition of SLASH Filmfestival has its largest short-film lineup ever and sees the festival take new initiatives to celebrate the short form in its own right. In addition to program mainstays Fantastic Shorts Competition Chapters 1 and 2, SLASH is delighted to bring back “My First SLASH” to continue guiding young viewers

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 21, 2023
Spoiler-Free Film Review: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose

Spoiler-Free Film Review: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose

Writer/director Adam Sigal’s Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose (U.K., 2023) is not a horror film, but for fellow fans of Fortean phenomena, it’s an entertaining watch based on the true-life story of Gef the Talking Mongoose, AKA the Dalby Spook. It wavers from the amusing to the comical to the philosophical throughout, never quite settling on any of these tones. Simon Pegg portrays Dr. Nandor Fodor, who was a real-life parapsychologist and psychoanalyst. Fodor learns about Gef from Dr. Harry Price (Christopher Lloyd playing another real-life person, a psychic researcher and author), who implores him to travel from London to a rural area of the United Kingdom to investigate the absurd-sounding mystery. Price claims to have heard Gef speak without ever seeing the animal, so Fodor is skeptical from the get-go. Fodor travels with his assistant Anne (Minnie Driver) to the farm of the Irvings (Tim Downie and Ruth Connell), who claim that Gef (voice of Neil Gaiman) is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 20, 2023
A Mysterious Darkness Consumes 'The Tower' This Month (Trailer)

A Mysterious Darkness Consumes ‘The Tower’ This Month (Trailer)

An apartment building is plunged into darkness, and people are forced to choose a side in the French horror-thriller The Tower. This bone-chilling horror brings a whole new meaning to being scared of the dark. Inhabitants of a tower block wake up one morning to find a black veil shrouding all the windows and doors of the building – a black veil that devours anything and anyone who tries to go through it. Stuck inside together, families organize themselves, but time passes, and nothing changes. They gradually return to their most primitive instincts and must fight to survive. Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux, this action-packed film stars Angéle Mac Hatik, Kylian Larmonie, Merveille Nsombi, Nicolas Pignon, Igor Kovalsky, Marie Rémond, and Ahmed Abdel Laoui. Witness a fight for survival when The Tower debuts on September 25, 2023, on VOD and Digital.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Sep 16, 2023
Aberrance: First Mongolian Horror To Be Released In US Gets An October Release (Trailer)

Aberrance: First Mongolian Horror To Be Released In US Gets An October Release (Trailer)

Freestyle Digital Media has now acquired the North American theatrical rights. It has set a theatrical release date for the Mongolian horror feature film Aberrance, the first Mongolian horror film to be released in the US. In the film, “when city dwellers Erkhmee and Selenge arrive at an old cabin deep in the Mongolian wilds, a sense of foreboding settles over the couple. Erkhmee’s seemingly keen desire to provide a safe and nurturing space for his artistic wife is at odds with the violent actions and mannerisms their quizzical neighbor observes. As the neighbor digs deeper for the reason behind this aberrant behavior, only more questions and trouble arise.” Aberrance is the theatrical directing debut film by Baatar Batsukh, who also co-wrote the film with Erdene Orosoo (Kinsman of the Sun) and Byambasuren Ganbat. The film stars an ensemble Mongolian cast of Selenge Chadraabal (Six Feet), Erkhembayar Ganbat, Yalalt Namsrai (Snowman), Oyundary Jamsranjav (Disorder), Badamtsetseg Batmunkh Bayarsanaa Batchuluun and Ariunbyamba

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Sep 15, 2023
Film Review: A BLOODTHIRSTY KILLER (Film at Lincoln Center’s Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s Series)

Film Review: A BLOODTHIRSTY KILLER (Film at Lincoln Center’s Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s Series)

Writer/director Yong-Min Lee’s South Korean horror film A Bloodthirsty Killer is absolutely bonkers! First-time viewers will join protagonist Shi-Mok Lee (Ye-Chun Lee) in having no idea what is going on for many of the opening scenes, and after that it’s nigh on impossible to guess what is coming next, straight through to the rather sappy ending. Businessman Lee is first seen wandering through a deserted museum where he finds nothing but a melting painting of his first wife Ae-ja (Geum-Bong Do) and is then transported by a mysterious taxi driver to a secluded house where he witnesses a murder at the hands of the ghost of Ae-ja. I don’t want to give much more away because the ride with A Bloodthirsty Killer is a wild one, full of what-could-possibly-happen-next? surprises, so suffice it to say that the supernatural — in more forms than one — and familial drama are among the elements at play, with all-in performances ranging from the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 13, 2023
Movie Review: City of the Living Dead (1980) - Cauldron 4K/DVD

