CategoryForeign
International horror: J-horror, European extremity, Latin American shocks and the films Hollywood keeps remaking.
901 stories
ForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
Hot shot New York City doctor Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco) takes over the investigation of a historical home down Massachusetts way started by his pal Dr. Petersen, who just so happens to have offed himself after making his mistress extinct. I certainly hope the former owner of the house had nothing to do with all that unpleasantness… Anyhow, ol’ Norm packs up his wife Lucy (the loverly Catriona MacColl) and his son Bob (who has been having all manner of weird psychic connections to the house in the form of communications with an odd little girl named Mae (Silvia Collatina)… which as strange as that is, doesn’t even come close to matching the blazing nonsense that is his voice in the English dub) and heads to Mass to take up residence in that dread dwelling. One deranged babysitter (Ania Pieroni) and a trip to the basement later, and it becomes clear that the malevolent presence of the house’s previous owner
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMovies
U.K. shocker The Barge People is director Charlie Steed’s follow-up to his 2017 gorefest Escape from Cannibal Farm. In this new offering, Steed takes the basic premise for the original 1977 version of The Hills Have Eyes, moves the vacation location to British countryside canals, and adds some cool-looking monsters to the mix. The result is a fast-paced effort driven by one brutal onslaught after another, but greatly aided by some nice dramatic sequences involving loss and grief, and the breakdown of class differences. Sisters Kat (Kate Davies-Speak in a riveting performance) and Sophie (Natalie Martins) go on a canal barge trip with their boyfriends. The two men — nice guy Mark (Mark McKirdy) and obnoxious Ben (Matt Swales) — don’t get along from the start. When they accidentally bump the barge of some “You think you’re better than us?” types including hot-headed Ricky (Kane Surry) and Jade (Makenna Guyler) and later encounter the group in a watering hole that
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
What would happen if you were locked between four walls and tortured without explanation? In director Pavel Khvaleev‘s Sleepless Beauty, a woman is kidnapped and subjected to the cruel tests and finds herself on a bloody journey in Russia. Sleepless Beauty stars Polina Davydova, Evgeniy Gagarin, Sergey Topkov, and Andrey Tereshenko. In the Russian film, a young girl named Mila is kidnapped. The unknown abductors keep her in an old garage, talk to her through a loudspeaker and set strict rules: she must not sleep but has to fulfill weird tasks that they’ve prepared for her. It all looks like someone’s sick ideas and gloomy entertainment. Still, the girl doesn’t suspect that she’s part of a ruthless experiment. Aleksandra Khvaleeva, Evgeniy Gagarin, and Elena Gagarina penned the script. The film, described as Saw meets Martyrs, is produced by Elena Talyanskaya, Georgiy Smirnov, Evgeniya Mustafina, and Frank Ellrich. Michael Kraetzer and Nicolás Onetti served as associate producers. Sleepless Beauty will be
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
Lonnie Knutsengripper: Man, Myth and Movies This U.K. comedy focuses on Lonnie Knutsengripper, the fictitious, hard-drinking American producer and director of more than 300 “classic” horror films. He reminisces about two films that he made in England: Interred (1982) and its sequel, the Sh–house Strangler (1990). In the first film, a maniac flushes hapless victims down the toilet in his bar. The victims are “going down the pipe . . . alive!” according to one police officer. In the follow-up movie, the same killer escapes from an insane asylum and targets homosexual victims. As readers might guess, the comedy here is broad and occasionally lewd, but director Richard Rowbotham (who plays Knutsengripper) and screenplay writer David Fenn (who plays the killer) fearlessly keep the gags coming at a frantic clip in this microbudget tribute to microbudget shot-on-video horror features of yesteryear. Off Fleek Teenager Emma (Shona O’Sullivan) is having a “no phones at mealtime” dinner on her birthday with her
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
The fifth edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival takes place February 6–9, 2020 at City Kino Wedding as the fest continues to raise the bar by showcasing horror movies written, directed, and/or produced by women and nonbinary filmmakers. Festival codirector Eli Lewy calls this year’s festival edition the “most expansive and international yet, presenting a wide array of films by visionary filmmakers that represent the diversity and originality that can be found in the current horror landscape.” The exciting program features eight curated short blocks and nine feature films, a horror-inspired self-defense workshop, an exhibition, a festival party with multimedia drag performances, and specialist talks on horror martyrs, made-for-TV horror, “female monsters,” and “bad mothers” in Mexican horror cinema. “Horror is a very elastic term,” said fellow co-director Sara Neidorf, “and we’re excited to discover films that make us question and expand our conceptions of what horror can be, both in ways that are distant from and uncannily near
