Movie Web: “The story is emotional, the acting is well-done, and the creatures & gore effects look fantastic. The film keeps its audience invested well after the watch, as the filmmakers released prequel shorts on Youtube that dive into the character’s backstories. The film donned one sequel, The Stakelander (2016), which wasn’t bad!”
STAKE LAND is streaming on Peacock and Amazon Prime. Watch the Stake Land Webisodes available on the Glass Eye Youtube channel.
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In 2001, the creature would be revitalized in popular culture with Larry Fessenden‘s Wendigo, a cult classic best known for popularizing the beast’s animal-like appearance. Though it’s more of an eerie family drama than a traditional creature feature, the movie interprets the Wendigo as a shapeshifting nature spirit that’s neither good nor evil, ultimately serving as a heroic figure for the young protagonist. The unique design here steals the show, with the monster sporting a creepy silhouette and a deer-like head, complete with the now-iconic antlers. While the movie isn’t widely known, you’ve almost certainly seen its take on the monster.
Ironically, Fessenden was unhappy with the creature’s on-screen presence.
Fessenden would actually go on to revisit the Wendigo several times in his future projects, putting a ghostly incarnation of the creature in his ecologically-minded The Last Winter and having Doug Jones play an ill-fated cannibal in the Fear Itself episode Skin and Bones. The director also contributed to and appeared in Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn, which is arguably the most popular piece of Wendigo-centric media ever made. While none of these takes are 100% mythologically accurate, it’s always fun to see how Fessenden re-shapes the Wendigo to suit his storytelling needs.
Ron Perlman is hard to forget. As soon as his face appears on screen, you immediately recall where you’ve seen him before. And more likely than not, you’re remembering Perlman from a genre movie. He’s accumulated handfuls of them over the last forty years… So, in anticipation of This Game’s Called Murder’s release, we look back at ten of the most memorable horror movies starring the one and only Ron Perlman.
The Last Winter (2006)
Larry Fessenden’s fascination with Wendigos endures in his eco-horror movie, The Last Winter. This 2006 slow burn stars Perlman as Ed Pollack, the head of an isolated ANWR drilling base. When strange and terrible things happen to them, Ed and his peers are left to wonder if this is the work of something supernatural. Have angry spirits been released and are they now targeting anyone who means the area harm? The Last Winter is one of Perlman’s more somber horror movies, which is rife with atmosphere and cosmic dread. On top of that is a transparent message about global warming.
I Sell the Dead (2008)
Perlman stars alongside Larry Fessenden and Dominic Monaghan in Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead. The 2008 movie is a reunion for the director and actor; Perlman appeared in The Last Winter while McQuaid worked behind the scenes. This low-budget horror-comedy is set during 1850s Ireland — yet filmed on Staten Island — and concerns a pair of foolish corpse snatchers. Told through flashbacks, Monaghan shares his story with the peculiar Father Francis Duffy (Perlman). Fans of gallows humor might appreciate this hidden gem.
LATE PHASES BTS Photo by Bahram Foroughi
2018: At the Glass Eye HQ:
Fessenden and filmworkers Rigo Garay and Chris Skotchdopole
prep pickup shots for DEPRAVED.
Rent or buy it on Google Play, Vudu or Amazon.
Who would have thought my pulse would race watching a guy work on his home computer during the pandemic? That’s what happened during this taut conspiracy thriller written and directed by Christian Nilsson. (Don’t confuse it with the other new horror film called “Dashcam.”)
It’s Halloween night, and Jake (an intense Eric Tabach) is a video editor working out of his New York City apartment on a local TV news story about a fatal traffic stop that involved a police officer and a former state attorney general. When Jake gets an email from the state’s press office marked “Confidential,” he opens it to find dashcam evidence suggesting that what happened on the road that night might have been an assassination.
The spooked-out Jake, who dreams of being a reporter, leaves his apartment to look for a clue he thinks is hidden in Washington Square Park. But what’s with the car idling outside his apartment?
Nilsson has cited Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” as an inspiration, and it shows. “Dashcam” is at its creepiest when just audio and video clips, and Jake’s surgical adjustments to them, steer the paranoia-driven story. Over 82 unnerving minutes, Nilsson squeezes big suspense out of seemingly throwaway moments, as when Jake just sits and listens to audio tracks. The muted underscoring that sounds like it’s coming from the next apartment adds a sinister sonic edge.
Featuring Fessenden as “the Attorney General”
War is Hell but FOXHOLE is not a horror film. The Hollywood Reporter revises Headline.
The Films of Larry Fessenden: Vol 2
Wendigo & The Last Winter
The Films of Larry Fessenden: Vol 1
Habit & No Telling
The Innkeepers
Limited Edition Blu-Ray
The House Of The Devil
Collector Edition Blu-Ray
WENDIGO Figures
From Glass Eye Toyz
CRUMB CATCHER Blu-Ray
From Arrow Video
BLACKOUT BLU-RAY
From Dark Sky Selects
FOXHOLE BLU-RAY
From Vinegar Syndrome
9 Tales From Beyond The Pale
on Amazon!
THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION Blu-ray
on Amazon!
BENEATH Blu-ray & DVD
on Amazon!
