THR: Ojai Playhouse Launches ‘Left Turn,’ a Free Indie Film Showcase Featuring ‘Our Hero, Balthazar,’ ‘Crumb Catcher’ and More
‘$Positions,’ ‘Our Hero, Balthazar,’ ‘Fucktoys,’ ‘Situations’ and ‘The Napa Boys’ are among the movies on the lineup, which will be followed by live Q&As with participating filmmakers.
Following the recent success of independent films like Obsession and Backrooms, Ojai Playhouse is launching Left Turn, a new programming series aimed at spotlighting emerging independent filmmakers, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal.
The inaugural event, set for Aug. 8, is a free one-day showcase featuring screenings of independent releases followed by live Q&As with participating filmmakers. It will take place at Ojai Playhouse, one of California’s oldest independent theaters. Built in 1914, the venue is among the state’s first single-screen cinemas.
The lineup includes $Positions, Our Hero, Balthazar, Fucktoys, Situations, The Napa Boys and Crumb Catcher, the latter of which earned a spot on THR’s list of the best horror movies of 2024. Making their Ojai debuts are Crumb Catcher, Situations and Our Hero, Balthazar. Journalist Daniel Spielberger (NBC News, Esquire) will moderate each filmmaker discussion.
“Thrilled to host this eclectic lineup and welcome the filmmakers and fans of indie cinema to the Ojai Playhouse,” theater owner and programmer David Berger said in a statement.
Creative branding consultant and designer Harrison Neef, added: “The visual direction for Left Turn was heavily inspired by drive-in movie nights and the feeling of community around sharing cinema as a culture and pastime. Playing on bright colors and DIY-collage style image compositions, we’ve pulled from the nostalgia of yesterday to highlight the films of tomorrow.”
Faith can be a dangerous thing in the new movie by ALONE WITH YOU’s Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks.
Dark Sky Films has announced that it will release BLOOD SHINE to theaters and on digital platforms August 21. Written and directed by Bennett, who also stars, and Brooks, it also features David Call (DEPRAVED), Brendan Sexton III, genre filmmaker/mogul Larry Fessenden (who discusses the film here), Toby Poser (MOTHER OF FLIES, HELLBENDER), Kyle Minshew and Maurice P. Kerry. The synopsis: “Set in a desolate expanse of upstate New York, BLOOD SHINE centers around Clara [Bennett], a religious zealot who worships light in lonely, sacred rituals. When problematic horror director Brighton West [Call] travels upstate to finish the screenplay for his next film, a chance encounter with Clara leads him into a hallucinatory web of faith, flesh, and the sublime.”
Depraved ending explained reveals why Adam leaves Alex’s necklace for Lucy, how Alex survives within him, and who the film’s truly depraved characters are
Depraved ends with Adam leaving Alex’s necklace for Lucy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before disappearing. The gift confirms that Alex’s memories and attachment to Lucy remain inside Henry’s reconstructed man, but Adam develops a separate identity through trauma and his own accelerated education.
Written, directed, edited, and produced by Larry Fessenden, the 2019 horror film updates Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through a Brooklyn experiment involving war trauma and pharmaceutical greed. Alex Breaux plays Adam, while David Call portrays Henry and Joshua Leonard plays Polidori.
Chloë Levine appears as Lucy and Owen Campbell plays Alex. In Depraved, Adam returns the necklace as a farewell rather than an attempt to restart Alex’s relationship. He knows the police are hunting him and that approaching Lucy could endanger her. The gesture also contradicts his claim that he will learn not to care, proving that his creators have not erased his capacity for affection.
Why does Adam return Alex’s necklace to Lucy after escaping Polidori’s mansion?
The final scene of Depraved completes a chain that begins before Adam exists. Lucy gives Alex the necklace during their argument about commitment and children. Alex remarked, “You keep setting me up to be a disappointment.” He leaves before they reconcile, and Polidori has him stabbed because Henry needs a fresh brain. Henry places Alex’s brain inside a body assembled from corpses and names the revived man Adam.
Adam learns language, music, anatomy, and table tennis under Henry’s supervision. However, images of Lucy enter his dreams. Polidori tests those memories by taking him to the Met gift shop where she works. Adam does not consciously recognize Lucy, but he scratches his head exactly as Alex did. The gesture establishes that habits and memories have survived the transplant.
Henry gives Adam the necklace and explains that it proves he was loved. Adam searches Henry’s recordings and discovers that Polidori murdered Alex and supplied his brain. He finds Alex’s wallet, sees Lucy’s photograph, and calls her. However, he cannot explain who he has become.
After the mansion bloodshed, Adam understands that returning to Lucy as Alex is impossible. He has Alex’s brain, but his reconstructed body, new education, crimes, and suffering have created another person. Leaving the necklace tells Lucy that Alex did not willingly abandon her. Adam gives her closure without demanding recognition or a place in her life.
