HABIT 

For me, Larry Fessenden has always been one of the most original voices in indie horror circles but if I had to choose one film that really brought him to the attention of a wider crowd, then it’s got to be this one.

Here Fessenden plays a self-destructive alcoholic who embarks on a pretty unorthodox relationship with a mysterious Goth nymphomaniac called Anna (Meredith Snaider) who may or may not be a vampire. He never sees her in daylight, and she has a nasty, unsanitary habit of gnawing on him during their enterprising sexual encounters. But, despite all the warning signs, Sam’s addictive personality prevents him from listening to his gut, and he ends up vamping out in the process too.

Much like Romero in the aforementioned Martin, Fessenden keeps all the film’s vampiristic allusions totally open to question and a similar documentary aesthetic lends a terrifying sense of realism; a realism that places much more emphasis on the real-life horrors of addiction than it does on the film’s purported predator. The very real vampire in this story is not Anna, but in fact the alcohol that’s gradually leeching the life out of Sam.

See Full List HERE

From Rue Morgue: Larry Fessenden made his long-awaited return to the director’s chair with DEPRAVED, his take on a classic horror story, and it now has a date to terrorize general audiences.

IFC Midnight will release DEPRAVED, a modern variation on FRANKENSTEIN, to theaters and VOD Friday, September 13; it will continue its festival run before that, including a slot at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. The film stars David Call, Joshua Leonard, Alex Breaux, Ana Kayne, Maria Dizzia, Chloë Levine, Owen Campbell and Addison Timlin; the synopsis: “Suffering from PTSD following his stint as an army medic, Henry [Call] now works feverishly in his Brooklyn laboratory to forget the death he witnessed overseas by creating life in the form of a man cobbled together from body parts. After procuring a brain from an unwitting victim, his creation—Adam [Breaux]—is born. But it soon seems that giving life to Adam was the easy part; teaching him how to live in a dark and troubled world may be perilous. A complex, emotionally shattering tale about what it means to be human, DEPRAVED brings Mary Shelley’s immortal fable fully into the 21st century.” Check out some exclusive words with Fessenden here, and look for more coverage of DEPRAVED at this site during Fantasia!

Visit Rue-Morgue HERE

The Hollywood News predicts DEPRAVED for Frightfest’s 20th Anniversary.
The publication has also expressed their excitement for DEPRAVED
at this year’s Fantasia Festival.  

Our Predictions For Frightfest’s 20th Anniversary

Depraved is the only film featured on the list that I’ve actually already seen. Directed by genre icon Larry Fessenden, Depraved genuinely stole my heart, so much so that it got the full five stars in my original review. Given how hard I fell for this film, I’m desperate to be able to share it with the like-minded folks of Frightfest; I’m keeping all my fingers crossed that it is announced as part of the programming on Thursday. The film itself is a modern reworking of the age old Frankenstein tale, one that taps straight into the emotions with Alex Breaux’ creature a truly tragic innocent victim. My review stated that this was the best retelling of Frankenstein since Shelley – strong words, but ones that I’m sticking by.

Read Full List HERE

The Films That Have Us Very Excited For This Year’s Fantasia Festival

The next film on the list, Depraved, is one that we’ve actually already seen. Written and directed by everyone’s favourite genre star Larry Fessenden, Depraved offers a modern take on the Frankenstein story. Set in modern day New York, our Doctor Frankenstein this time around is a PTSD suffering military medic determined to stop death. Our creature is the hapless soul whom has his brain transplanted into a new ‘body’. The Frankenstein tale may have been told hundreds of times before, but Depraved still feels completely fresh. We reviewed it at What the Fest, and gave it the glowing five-star treatment. A film of true beauty, both creatively and performed, Depraved is anything but what the title suggests. A truly special moment in the lineage of a beloved movie monster, Fessenden has crafted the best take on Frankenstein since Shelley herself. Do not miss this one folks.

Read Full List HERE

Zombified Fessenden hangin’ with the undead.

