Fessenden will serve as executive producer on horror filmmaker Drew Daywalt’s upcoming THE HURTING MAN.

From the Press Release:

Writer/director Drew Daywalt (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, “Death Valley,” Bedfellows) has just inked a deal with producer Eric B. Fleischman of EBF Productions (Ritual, Two-Bit Waltz) to direct the horror feature The Hurting Man, based on Daywalt’s script. Indie horror luminary Larry Fessenden (Habit, The Last Winter) is attached as executive producer. The film goes into production this fall.

The Hurting Man follows the story of a police officer who tragically finds his family murdered after a failed 911 call and now must work to save their souls from a demonic boogieman haunting his childhood home.

“I wrote this script and kept it close to my chest,” says Daywalt, “because this one was written from my own worst terrors, both as a parent of small children and also tapping into my own childhood fears of a hideously costumed boogieman. This one’s going to scare the hell out of everyone. I promise. I can say that because it really scares me, and I’m letting my fear guide me on this one.”

Says Fessenden, “There’s a certain kind of genuinely terrifying old-school campfire scare that Daywalt gets right in his Fear Factory gems, and I can’t wait to see him nail those chills in a long form film.”

Stay tuned for news on the cast. Check out the movie’s official Facebook page, and get more coverage at FEARnet.com.

Glass Eye Pix joins MPI’s Dark Sky Films and Zak Zeman’s Site B Productions on LATE PHASES, starring STAKE LAND vet Nick Damici.

From the Press Release:

MPI’s Dark Sky Films, the preeminent independent producer-distributor of high-quality genre films, announced in Berlin that actor Nick Damici (Stake Land, Premium Rush, We Are What We Are) is set to star in the upcoming LATE PHASES, directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Here Comes The Devil, Penumbra). Shooting will start this spring.

MPI’s Dark Sky, who is co-producing LATE PHASES with Zak Zeman’s Site B Productions, has also announced that they will bring on Glass Eye Pix. Previous Dark Sky and Glass Eye collaborations include successful genre films such as The House of the Devil, Stake Land, The Innkeepers, and others. Zak Zeman comes in fresh off the heels of his Sundance success with V/H/S/2. Brent Kunkle will produce for Glass Eye Pix after his success with last year’s The Comedy.

MPI Executive Vice President Greg Newman said, “Nick Damici was a key factor in the success of Stake Land, and he’ll bring that same unforgettable presence to this new film.”

Zak Zeman said, “Nick Damici fits perfectly into this role. Combining forces with MPI and Glass Eye will bring LATE PHASES to a whole new level.”

Said Glass Eye’s Larry Fessenden. “We’re excited to be working with MPI Dark Sky again with a great script and Damici in the lead. I have admired Zak Zeman’s recent work and look forward to joining forces to bring Bogliano’s vision to the screen.”

Check out the coverage on Dread Central.

Fessenden appears to channel Mr. Hyde as he and Graham Reznick present at the Second Annual New York Videogame Critics Circle Awards.

See more photos from the evening and check out the winning video games at NYGameCritics.com.

On Feburary 5th, the NYU Game Center, in cooperation with NYU-Poly’s Game Innovation Lab, is hosting the Second Annual New York Video Game Critics Circle Awards. The event will be held on February 5th at the Pfizer Auditorium at NYU-Poly.

Daily Show writer Daniel Radosh has been tapped to host the event, which will feature performances by MC Frontalot and Schaffer the Darklord. Presenters include horror filmmakers Larry Fessenden and Graham Resnick, as well as The Magician author and Time magazine book critic Lev Grossman. To round out the event, six members of the NYVGCC will “hold court” to discuss the games and trends of 2012.

After the awards show, there will be an afterparty hosted in the lobby of the auditorium, which will include a performance by Control Group, a new band from Bastion composer Darren Korb.

We hope to see you all there! The show is free and open to the public, but space is limited and RSVP is required in order to attend. 

RSVP HERE

Actor Dominic Monaghan speaks about I SELL THE DEAD in a recent interview with Huffington Post. Dominic played Arthur, apprentice to Willie Grimes (Fessenden), in Glenn McQuaid’s tale of grave robbers and ghouls.

Count down to Valentine’s Day with a naughty LOVE ADVENTure peekaboo calendar. Experience 14 nights of love and romance as you open a die-cut window each day displaying a couple engaged in amour.

A selection of some of the most enjoyable positions from the Kama Sutra come to life in this happy house of pleasure. Make Valentine’s Day last a fortnight, or bring two weeks of pizzazz to your relationship any time of year! All brought to you with love by artist Brahm Revel and Glass Eye Pix! Get your very own.

Alverson joins Producer Mike Ryan, Filmmaker Robert Berger, Slamdance President and Co-Founder Peter Baxter, and Host Ricky Camilleri in a conversation about independent cinema, the growth of Sundance, and how Alverson’s film, THE COMEDY, was received when it played Sundance 2012.

From Merve Emre at the Los Angeles Review of Books:

FOR MANY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS today, “Most Walked-Out Film at Sundance 2012” is a perverse badge of honor, and Rick Alverson’s deceptively titled The Comedy wears it with pride. That much seems clear from the film’s opening shot: a slow-mo wrestling match between two fat, drunk, and nearly naked men, wheezy 30-somethings whose unlovely flesh swells and falls in time to Donnie and Joe Emerson’s soulful 1979 hit “Baby.” Unlike the sweet young things that Donnie and Joe croon about in the background, Alverson’s wrestlers are terrible to behold. They slap each other’s fat asses and even fatter bellies and watch, transfixed, as their bodies jiggle under the camera’s sepia watch. They spit beer on one another’s backs, and gape as unnaturally sharp colors reflect off their own spittle. Silently, they howl. Maybe they laugh, but who can tell, really? The scene closes with the camera on Alverson’s leading man Tim Heidecker — one half of the cult comedy team known as “Tim and Eric” — who has tucked his penis in between his legs off-screen. Mangina thus secured, Heidecker executes an expressive arm-flap worthy of any preening ballerina, and for a brief moment, he is lit as radiantly as any wispy black swan wannabe could ever hope to be.

According to reports from Sundance 2012, it was about this time that audience members began fleeing the theater in angry, muttering droves.

This review is, in no small part, a defense of The Comedy… Continue Reading

Recent cinema has seen a small handful of movies about cults or communities — “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Sound Of My Voice,” “The Master” among them — but perhaps the eeriest or strangest of them all is the upcoming “Jug Face.” Set to premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, we have the first exclusive trailer for the movie, and….well, just watch it, and you’ll see what we mean.

Starring Lauren Ashley Carter (in what is described as a breakout role), Sean Young, Sean Bridgers, Larry Fessenden and Daniel Manche, the story takes place in a backwoods community, where the face revealed on a newly crafted ceramic mug points to the person that must be sacrificed to the pit. Ada, who is pregnant with her younger brother’s child, is determined to save her own life and that of her child, but the pit will keep killing people in the community unless she sacrifices herself.

The project heads to Park City with some heat already, thanks to being the grand prize winner of the 2011 Slamdance Screenwriting & Teleplay Competition. Chad Crawford Kinkle wrote and directed the picture that will have its premiere on Wednesday, January 23rd. See what you’re in for and watch the trailer below.