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, which runs January 10th–19th at Park Inn by Raddison Palace, Southend-on-Sea, U.K., features an incredible program of horror and horror comedy features and shorts from around the world. Following are reviews of three of the short films that will screen at the festival. Bitten When a woman’s (Francine Torres) dog returns home with a bite after a mysterious struggle with an offscreen foe, she lovingly treats the injury before heading out on a first date. While she is away, Iggy the dog transforms into a man (Michael Curran) and the adventures he gets up to in this supernatural comedy are nothing compared to the hijinx that ensue when his owner returns home, to put it mildly. Curran gives a fearless, fully unclothed performance that hilariously captures canine traits and tendencies. Torres deals out a good deal of laughs, too, and the pair provide fine comical chemistry in Bitten, a superbly crafted, great-looking short from director Sarah K
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Look, there’s a shit ton of alternate dimensions out there, and our dude Kiril Maksimov (Nikita Volkov) is in charge of customs to those travelling between universes, although truth be told he misses his life on Earth. It wouldn’t do him much good to go back though as the former shit-hot game designer has had all traces of his existence expunged from those that knew him, and if he ever did venture back he’d be in hot water as the powers that be that control his new position have made sure to frame him for murder on as well. Among all the multiverses (that run the gamut from beachfront paradises to grim gulags), there is one where access is denied (due to revolutionaries looking to create a coup); Arkan, a place a few steps ahead of our own, and a potential learning tool to fix Earth’s various fuck-ups. Naturally Maksimov’s shadow bosses want “in” to Arkan, and soon task our
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
From writer-director Daniel J. Phillips comes the new trailer for the Austrian supernatural thriller Awoken. “A young medical student attempts to cure her brother of a terminal sleep illness called Fatal Familial Insomnia, where you are unable to sleep until you die. On her quest to help him, a more sinister reason for his condition is revealed.” Co-written by Alan Grace, the film stars Erik Thomson, Benson Jack Anthony, Sara West, Felicia Tassone, Adam Ovadia, Rob MacPherson, Matt Crook, and Amelia Douglass. A U.S. release date should be announced soon.
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
At the end of a day of extreme assing around, young monk Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov) gets lost on his way back to the monastery and seeks shelter at the abode of an outrageously old crone. After being lodged in the barn and acting like a prize-winning douche, the crone, in truth a witch, takes our hero for a flight around the Russian countryside and gets severely beaten by the mad monk for her troubles… she also turns hot A.F. A short time later, Khoma is summoned to a Cossack’s home to stand vigil over his daughter as per her dying wish… and just guess who that daughter is? I’ll just tell ya before you lot answer something like “yellow” or “gorilla”… it’s the witch (still in her babe form). So the long and the short of it is, Khoma must watch over the witch’s coffin for three days… which would be hella easy if not for the fact that she
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieProductReviews
The year is coming to a close and officially I have no more video games to review for the year! 2019 was a roller coaster of hits and misses when it came to gaming. There have been exciting announcements that are making gamers excited for the new year like the new Half-Life VR (my prediction is next there will be a Half-Life Mobile THEN we may see Half-Life 3), there’s been hyped up games like Death Stranding that disappointed and confused many and divided Kojima fans. Then there’s our little corner here in the world. I was fortunate enough to review quite a few games this year but it’s that time I have to look back at the ones that matter, the horror ones, and see which titles I’ve reviewed that after completion I would still keep their ratings the same, and which I would probably banish to the shadow realm! Here’s some behind the scenes info for you guys,