Cinefex chats with THE DEAD DON’T DIE
Visual Effects Supervisor Alex Hansson. 

Read Q&A here!

Now playing in theaters, check your local listings!

This weekend, in celebration of GEP pal Glenn McQuaid’s Birthday,
we invite you to enjoy his colorful horror-comedy adventure I SELL THE DEAD.

Starring Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Ron Perlman,
John Speredakos and the late Angus Scrimm.

McQuaid’s many collaborations with Glass Eye include co-curating TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE,
visual effects on THE ROOST and THE LAST WINTER, GEP Logos, Comix,
THE TROUBLE WITH DAD as part of Chilling Visions: 5 States of Fear and more!

I Sell The Dead available on iTunes

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR: The Homoeroticism of Fright Night and how it saved my life

At fifteen years of age, and after years of trying to pray it away, the dawning horror that my sexual preference was not going anywhere was met with a deep-seated conviction that the life ahead of me was one to be pitied, feared or laughed at. Because that’s what popular entertainment had always taught me about the homosexual. Of course, the Catholic Church was also to blame, homosexuals went to hell according to them. But even at a young age I knew not to trust a bunch of old men in capes and so it was television and film, two of my biggest passions, that thought me all about what a homosexual was, and as crazy as it now seems, I would rather have killed myself than allow myself to be defined by what I saw.

At fifteen years of age, Fright Night opened in Dublin. From the moment Charlie Brewster’s mom says, “I hear he’s got a live-in carpenter, with my luck, he’s probably gay” all of that changed. Right off the bat, Judy Brewster’s non-judgmental reference to her possibly gay next-door neighbors had me riveted to my seat. There was nothing about her intonation that suggested mockery, fear or pity.

When we get to meet the new neighbors, Jerry Dandridge and Billy Cole, sure, he’s a vampire and Billy’s his ghoul, but they are also charming, funny and, most importantly, intimate, protective and caring of one another. There is the obvious scene where Billy tends to Jerry’s hand injury (on his knees!) but there are many other glances and gestures that led me to believe I was getting my first honest glimpse at a gay couple in film.

Around this time, I was getting into art history and I happened upon a painting by David Hockney called Domestic Scene, it’s a very simple, almost childlike composition of two naked men, one bathing the other in a shower, there’s nothing erotic in the painting other than the simple truth behind it that seemed so subversive to me at the time- that homosexual couples can care for one another just the same as heterosexual couples. This was a new concept for me and it was a game changer because it meant that I could begin to let go of all of the shame and fear that I was holding onto, and while I don’t think Tom Holland sat down to definitively write a homosexual couple, I do think the ambiguity behind Billy and Jerry’s relationship was absolutely a choice. And that choice became footing for me to believe that I might one day find intimacy and even love.

It is hard to express to heterosexual audiences, or even younger queer audiences, what the lack of positive queer representation in film did to kids starved of hope but I will never forget what a revelation Fright Night was to me, I have no doubt that it gave me the strength I needed to eventually kick down my closet door and live my life to my fullest.

Read article on Gayly Dreadful HERE

THE DEAD DON’T DIE still in theaters!!

From The New Yorker: “The Dead Don’t Die” is also a film of extremes. Though Jim Jarmusch is only sixty-six, he is nearly forty years deep into his career—and “The Dead Don’t Die” can be considered his first “late” film, reflecting the kind of radical repudiation of conventions, of familiar practices, of settled ways, of ordinary life and ordinariness as such, that directors make with a sense of end times. With uproarious derisiveness yet also empathetic warmth, Jarmusch borrows a small but solid batch of horror-movie tropes to evoke an existential tabula rasa with (almost) no way out.

Read Full Review HERE

2014, Ethan Hawke and Fessenden on the set of the 
Ti West-ern IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE.

From Entertainment Weekly:  Jenn Wexler’s directorial debut, which recently debuted on the streaming service Shudder, is a mayhem-filled punk-rock slasher with a stand-out performance from Jeremy Holm as the titular wilderness-protector and oddly likable maniac.

See Full List HERE