from RANKER by Jason Bancroft

#12 The Movie Was Way Ahead Of Its Time – And That Affected Its Success

Session 9 may have been made and released in the midst of the post-Scream slasher boom, but its focus on interiority and building an atmosphere of crawling unease rather than body counts or jump scares feels of a piece with the so-called “elevated horror” of the last few years. Which is to say that it’s closer in tone and style to flicks like Hereditary, The Witch, The Babadook, and maybe especially Blackcoat’s Daughter or Devil’s Candy, than some of the other films that came out the same year it did, such as Jeepers Creepers or Jason X.

“We definitely set out, consciously, when we were writing the script and making the movie, to subvert the conventions of the so-called horror genre that exists now, which, in my opinion, is less horror than it is teen thriller,” Brad Anderson said in a round table discussion. “True horror, I think, deals with dread and menace, you know? It gets under your skin and sort of infects you. Because it’s about … because it should be about characters, I think.”

Unfortunately, the very traits that make Session 9 such an ideal film to revisit today made it a tough sell back in 2001. “Anderson gives Session 9 a different feel than the average horror movie or whodunit,” Scott Tobias wrote at The AV Club, “which may partially explain why it frustrated so many critics at the time, and limped into only a few theaters. Its effects are more subtle, insinuating, and mysterious.”

#10 Indie Horror Legend Larry Fessenden Has A Small Role

A jack of all trades, Larry Fessenden has worked as an actor, director, and/or producer on more than a hundred films, many of them independent horror features. His credits behind the camera include Habit, Wendigo, and Depraved, while his Glass Eye Pix production company has put out films like The House of the Devil, Stake Land, The Innkeepers, Late Phases, and The Ranger. As an actor, he recently played the cat-loving motel owner in Jim Jarmusch’s unlikely zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die.

In Session 9, he appears near the end of the film as the ill-fated Craig McManus, a figure that the other characters have talked about – David Caruso’s Phil wants to bring him onto the job to replace Hank, even before Hank goes missing – but one that we have never seen. He arrives at the hospital in the film’s final reel, just in time to receive an awl (of the type used in frontal lobotomies, which were supposedly pioneered at Danvers) in his eye for the trouble.

Read All the reasons this movie still lands at Ranker

Wishing Good Luck to Ana Asensio whose Glass Eye Pix-produced debut film
MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 SXSW film Festival.
Her sophomore effort GOAT GIRL premiers at the Málaga Festival 3/18/25

La niña de la Cabra | GOAT GIRL

SYNOPSIS Madrid, 1988. Elena faces the recent loss of her grandmother
as she prepares for her First Communion. Her new friendship with Serezade
leads her to question whether the world is really as she has been told it is. 

ANA ASENSIO Spanish actress, screenwriter, and director based in New York. She began her career in Spanish television series. Her first feature film as a screenwriter and director, Most Beautiful Island, won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards. It was presented at over 50 international festivals. She is currently writing her third feature film, developing a television series, and will return to Spain in the spring to participate as an actress in a Netflix series. Her second feature film, La niña de la cabra, is produced by Aquí y Allí Films, Avalon, La niña de la cabra AIE, Avanpost, and financed by ICAA, EURIMAGES, the City of Madrid, the Community of Madrid, RTVE, and FILMIN. 

A Fine Arts painter is convinced that he is a werewolf
wreaking havoc on a small American town under the full moon.

“One of the top 10 Horror Movies of the Year”
—Sean Fennessey, The Big Picture

“One of 14 Underrated Movies of 2024…
Fessenden’s most haunting and poignantly hand-crafted creature feature to date”
—Isaac Feldberg, Rogerebert.com

★★★★★
“one of the most intelligent and interesting werewolf movies of the twenty-first century.”
—Craig Ian Mann, OurCulture

“One of the 13 best horror films of the year”
—Matthew Jackson, AV Club

“appealingly scrappy and thoughtful…
carves out its own moral seriousness about the monsters inside all of us”
—Robert Abele, The Los Angeles Times

Watch under tomorrow’s FULL MOON

Ramping up to GEP’s 40th Anniversary,
we celebrate 40+ projects
that have come from our shop

Teen punks, on the run from the cops and hiding out in the woods,
come up against the local authority – an unhinged park ranger with an axe to grind.

“Jenn Wexler’s feature debut The Ranger is a throwback
to the 80’s woodland slasher, with a feminist twist.”
-SciFi Now

“a pleasant slasher that should be viewed by all.”
-Horror Movies CA

“An anarchistic crowd-pleaser with a nostalgic ’80’s feel.”
-Screen Anarchy

Watch now on SHUDDER

Ramping up to GEP’s 40th Anniversary,
we celebrate 40+ projects
that have come from our shop

“Most Beautiful Island” is a psychological thriller examining the plight of undocumented female immigrants hoping to make a life in New York. Shot on Super 16 with an intimate, voyeuristic sensibility, “Most Beautiful Island” chronicles one harrowing day in the life of Luciana, a young immigrant woman struggling to make ends meet while striving to escape her past. As Luciana’s day unfolds, she is whisked, physically and emotionally, through a series of troublesome, unforeseeable extremes. Before her day is done, she inadvertently finds herself a central participant in a cruel game. Lives are placed at risk, while psyches are twisted and broken for the perverse entertainment of a privileged few.

“Anchored by Asensio’s fearless and gripping performance,
Most Beautiful Island directs an unflinching point of view toward an often invisible population.”
-Los Angeles Times

“a character study of survival in a capitalistic,
hierarchical world that is not completely bereft of humanity…
an intriguing and slow-burn reinvention of survival horror.”
-Austin Chronicle

“Uses restless tracking shots, hectic cityscapes, ambient noise
and sequences of prolonged stillness to conjure unease and dread”.
-The New York Times

Available on Prime Video, Tubi, PlutoTV

Ramping up to GEP’s 40th Anniversary,
we celebrate 40+ projects
that have come from our shop

Inspired by true events… The story of three hunters who mysteriously became the hunted.

“The film is all panicky anxiety and no frills, right down to the grim,
11th-hour cameo appearance by indie filmmaker Larry Fessenden.”
-TV GUIDE

“Devised for minimum fuss and maximum tension,
“Trigger Man” is the little thriller that could.”
-New York Times

“It’s as ruthless and nerve-jangling as any motion picture from this year or last.”
-The Movie Boy

Take cover! Stream TRIGGER MAN on Kanopy!

Ramping up to GEP’s 40th Anniversary,
we celebrate 40+ projects
that have come from our shop

Following a near-death car accident, four friends on their way to a Halloween wedding,venture to a secluded farm for help. Little do they know however, they will soon disturb an ancient evil with far more ghastly plans in store for them!

“Brilliant!
the best zombie bat movie I’ve ever seen.”
—AINT IT COOL NEWS

“West shows us that there is nothing wrong
with the horror-movie archetype as long it’s crafted right.”
—TWITCH

“a wonderful Super 16-mm throwback to the 1970s horror so many of us love and miss…
if I hadn’t known this was a brand new release, I would have sworn
I really was watching an old 70s horror movie.”
—SEVERED CINEMA

WATCH IF YOU DARE

Ramping up to GEP’s 40th Anniversary,
we celebrate 40+ projects
that have come from our shop