In partnership with Forbidden Planet, the series kicks off with an advance screening of Larry Fessenden’s “Depraved.”

IFC Midnight and Forbidden Planet announced today the launch of a new sneak-peek screening series and genre film night at IFC Center called Planet Midnight. The new monthly series will kick off September 12 with New York-based horror legend Larry Fessenden’s new film “Depraved” in advance of its Friday, September 13 release. Dedicated to championing defiantly independent genre films and collaborating with partners who share that passion, Planet Midnight will host a variety of undistributed films and new IFC Midnight titles as well as films from other distributors.

For its first screening, Planet Midnight will show “Depraved,” a modern take on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” by way of Brooklyn. A fixture of New York’s indie film scene, veteran genre writer-director Fessenden teamed up with indie producer and fellow filmmaker Joe Swanberg for his unique vision of the literary classic.

Planet Midnight screenings will be free-of-charge for IFC Midnight newsletter subscribers and include giveaways, special guest appearances, and complimentary popcorn. More information can be found here.

Indiewire has the scoop

From Joseph Earp at THE UNDERLOOK:

Depraved, like most of Larry Fessenden’s films, starts out as a story that you definitely know: a tormented man named Henry (David Call) assembles a pile of dead bodies and — with a jolt of electricity — brings the mess of flesh to life.

So yes, this is Fessenden’s Frankenstein picture, and like James Whale before him, the New York-based auteur has a lot on his mind about the nature of mortality, art, and the existential terror that comes when you’ve replaced gods with scientists.

But unlike Whale, Fessenden doesn’t have to worry about rushing to his big final setpiece. Fessenden gets to the burning mill eventually, of course — or at least, his version of it — and one of the great pleasures of the film is guessing when it will click into the grooves of Mary Shelley’s story. Yet, for the most part, the film is remarkably bloodless. It’s almost painterly, as Adam (Alex Breaux), the reanimated monster at the heart of the film, visits art galleries, discovers drugs, and is slowly introduced to the pleasures and pains of life. Which of course, is the other Fessenden trademark: a constant sense of surprise.

Depraved has enough to say about the nature of art — and the people who fund it — that it can’t help feeling autobiographical, at least in an oblique sense. But this is no navel-gazing work of self-obsession. Instead, it’s a remarkably open-minded film, one fascinated with people, and ultimately convinced, despite everything else, that they can be good.

The resulting film isn’t just one of Fessenden’s most astounding projects. It’s one of the most unexpectedly extraordinary American movies of the last ten years. That sounds faintly ridiculous to say of a film that opens with a brutal murder and closes with a ten minute climax of pure, fiery destruction. But hasn’t that always been the magic trick of Larry Fessenden? Stripping the recognisable of its parts, until suddenly everything is new, and fresh, and wonderful.

It’s a masterpiece, basically. I talked to Fesenden about it.

Read interview here

Glass Eye Pix & Forager Film Company
are pleased to announce Larry Fessenden’s DEPRAVED

Coming to Theaters & VOD Friday the 13th of September 

Check Local Listings!

Special screenings at IFC Center, NYC

Q&A with Fessenden and guests
follows these screenings

Thursday, Sept 12 – 9:30PM showtime
(PLANET MIDNIGHT Sneak Peek Screening)
Friday, Sept 13 – 10:00PM showtime
Saturday, Sept 13 – 10:00PM showtime

UK distribution outfit Blue Finch has boarded UK and Ireland distribution on Larry Fessenden’s horror Depraved.

The company is planning a winter release on the title, which recently had its UK premiere at horror festival FrightFest. It has also played festivals including Fantasia and Sydney.

Genre sales outfit Yellow Veil Pictures handles rights and struck the deal with Blue Finch.

Depraved is a contemporary re-imaging of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, centering on a field surgeon (played by David Call) who creates a man out of body parts in a makeshift lab in Brooklyn. After being successful in his endeavour but consumed with remorse over the results, he tries to protect his creation (played by Alex Breaux) from the world. Also starring are Joshua Leonard, Ana Kayne, Chloe Levine, and Addison Timlin.

The project was produced by Fessenden, Chadd Harbold and Jenn Wexler for New York outfit Glass Eye Pix and executive produced by Joe Swanberg, Peter Gilbert, Andrew Mer, and Edwin Linker of Forager Film Company.

Read Full Article HERE

This Labor Day Weekend, revisit Kelly Reichardt’s first film, RIVER OF GRASS.
Starring Lisa Bowman and Larry Fessenden. Now streaming on Hulu. 

Congratulations to Reichardt for her latest film FIRST COW
unspooling at New York Film Fest in the Fall!

Thoughtful discussion of Fessenden’s 1997 film HABIT.