Movie Review: City of the Living Dead (1980) – Cauldron 4K/DVD

New York City medium Theresa (Adelaide Aste) is up to her usual shit… namely conducting a séance when something goes dreadfully wrong… one of the participants, Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl, 1981’s The Beyond and The House By the Cemetery… all parts of Lucio Fulci’s “Gates of Hell” trilogy, of which City of the Living Dead is the first part… though none of the films are connected except by general themes) up and dies of fright after she has a vision of a priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) hanging himself in a New England cemetery (or the closest Savannah. Georgia can come to faking it) as the dead rise. Enter: Journalist Peter Bell (Christopher George, star of stage, screen, and Juan Piquer Simón’s 1982 batshit slasher flick Pieces) who snoops into Mary’s case, only to find she is still alive just as she’s being buried! Before you can say “H.P. Lovecraft”, our heroes consult with Theresa and are soon off to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 10, 2023
Movie Review: Gangnam Zombie (2023) - WellGo USA Blu-ray

Movie Review: Gangnam Zombie (2023) – WellGo USA Blu-ray

During the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, two dudes get the shit-hot (minus the hot) idea of robbing a shipping container down South Korea way. Once said container is pried open a feral cat leaps out and attacks one of the would-be criminals, who then turns into a flesh-hungry zombie-like creature (of the fast moving variety) before falling in the drink and floating un-merrily down the stream to the posh Gangnam district. This spells impending disaster for former Taekwondo ass-kicker now office worker Hyeon-seok (Ji Il-joo) and his officemate/unrequited crush Min-jeong (Park Ji-yeon), because guess who shows up at work (after some wacky hijinks accompanied by cartoon music, naturally)? It’s the cat attack dude… c’mon, did any of you actually get that wrong? Anyhow, he’s now in the building biting mother fuckers willy-nilly and creating even more of a monster-based mess, and the impossibly bitchy owner of the building has ordered the doors sealed shut so no one will associate

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 10, 2023
Movie Review: The Girl From Rio (1969) - Blue Underground 4K/Blu-ray combo

Movie Review: The Girl From Rio (1969) – Blue Underground 4K/Blu-ray combo

Arrogant ass/our hero/James Bond surrogate Jeff Sutton (Richard Stapley) arrives in Rio with a hot wad of stolen dough. This factoid becomes known to local crime-lord Sir Macius (George Sanders, the voice of the tiger Shere Khan in Disney’s 1967 animated adaptation of The Jungle Book) who sends out his masked assassins (one of many pieces of imaginative comic book style art design this flick possesses) to grab the cash, which puts the kibosh on his hot date with manicurist Lesley (Maria Rohm, a regular in the films of absolute legend Jess Franco… who just so happened to direct this film as well). Speaking of Lesley, she is in fact a resident of the retro-futuristic city Femina run by the female super-villain Sunanda (Shirley Eaton, whom you may remember covered in gold in 1964’s Bond flick, Goldfinger)… who just so happens to be assembling an army of women warriors (who dress as if they just walked out of an Alex

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Sep 9, 2023
Spoiler-Free Reviews: COLD MEAT and THE DIVE (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: COLD MEAT and THE DIVE (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

COLD MEAT (2023) Cold Meat should be gone into — no pun intended — as cold as possible. Learning too much about director Sébastien Drouin’s winter-set horror thriller before watching it would be doing a great disservice to yourself. Suffice it to give you the initial set-up: traveler David (Allen Leech) is traveling through an extremely snowy area in Colorado. He stops off at a diner, where he calmly intervenes when waitress Ana (Nina Bergman) is physically and verbally harassed by her drunken ex Vincent (Yan Tual), who leaves without further incident. When David gets back on the road, Vincent pursues him in a larger vehicle and David strands his car in deep snow when trying to elude the violent man. What follows is a combination of survival horror — taking place mostly in David’s car and its immediate surroundings — and another fear-fare element that would be a big spoiler to give away here, and there may be something

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 8, 2023
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival Announces Its 2023 Lineup

Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival Announces Its 2023 Lineup

Fear-fare fanatics in Australia will have an abundance of unsettling selections from which to choose when A Night of Horror International Film Festival presents its 2023 edition in Sydney from September 29th to October 1st. Scintillating slices of cinema from around the world are scheduled. Following is the official press announcement. Australia’s longest running showcase of horror and dark genre cinema, A Night of Horror International Film Festival (ANOH) is back for its 15th year, with a frighteningly fantastic program. From 28th September to 1st October, the Festival will take over Dendy Cinema, screening the very best in freaky, macabre and spine-chilling film from around the globe. Spanning across four days, ANOH is gearing up to present a total of ten features and 31 short films, hailing from different corners of the world, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Lithuania, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Denmark, India, and New Zealand. “The calibre, ingenuity, and range of submissions this year truly

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 6, 2023
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