+Wharton Tiers Ensemble– Producer, drummer, band leader – Wharton Tiers has been going strong since moving to NYC in the early 80s. His heavy, hypnotic beats have propelled the legendary Glenn Branca Ensemble for years, as well as his own guitar ensemble and other projects.
+Zwei Null Zwei– All-star cast of indie rockers including members of Savak, Ted Leo, Girls Against Boys. This newer band takes the synth, indie rock ride with motorik beats propelling their minimal post-punk.
+Cell\Borg– This weekend marks the debut live shows from this bi-coastal (Brookyln/Los Angeles) synth/wave/kosmiche band. It also the record release party for their debut LP “Smash Blips” on Dot Dash Sounds.
BLACKOUT unspools at Greenpoint’s Storied FILM NOIR CINEMA Friday October 18 at 8PM Q&A with Fessenden follows the show Part of SHOCK-A-GO-GO 2024 Horror Movie Madness CHECK OUT THE FULL LINE-UP!
Join Us, Dear Listener, at the TALES HQ, where 50 different spooky stories await… and for those of you who might want to perform your own, might we recommend:
It’s fair to say Supermassive horror games are like movies themselves. The gameplay is not your standard survival horror. You have choice-based decisions that result in devastating life-and-death consequences, phenomenal camera work that gives a cinematic quality, and an original character-driven story that’s unlike any other. That’s what makes these games super enjoyable and engaging.
But have you ever wondered if there’s something similar out there in the film realm to those stories that Supermassive creates? The developer is often inspired by other horror films and games in the genre when it comes to crafting its own projects, and the following movies might seem like a good match.
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, Antlers, And Wendigo (2001)
Until Dawn features themes of cannibalism, takes you to a dilapidated sanatorium in the snowy mountains, and bases its lore on the folkloric entity known as the Wendigo from the Indigenous culture of the Algonquin people.
Wrong Turn 4 is a good starting point. It follows a group of college students on their way to a friend’s cabin during winter break, who then get lost on their snowmobiles and have to take refuge from a snowstorm inside the old Glenville Sanatorium, where they’re brutally hunted by a team of three cannibal brothers – Three Finger, Saw Tooth, and One Eye.
Starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons, the 2021 film Antlers features the Wendigo creature in all its glory. The setting revolves around a mine in the fictional Oregon town of Cispus Falls and weaves a supernatural story of trauma.
2001’s Wendigo is actually written and directed by Larry Fessenden, one of the writers of Until Dawn, so you can say the spirit of the Wendigo follows him.
For the Record: Fessenden and Graham Reznick were writers on several other projects sighted: DARK PICTURES: MAN OF MEDAN THE INPATIENT and Reznick went on to scribe THE QUARRY
From PASTE by Jim Vorel … there are a lot fewer werewolf movies out there than there are for the other classic monsters. They continue to be made, but they’re utterly dwarfed by zombie movies, vampire movies, etc. But despite all that, we still love a good werewolf yarn, and there have been some cinematic classics in the genre along the way. Below we present the 25 best werewolf movies of all time, which constitute an 80-plus year journey through everything hairy and lupine.
19. Blackout (2024) Director: Larry Fessenden
Being a werewolf sounds fun, until it happens to you: The late nights, the insatiable hunger, the undying rage, the ballooning of your clothing budget as every outfit you own inexorably falls apart with each moonlit transformation. The cuisine isn’t great, either, unless you’re the over-adventurous type to whom eating animals alive sounds like a test of intestinal and gustatory mettle. It’s enough to make an afflicted person lose their zest for life, which might in turn be enough to make shuffling oneself off one’s own mortal coil an appealing alternative. That’s the space Larry Fessenden occupies in his new movie, Blackout, an existential and depressive character study of Charley (Alex Hurt). A suicidal werewolf is a welcome novelty, especially since more often than not it’s vampires who have all the fun feeling conflicted about their predatory nature. As is, the film balances its talkative side with its gory side nicely. Wanting more isn’t the worst feeling a film can leave you with. —Andy Crump
6. Late Phases (2014) Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano
Late Phases is a limited but kind of brilliant take on the werewolf movie, featuring a truly outstanding performance by screenwriter-turned-actor Nick Damici (from Stake Land) as an elderly, blind Vietnam veteran who moves to a retiree community currently being menaced by a lycanthrope. After beginning with a bang, it unfolds slowly, developing the strained relationship between the protagonist and his son, the difficulties presented by his blindness and the search for the werewolf’s identity. The characterization of the embittered protagonist is very well developed, and the film shines with lots of the little things: Great sound design, great dialogue, well-cast minor roles. It even features a pretty awesome werewolf transformation scene that, if not quite in American Werewolf in London territory, is one of the best I’ve seen in quite a while. The actual werewolf costumes, it must be noted, look just a little bit ridiculous—like a man in a wolf-bat hybrid suit, and nowhere near as good as say, Dog Soldiers—but the blood effects are top-notch. It’s far above most indie horror films in terms of performances, though, and even tugs at the heartstrings a bit with some effective drama. If werewolves are your movie monster of choice, it has to vault up your must-see list.—Jim Vorel
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...