Birth. Movies. Death. Selects shorts from Fantastic Fest for your viewing pleasure:
… James Siewert’s mesmerizing monochrome mixed-media allegory The Past Inside the Present. Stunningly realized in part through hand-drawn charcoal rotoscoped animation, the short is being officially distributed by the filmmaker collective Indie Street, and they’re offering both the film and a bevy of special features for free through the newly christened platform Bit Torrent Now.
Check out the full article HERE
Horror will take the spotlight at a new genre film festival launching next year.
The Overlook Film Festival will open on April 27 at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge, which was used for the exterior setting of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” Variety has learned exclusively.
Organizers Michael Lerman and Landon Zakheim announced the event on Halloween. They are planning to present experiential events, work in new and classic horror cinema, and interactive activities at the Timberline, located at the base of Mount Hood. The four-day festival will feature a weekend-long immersive game from Bottleneck Immersive and an original live version of the radio play “Tales From Beyond the Pale” by Glass Eye Pix.
“The Shining” takes place in the fictional Overlook Hotel, a haunted resort in the Colorado Rockies. Kubrick’s movie, starring Jack Nicholson and released in 1980, was based Stephen King’s 1977 novel.
Other members include Kristen Bell (Fantastic Fest), Nate Bolotin ( XYZ Films), Larry Fessenden, Colin Geddes (Toronto Intl. Film Festival), Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, Daniel Noah (SpectreVision), Lindsay Peters (Fantasia Film Festival), Tom Quinn, Alix Taylor, Ryan Turek (Blumhouse), Josh C. Waller (SpectreVision), and Diana Williams (LucasFilm Story Group).
“We’re so grateful to the Timberline Lodge for providing such a gorgeous, iconic venue in the beautiful location of Mt. Hood, Oregon, where our unique, experiential celebration of all things genre can thrive,” Zakheim said.
Read Article from Variety
Ti West’s slow-simmering “Beware of Satanists!” cautionary tale looks and feels like an artifact from the early 1980s, found in a dusty corner of an abandoned video store. A naive college student takes a babysitting job at a creaky Victorian house, working for a couple of shady characters (played by veteran cult movie weirdos Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov). Before the literal all-hell-breaks-loose third act, The House of the Devil plays up the spooky atmosphere and retro style – right down to a scene involving a cranked-up Walkman, a song by the Fixx, and our sick fear that everything’s about to go very wrong. NM
The List also includes Fessenden-featuring SESSION 9 and YOU’RE NEXT along with many other favorites… Check it!
Did you play UNTIL DAWN when it came out last year? Do it. Do it now. Now’s the time. Call your friend with the PS4 and tell them it’s time. Run over there as fast as you can. Uh oh, quick time event. Hold X to jump over the tree branch. Did you do it? Your choices affect what happens next.
For anyone who complains that video games aren’t as good a storytelling form as movies, or that movies just aren’t interactive enough, UNTIL DAWN is literally a playable horror movie written by genre Glass Eye Pix’s Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznik. It’s an awesome choose-your-own-adventure kids-in-a-cabin pick-em-off. It functions as both a fantastic story with interesting, complex characters and a really fun game. You get to control Rami Malek (MR. ROBOT) and Hayden Panettiere (HEROES). It’s a stellar cast with brilliant people on the production side. Seriously, if this was just a horror movie with no playable aspect, you’d watch it in a heartbeat — but you actually get to interact with it, and it works! And it’s spooky!
When it comes to my Halloween season viewing, I often fall back on the vintage stuff: Hammer favorites, Universal monster classics, the Val Lewton cycle, or any previously unseen golden oldies that catch my eye.
But despite the plague of “found footage” cheapies and an endless streak of inferior remakes and sequels, there have been some very good recent horror movies. It’s just that many of the best have gone virtually unnoticed except by the most insatiable horror fanatics. And I know for that diehard crowd, much of this list might not seem so overlooked. So, while I certainly do want to hear about that grainy $5,000 stalker film from Uruguay you found in a black market video shop, understand my definition of “overlooked” isn’t quite that obscure.
The list was restricted to films released over the last five years or so, just to have some sort of cutoff. There are other movies from the same period (like Trick ‘r Treat, House of the Devil and Splice) that also should have received a wider release or more media attention, but those films have found a very devoted cult following. The films below have some fans, but continue to fly way too far under the radar for my liking.
Five of the ten films are debut features, so maybe there’s something to be said for new chefs contributing to the horror stew. The rankings are a bit meaningless considering how different the films are, but the hierarchy is simply those I felt were the most essential viewing.
Oh … and Happy Halloween!
I Sell the Dead (2009): A fantastic debut feature, Glenn McQuaid’s joyful throwback to genre traditions is horror-comedy of the highest order. Getting convincing period detail on a very low budget, McQuaid also brings filmmaking verve to every scene. And it’s a darn funny film too, with great hammy performances by Larry Fessenden and Ron Perlman and a reactive comic role to treasure from Dominic Monaghan in the lead. If you grew up with Hammer horror films on TV and grisly EC Comics reprints, I Sell the Dead will seem letter-perfect. It never played in a Chicago theater, which is a goddamned shame, as this was made to see with an audience.
Click to head over to You Tube for some Halloween fun from a GEP pal. His identity remains unknown…
… But first, some gushing about Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix…
Dave Wain’s essential ZH breakdown of this week’s cavalcade of straight to disc treats. Step inside the DTV Junkyard!
Forgive, if you will, this protracted love in of Larry Fessenden that I’m about to embark upon, but who out there isn’t willing to kneel at the altar of this great independent filmmaking genius?
From Habit to Wendigo to The Last Winter, the native New Yorker offers a keen eye, and an enviable knack for fine tales of the macabre. But, there’s another side to this auteurs body of work that deserves a heaped helping of praise, and that’s the role of the production company that he founded in 1985 – Glass Eye Pix.
The last decade of their resume reads like a buyer’s guide to indie horror, with such indispensable fright flicks as The Roost (2005), The House of the Devil (2009), Stake Land (2010) and Late Phases (2015).
Joining the ranks of these iconic little pictures is Mickey Keating’s impressive psychological nightmare, DARLING, which makes its way on DVD in the UK this week courtesy of Soda Pictures.
Check out the masterwork The Past Inside The Present, now available for download on BitTorrent.
“Save for the role of a circus ringleader played by Larry Fessenden, there aren’t any other notable characters to Rush of Blood and frankly, a horror game of this nature isn’t necessarily required. The lack of Peter Stormare reprising his role as the psychiatrist from the first Until Dawn is certainly lamentable, but Larry Fessenden does a great job in his role both in vocal performances as well as overdramatic facial work. Fans of the original Until Dawn should recognize him as the very same actor that portrayed The Stranger, Jack“.
Read Full Article HERE
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!