Continue reading →
More from Foreign
ForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
Hot shot New York City doctor Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco) takes over the investigation of a historical home down Massachusetts way started by his pal Dr. Petersen, who just so happens to have offed himself after making his mistress extinct. I certainly hope the former owner of the house had nothing to do with all that unpleasantness… Anyhow, ol’ Norm packs up his wife Lucy (the loverly Catriona MacColl) and his son Bob (who has been having all manner of weird psychic connections to the house in the form of communications with an odd little girl named Mae (Silvia Collatina)… which as strange as that is, doesn’t even come close to matching the blazing nonsense that is his voice in the English dub) and heads to Mass to take up residence in that dread dwelling. One deranged babysitter (Ania Pieroni) and a trip to the basement later, and it becomes clear that the malevolent presence of the house’s previous owner
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMovies
U.K. shocker The Barge People is director Charlie Steed’s follow-up to his 2017 gorefest Escape from Cannibal Farm. In this new offering, Steed takes the basic premise for the original 1977 version of The Hills Have Eyes, moves the vacation location to British countryside canals, and adds some cool-looking monsters to the mix. The result is a fast-paced effort driven by one brutal onslaught after another, but greatly aided by some nice dramatic sequences involving loss and grief, and the breakdown of class differences. Sisters Kat (Kate Davies-Speak in a riveting performance) and Sophie (Natalie Martins) go on a canal barge trip with their boyfriends. The two men — nice guy Mark (Mark McKirdy) and obnoxious Ben (Matt Swales) — don’t get along from the start. When they accidentally bump the barge of some “You think you’re better than us?” types including hot-headed Ricky (Kane Surry) and Jade (Makenna Guyler) and later encounter the group in a watering hole that
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
What would happen if you were locked between four walls and tortured without explanation? In director Pavel Khvaleev‘s Sleepless Beauty, a woman is kidnapped and subjected to the cruel tests and finds herself on a bloody journey in Russia. Sleepless Beauty stars Polina Davydova, Evgeniy Gagarin, Sergey Topkov, and Andrey Tereshenko. In the Russian film, a young girl named Mila is kidnapped. The unknown abductors keep her in an old garage, talk to her through a loudspeaker and set strict rules: she must not sleep but has to fulfill weird tasks that they’ve prepared for her. It all looks like someone’s sick ideas and gloomy entertainment. Still, the girl doesn’t suspect that she’s part of a ruthless experiment. Aleksandra Khvaleeva, Evgeniy Gagarin, and Elena Gagarina penned the script. The film, described as Saw meets Martyrs, is produced by Elena Talyanskaya, Georgiy Smirnov, Evgeniya Mustafina, and Frank Ellrich. Michael Kraetzer and Nicolás Onetti served as associate producers. Sleepless Beauty will be
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
Lonnie Knutsengripper: Man, Myth and Movies This U.K. comedy focuses on Lonnie Knutsengripper, the fictitious, hard-drinking American producer and director of more than 300 “classic” horror films. He reminisces about two films that he made in England: Interred (1982) and its sequel, the Sh–house Strangler (1990). In the first film, a maniac flushes hapless victims down the toilet in his bar. The victims are “going down the pipe . . . alive!” according to one police officer. In the follow-up movie, the same killer escapes from an insane asylum and targets homosexual victims. As readers might guess, the comedy here is broad and occasionally lewd, but director Richard Rowbotham (who plays Knutsengripper) and screenplay writer David Fenn (who plays the killer) fearlessly keep the gags coming at a frantic clip in this microbudget tribute to microbudget shot-on-video horror features of yesteryear. Off Fleek Teenager Emma (Shona O’Sullivan) is having a “no phones at mealtime” dinner on her birthday with her
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
The fifth edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival takes place February 6–9, 2020 at City Kino Wedding as the fest continues to raise the bar by showcasing horror movies written, directed, and/or produced by women and nonbinary filmmakers. Festival codirector Eli Lewy calls this year’s festival edition the “most expansive and international yet, presenting a wide array of films by visionary filmmakers that represent the diversity and originality that can be found in the current horror landscape.” The exciting program features eight curated short blocks and nine feature films, a horror-inspired self-defense workshop, an exhibition, a festival party with multimedia drag performances, and specialist talks on horror martyrs, made-for-TV horror, “female monsters,” and “bad mothers” in Mexican horror cinema. “Horror is a very elastic term,” said fellow co-director Sara Neidorf, “and we’re excited to discover films that make us question and expand our conceptions of what horror can be, both in ways that are distant from and uncannily near