From Supermassive Games, the developers who brought you UNTIL DAWN,
comes a brand new interactive drama horror game MAN OF MEDAN.
Screenplay penned by Graham Reznick and Fessenden! 

Read Review HERE

“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear”-Frankenstein’s Monster

After hearing about the new Fessenden Frankenstein pastiche I thought I knew what I was in for.  Fessenden has made a career of reworking old horror tropes into new and relevant material.  Whether it is through directing/acting in classics like Habit in the 90’s or shepherding new talent through producing movies like The Ranger (one of my favorites from last year) Fessenden has earned his stellar reputation.  Depraved was written and directed by Fessenden and in many ways captures so much of what is unique about this horror icon.

The film starts by introducing us to the lovers Lucy (played by the incomparable Chloe Levine) and Alex as they work through some of their issues. The relationship feels genuine, mostly because it feels complicated. It’s not perfect and while the film only gives us a few minutes of it is enough to sustain the entire movie. If the audience did not buy it as a legitimate relationship as the movie looks to leverage it later the movie wouldn’t have the emotional stakes that make it so effective. Soon after Alex leaves Lucy’s apartment he is stabbed and we wake up later with him in someone else’s body (er rather lots of other peoples bodies). Our modern Frankenstein is named Adam and is the result of our mad scientist, Henry. Adam and Henry’s relationship is perhaps the most interesting as Henry helps Adam rediscover his humanity while also questioning his own.

Much like US-China relations in the 1960’s (a phrase I am excited to use in relation to a horror movie) the two bond over Ping Pong. Alex Breaux plays Adam with such pathos we can’t help but connect with him.  He is isolated in a city of millions of people and that isolation feels particularly relevant to folks who suffer from depression or anxiety (myself included).  While the movie plays out in a traditional way Fessenden seeks to adapt the story to a modern day sensibility.  We get small psychedelic nuance which leads to us to question the camera as a reliable narrator.  In the final moments the movie makes a choice about its heroes and villains and in many ways it tries to offer the denouement that Shelley story never could.

The plot while feeling pretty traditional gives rise to a set of themes and ideas that feel squarely rooted in this moment in time.  Henry’s creation is a hybrid of Big Pharma and an ongoing war that he has been unable to mentally come home from.  As much as Adam is dealing with the trauma of having his brain and body transplanted the trauma that Henry is working through is the real driver of the plot.  Henry came home from the war a different person (while we don’t know which war he was fighting in we get a lot of dessert flashbacks that give us a clue despite Fessenden never giving us a name).  He was a medic who despite the best training and incredible talent still lost friends.  As a result he has dedicated himself to bringing those friends back no matter the cost.  At its core Depraved is a story about post-traumatic stress and the perpetual scars it causes.  Not unlike Adam’s scars Henry’s will eventually fade but they ALWAYS be there shaping the person he becomes.  These scars also prevent him from connecting with others around him.  Depraved is unabashedly an antiwar movie and as we have generations of soldiers fighting the same war it seems the movie is particularly germane to our current situation.

The practical effects of Adam’s scars and transplantations let us know Fessenden is leaning into the Frankenstein comparisons.  The psychedelia, themes, and ending let us know Fessenden is aiming for something larger.  The movie isn’t a little r or big R romantic film, although the relationship we witness in the beginning is often used a way to represent Adam’s desire to get back to the way things were, whatever that was.  It’s this complicated nature with the source material that makes the movie so interesting.  Is it a love story,….maybe?  Is it a creation story…..maybe?  Is it a monster story….ABSOLUTELY.  Although I am less convinced the movie wants to explore that in the same way other Frankenstein movies do.  Sure, Henry created Adam but the story wants even less to talk about their relationship than to talk about how the two exist together.  They are tethered at the beginning of the film but every minute from that original moment is a moment they move farther apart.  In that way it parallels an actual parent/child story and makes the fact that Fessenden’s son, Jack, appears in the film even more poignant.  As Jack Fessenden continues down his own career path as a filmmaker perhaps his father recognizes how difficult, painful, and necessary this transition can be.

Depraved is another feather to add to Fessenden’s cap of impressive genre cinema.  He continues to grow as an auteur but perhaps even more important he continues to grow the genre by supporting new and innovative stories, directors, and other artists.  Depraved is the latest combination of all of these things and like all great creations uses the best of the old with vision of something new.  Depraved is out in theatres everywhere September 13.

Read Review Here

From Daily Dead: Shudder and RLJE Films are teaming up to release a wide range of horror films from Shudder’s catalogue on VOD and Digital HD in the US, and they’re unleashing eclectic scares this September with the release of Andy Mitton’s The Witch in the Window on September 3rd and Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher The Ranger on September 24th.

Daily Dead has two free iTunes download codes of both The Witch in the Window and The Ranger, visit Daily Dead to see how you can enter the contest!

Read article HERE