Fessenden and Breaux tracked Adam’s movement, emotions, vowels, and consonants to show a child learning inside an adult body. Depraved was shot in 24 days, inside a Gowanus walk-up. Its flashes of branching light were influenced by phosphenes and research into how the brain forms perception and memory.
How does Alex’s stolen brain turn Henry’s experiment into a violent reckoning?
Depraved presents Henry as a former field medic trying to overcome the soldiers he could not save. His motive comes from guilt, but he ignores where Polidori obtains body parts. Polidori supplies the Rap-X medication and sees Adam as a pharmaceutical product.
At the museum, Polidori teaches Adam that civilization repeatedly chooses violence. He later introduces him to alcohol, cocaine, and se*ual desire while secretly telling him to continue Rap-X. Henry stops the drug, while Liz gives Adam intimacy he cannot understand.
Adam later meets Shelley, misreads her rejection, and accidentally strangles her. He carries her body to Henry and demands that she be revived. Henry refuses, incapacitates Adam, and buries him beside Shelley with Liz’s help. Adam survives because Henry’s procedure and medication have made his body resistant to death.
Adam returns to Polidori’s property and kills Liz. Polidori then shoots Georgina, murders Henry, and prepares to blame Adam. Henry had taught Adam, “Gravity is your friend.” Adam repeats the lesson before throwing Polidori to his death.
What do Adam’s final words reveal about the truly depraved characters?
The ending of Depraved shows how Henry and Polidori shaped a confused being who depended on them for moral guidance. Henry cares for Adam but abandons that responsibility when the experiment becomes dangerous. Polidori encourages appetite, rivalry, and violence because profit matters more than Adam’s welfare.
Adam stated, “I will hide and disappear and learn not to care. This is what they have taught me.” Yet the necklace disproves his claim. His final action serves Lucy rather than himself.
The title Depraved therefore applies to the human system surrounding Adam. Polidori murders for money, investors reduce life to ownership, and Henry accepts crimes to complete his work. Adam becomes violent, but he begins as a dependent child. Leaving the necklace proves that Alex’s love survives within him, even when Alex’s former life cannot be recovered.
GEP Pal Joe Maggio premieres one-man show THE BRUSH across the pond at Edinburgh Fringe UK.
Maggio, Glass Eye collab, writer & director of BITTER FEAST, BLISS, etc.
and Tales From Beyond The Pale eps MAN ON THE LEDGE, RAM KING, CANNIBALS,
THE SLAUGHTERED, has this to say about THE BRUSH:
From Maggio: The Brush tells the story of how I tried to keep up with a pack of feral British comedians at Russell Howard’s 2019 Las Vegas bachelor party (you call it a ‘stag do’), nearly died in the process and had an existential crisis that led me to question the meaning of life, emojis, regret, failure, proper urinal protocol and the exquisite sadism that is the American healthcare system. Part confession, part apology, part love letter to life, The Brush is a bittersweet, darkly humorous reflection on friendship, middle-aged ennui and the quantum nature of the universe.
Every year, Film at Lincoln Center celebrates the best in genre filmmaking with their annual Scary Movies series. Running since 2002, the film series offers moviegoers the best in suspense, gore, and terror of all kinds, and FANGORIA is excited to exclusively present the trailer for this year’s series, which begins on August 12 in New York City.
This year’s series opens with Casper Kelly’s new film Buddy, starring Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace, and will close with The Threshing, a new film from Sean Mannion about a couple who find themselves trapped in an unusual, secluded commune. They will be accompanied by the North American premieres of Bodyhackers, The Trek, Something Real, and Superbuhei, as well as the US premieres of Veins and The Weed Eaters.
Also included on the lineup are Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon’s Family Movie, Raymond Creamer’s Goody Goody, Dan Boyle’s Never After Dark, and The Peril at Pincer Point. They are joined by several special new 4K restoration premieres: the 40th anniversary version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the 25th anniversary version of Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo, Brian Damude’s Sudden Fury, and the world premiere 35mm print of Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam.
Beck Underwood joins Filmmaker Mixer to discuss her debut feature film, The Lure of Ponies, and a filmmaking journey that spans more than 25 short films, stop-motion animation, production design, and decades of independent filmmaking. In this conversation, Beck shares lessons learned from creating animated shorts, curating film festivals, and transitioning from short-form storytelling to a feature-length film. Filmmakers will gain practical insights into visual storytelling, creative persistence, and building a sustainable artistic career. Whether you’re an animator, indie filmmaker, or festival enthusiast, this episode offers a fascinating look into a unique creative path.
Glass Eye Pix is the fierce independent NYC-based production outfit headed by award-winning art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. Read more...