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMovies
Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, which runs January 10th–19th at Park Inn by Raddison Palace, Southend-on-Sea, U.K., features an incredible program of horror and horror comedy features and shorts from around the world. Following are reviews of three of the short films that will screen at the festival. Bitten When a woman’s (Francine Torres) dog returns home with a bite after a mysterious struggle with an offscreen foe, she lovingly treats the injury before heading out on a first date. While she is away, Iggy the dog transforms into a man (Michael Curran) and the adventures he gets up to in this supernatural comedy are nothing compared to the hijinx that ensue when his owner returns home, to put it mildly. Curran gives a fearless, fully unclothed performance that hilariously captures canine traits and tendencies. Torres deals out a good deal of laughs, too, and the pair provide fine comical chemistry in Bitten, a superbly crafted, great-looking short from director Sarah K
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Look, there’s a shit ton of alternate dimensions out there, and our dude Kiril Maksimov (Nikita Volkov) is in charge of customs to those travelling between universes, although truth be told he misses his life on Earth. It wouldn’t do him much good to go back though as the former shit-hot game designer has had all traces of his existence expunged from those that knew him, and if he ever did venture back he’d be in hot water as the powers that be that control his new position have made sure to frame him for murder on as well. Among all the multiverses (that run the gamut from beachfront paradises to grim gulags), there is one where access is denied (due to revolutionaries looking to create a coup); Arkan, a place a few steps ahead of our own, and a potential learning tool to fix Earth’s various fuck-ups. Naturally Maksimov’s shadow bosses want “in” to Arkan, and soon task our
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers
From writer-director Daniel J. Phillips comes the new trailer for the Austrian supernatural thriller Awoken. “A young medical student attempts to cure her brother of a terminal sleep illness called Fatal Familial Insomnia, where you are unable to sleep until you die. On her quest to help him, a more sinister reason for his condition is revealed.” Co-written by Alan Grace, the film stars Erik Thomson, Benson Jack Anthony, Sara West, Felicia Tassone, Adam Ovadia, Rob MacPherson, Matt Crook, and Amelia Douglass. A U.S. release date should be announced soon.
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
At the end of a day of extreme assing around, young monk Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov) gets lost on his way back to the monastery and seeks shelter at the abode of an outrageously old crone. After being lodged in the barn and acting like a prize-winning douche, the crone, in truth a witch, takes our hero for a flight around the Russian countryside and gets severely beaten by the mad monk for her troubles… she also turns hot A.F. A short time later, Khoma is summoned to a Cossack’s home to stand vigil over his daughter as per her dying wish… and just guess who that daughter is? I’ll just tell ya before you lot answer something like “yellow” or “gorilla”… it’s the witch (still in her babe form). So the long and the short of it is, Khoma must watch over the witch’s coffin for three days… which would be hella easy if not for the fact that she
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieProductReviews
The year is coming to a close and officially I have no more video games to review for the year! 2019 was a roller coaster of hits and misses when it came to gaming. There have been exciting announcements that are making gamers excited for the new year like the new Half-Life VR (my prediction is next there will be a Half-Life Mobile THEN we may see Half-Life 3), there’s been hyped up games like Death Stranding that disappointed and confused many and divided Kojima fans. Then there’s our little corner here in the world. I was fortunate enough to review quite a few games this year but it’s that time I have to look back at the ones that matter, the horror ones, and see which titles I’ve reviewed that after completion I would still keep their ratings the same, and which I would probably banish to the shadow realm! Here’s some behind the scenes info for you guys,
Continue reading →
