Andrew van den Houten, horror veteran Larry Fessenden, Ashleigh Snead, Heather Buckley and Jenn Wexler produced the story of teen punks on the run from the law who face off against an unhinged park ranger.

Chloë Levine (The Transfiguration), Jeremy Holm (Mr. Robot), Granit Lahu, Jeremy Pope, Bubba Weiler, and Amanda Grace Benitez (School Of Rock) star in the SXSW Midnighters selection. First-timer Wexler directed from a screenplay she co-wrote with Giaco Furino.

“It’s been a thrill to share the film with festival audiences around the country,” Wexler said. “We’re so excited to team up with Octane to introduce The Ranger to the world.”

Fessenden added: “It has been gratifying to see Wexler move from being a fierce advocate for other directors’ visions through her stint producing movies at Glass Eye Pix, to taking on the challenge of getting her own unique vision on screen with The Ranger. I am so proud to see her continue the mission of pushing the boundaries and expectations of genre filmmaking, and this was the perfect collaboration for Glass Eye Pix and Hood River.”

“I’m thrilled to have produced The Ranger with such an amazingly talented team of artists,” van den Houten said. “It was a thrill working with fearless, freshman director Jenn Wexler and cannot wait for adoring horror fans all over the world to witness her entertaining and groundbreaking perspective of the punk rock slasher.”

“The Ranger is a fun and wild ride of punk rock infused horror that fits perfectly within our brand,” Octane Entertainment’s Jack Campbell added. “We’re excited to be working with this team of professionals and can’t wait to introduce the film to our buyers in Cannes.”

Campbell brokered the deal with 79th & Broadway Entertainment’s van den Houten on behalf of the production companies.

From Screen Daily

86’d produced by GEP pal Chadd Harbold (producer of Depraved, Most Beautiful Island, Only A Switch) has its world premiere at the Maryland Film Festival, May 3rd! Directed by Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, starring Lindsay Burdge, Buddy Duress (Good Time), Chase Williamson (John Dies at the End) and Fessenden!

Also unspooling, shorts by Depraved co-star David Call (Cole) and Depraved co-producer Lizz Astor (Drugstore Lipstick). Check it: Character Studies.

Jenn Wexler’s THE RANGER screening in New Orleans as part of
The Overlook Film Festival. Show starts TONIGHT!

THE RANGER
Friday, April 20th – 8:30 PM – Canal B
Saturday, April 21st – 11:15 PM – Le Petit

Tickets on sale HERE

From Simon Abrams: I’m pretty thrilled that we’re having this conversation, Graham, mostly because I’ve been a big fan of your work as a sound designer on indie horror films like Automatons and The Roost, two Glass Eye Pix-produced movies that both gave me one of my favorite post-film reactions: Who’s responsible for ____? I have to know more! Even more thrilling: I wanted to know more about sound design, a field of work that I knew — and probably still know — next to nothing about. Your work made me pay closer attention to what both of those films were doing on a completely different level than what I was used to. I started thinking about horror movies in terms of sound and how their sense of atmosphere was developed through the layering of noises on a soundtrack. Basic stuff for you, but something that I know I — and probably some of our readers — often take for granted since we often think of movies as a primarily visual medium.

Read Full Interview HERE

You know those hokey old low-budget after-school specials in which Smokey Bear told you that only you could prevent forest fires — which was technically true, if only in the sense that you had no intention of ever stepping foot in a forest? Well, what if you watched a bunch of those in a row while having a bad acid trip? The director and co-writer of The Ranger admitted to being inspired by the former, and we can only assume that the latter was involved as well.

Read Full Article HERE

From the opening seconds, Like Me (2017) had me in its grip with its mesmerizing splash of color. Even the Glass Eye Pix logo became a mini LSD trip as it flashed across the screen, and not in a cheesy way. Robert Mockler and company were able to capture a hyper-neon reality and ride it for the duration of the film’s slim 83-minute run time. For a debut movie Mockler really makes a visual statement here.

Starring Addison Timlin, Ian Nelson, and Larry Fessenden, Like Me is a meditation on loneliness and disconnectedness in an overly connected world. Timlin plays a sort of YouTube criminal/thrill seeker. You can’t really like her, but you can’t take your eyes off her either. She’s at turns obnoxious, vulnerable, scary, adorable, and broken. Timlin possesses the role to the point you may forget she’s an actress playing a role. Ian Nelson plays an acerbic critic of her work.

Though Nelson gets less screen time, there is a complexity to his character as well. I found myself hating him and agreeing him with within the same video rant. Filmmaker Larry Fessenden is probably the most sympathetic character in the film and it might be my favorite character he’s played since his own film, Habit (1995). Fessenden often shows up in smaller cameo roles, but he really displays his chops as a sad sack hotel owner with an unfulfilled artistic heart that gets sucked into Timlin’s web of deceit and danger.

The shift in color pallets towards the end of the film and the jarring jumps from phone footage – that has a more muted/realistic tone – back to the film’s hyper-color world is used to great effect. This helps Like Me be a movie you experience rather than just view. There are times when the film is obnoxious, too. I think intentionally so to match Timlin’s character and her video experiments. Repeated images, stuttering soundtrack, extreme close-ups of teeth chomping junk food are repulsive. But because she’s eating brightly colored foods, like Fruity Pebbles and gummy worms, it’s also strangely pretty.

Robert Mockler has planted his flag and declared himself with Like Me, and I’m excited to see what he does next. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is gorgeous and for me this is a movie worth buying rather than just streaming. It includes a making-of documentary as well.

Read Full Article HERE

Now available on Blu Ray and VOD!

 “a film that has a lot of affection for both the punk community and the history of horror
and wants to be a new entry into both those worlds.”
– Rue Morgue

“an off-beat and exciting new icon of horror.”
– Pajiba

“Levine and Holm anchor the film, bringing a sort of
anti-chemistry that is terrific fun to behold.”
– Daily Grindhouse

“Nostalgia done right.”
– Ghastly Grinning

“I absolutely enjoyed this move. Each character’s unique attitudes and personalities making me love
and hate them all at the same time. Not just with the writing, but the cast was great
and were all believable in their roles.”
– Nightmarish Conjurings

A group of teens sit at a table in a graffiti covered club that throbs with music. They experiment with drugs, crash onto the dance floor, and party with the free joy of their youth – until the cops come crashing in. In short order, things go from bad to worse as they attack an officer, steal a van, and hide out in a closed-down state park… only to end up in the crosshairs of an unhinged park ranger. At its core, The Ranger is a film about the clash between self-expression and conformity, of self-determination vs. oppressive authority. About finding yourself in a world that tries to tell you how you should be. Currently making its way through the festival circuit – including this past weekend at our own Boston Underground Film Festival – The Ranger‘s message is loud and clear, not only in plot, but in the blindingly pure punk aesthetic of its wicked cool wardrobe and solid soundtrack.

Read the entire interview HERE