Spend this Friday the 13th with a double dose of Fessenden at the Ithaca International Film Festival. GEP-produced DARLING and Joe Begos’ THE MIND’S EYE play back to back tonight… look out, Ithaca!

DARLING
Directed by Mickey Keating
8pm
Tickets and Info

THE MIND’S EYE
Directed by Joe Begos
10pm
Tickets and Info

This weekend (Friday November 13th and Saturday November 14th) IFC Center in NYC screens STAKE LAND at 12:15am (b0th showings) as part of their Glass Eye Pix: 30th Anniversary Tribute. Catch up with the film variety called “Highly cinematic, pitch-perfect…”

Head over to IFC for tickets and more info.

As the years have gone by, though, there has been a slow buildup of quality films that take the tropes of the past and come at them in ways that are stylish, naturalistic, and emotionally devastating. However, this current trend hasn’t sprung out of nothing — in fact, the origin point for the current cinematic landscape in horror can be pinpointed to a single filmmaker. But that filmmaker wasn’t Craven, Romero, or even Carpenter — instead, it was a wild-haired New York City native with a broken smile by the name of Larry Fessenden.

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Fessenden’s films take their time to build up their horror elements, to the point that the terror part of the trilogy could be seen as a bit of a misnomer, since if you go into these films cold, the first hour’s worth of material are usually very human dramas. If the New Hollywood ever made monster movies, they would look a lot like Fessenden’s films. Utilizing that era’s “everything old is new again” approach to genre, he digs deep into what makes us human, particularly when confronted with the monstrous.

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Larry Fessenden isn’t done by any means, Glass Eye Pix is still going strong, and Fessenden will no doubt step behind the camera again in the near future, but as of right no,w he would be more than justified to sit back and look at a landscape that he has helped create. Fessenden’s legacy is ongoing, but of all of his contributions, his most notable might be offering the world films that brings humanity back to its monsters while making humanity itself look monstrous. Its Larry Fessenden’s world, and we’re lucky to be living in it.

Check it

Dread Central‘s Anthony Arrigo examines THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION.

“Fessenden is a man who makes deeply personal films, raw & full of emotion, with horror merely an undercurrent complicating already troubled lives. He fully embodies the auteur theory by writing, directing, editing and sometimes acting in his own films. And he’s actually a pretty decent actor, too. Everything seen on screen comes directly from his mind, with no compromises or studio interference. There’s a real sense of cinema verite to his work; his characters look and act like real people in real situations. This is personal, introspective filmmaking without pretense.”

Read on for the full review.

Attention NYC Fans! Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD screens Friday 11/6/15 and Saturday 11/7/15 at midnight at the IFC Center in NYC.

18th-century justice has finally caught up with grave robbers Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) and Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden). With the specter of the guillotine looming over him, young Blake confesses to a priest, Father Duffy (Ron Perlman), about his fifteen years of adventure in the resurrection trade; from his humble beginnings as a young boy stealing trinkets from corpses, to his partnership with seasoned ghoul Willie Grimes hunting creatures unwilling to accept their place in the ground. The colorful and peculiar history of Grimes and Blake is one filled with adventure, horror, and vicious professional competition that ends where it begins — the grave.

For tickets and more info, head over to IFC.

Tuesday night the Film Society of Lincoln Center hosted Fessenden and the Glass Eye Pix crew for a double screening of THE LAST WINTER and the NYC premiere of Mickey Keating’s DARLING.

Read on for photos from the night and Hollywood Reporter’s review of DARLING.

Joe Yanick of Diabolique Magazine wrote an extensive look back at the career of Fessenden through a review of THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION.

“Fessenden prefigured the style of horror cinema that would basically define the last decade. It’s smart, idea-driven work that pays homage to the history of horror rather than stick its nose up to it.”

Read on for the full review.

Madeleine Koestner of Fangoria just reviewed Mickey Keating’s DARLING. The film makes its NYC debut tonight at Film Society of Lincoln Center and stars Lauren Ashley Carter and Brian Morvant.

“But is DARLING scary? Yes. It’s unsettling, distressing and mesmerizing.”

Read on for the full review.

Matt Morrison of Film Comment just wrote a rundown of Mickey Keating’s DARLING ahead of its NYC premiere. See the movie tonight at 9:45pm at Film Society of Lincoln Center (tickets and more info here).

In Mickey Keating’s menacing new psychological thriller Darling, we meet the titular character (Lauren Ashley Carter)—sporting an innocent flip haircut, silk jabot, and Karina-in-Alphaville raccoon eyes—as she assumes care for an old Manhattan townhouse. It “really is a lovely old house,” the owner (Sean Young) deliciously and beguilingly informs her. “It will take care of you.”

Read on for the full article.

Attention NYC Fans: Tonight at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, as part of their horror program Scary Movies 9, there are two screenings of GEP Films… something old, and something new.

THE LAST WINTER (2006)
dir. Larry Fessenden
7:00pm
w/ Fessenden, James LeGros, and Ron Perlman in attendance
Tickets and More Info

And make it a double feature with the NYC premiere of…

DARLING (2015)
dir. Mickey Keating
9:45pm
w/ Fessenden, Mickey Keating, Lauren Ashley Carter and Brian Morvant in attendance
Tickets and More Info