Dread Central posted news about a slew of events coming up for us here at Glass Eye Pix. Ever the busy-body, Fessenden will be hopping around with screenings and appearances this October to celebrate our 30th Anniversary.

From the Dread Central Post:

Production company Glass Eye Pix, founded by indie maven Larry Fessenden, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year; and numerous events are planned, including personal appearances by Fessenden, special screenings of GEP films, and lots more.

If you’re a fan of their particular breed of horror mayhem (and if you’re a regular reader of this site, you no doubt are), then read on for all the details!

From the Press Release:
On the delirious, dangerous streets of old New York, as young upstarts with names like Buscemi and Jarmusch rose to prominence, art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden birthed one of Gotham’s darkest icons of sovereign cinema. Called “one of the indie scene’s most productive and longest-running companies” by Filmmaker Magazine, Glass Eye Pix has been operated by Fessenden (THE LAST WINTER, WENDIGO, HABIT, NBC’s “Fear Itself”) since 1985, with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts.

In addition to countless shorts, three seasons of radio dramas, and one of 2015’s most acclaimed, best selling video games, Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix has been involved with over fifty critically acclaimed films in and out of the horror genre, including WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt), STAKE LAND (Jim Mickle), THE COMEDY (Rick Alverson), THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (Ti West), BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD (Rob Kuhns), LATE PHASES (Adrián García Bogliano), SATAN HATES YOU (James Felix McKenney), LIBERTY KID (Ilya Chaiken), and the forthcoming DARLING (Mickey Keating).

Founder Fessenden, who still oversees operations at Glass Eye, began his career acting and shooting super 8mm shorts, eventually moving on to long format videos, such as his 144-minute caper flick EXPERIENCED MOVERS (1985), the first film to bear the Glass Eye Pix moniker.

1991 Saw the production of Fessenden’s first original feature, NO TELLING, and in 1994 Glass Eye birthed what many consider the seminal NYC vampire film, HABIT. Fessenden’s subsequent award-winning films WENDIGO and THE LAST WINTER inspired The New York Times to opine, “Fessenden approaches the themes and thrills of the classic American horror movies 
through a determinedly modern approach, as if John Cassavetes had been working for Universal in the early 30’s.”

Since the inception of Glass Eye Pix, Fessenden and co. have run a trans-media operation on a budget, producing movies, documentaries, performance art, comic books, audio dramas, soundtracks, trading cards, action figures, and a dedicated web presence since 1993. The recent success of the Sony PS4 video game UNTIL DAWN, written by Fessenden and longtime Glass Eye collaborator Graham Reznick, indicates that Glass Eye’s aesthetic of authenticity mixed with genre can inspire new generations of fright fans across all mediums.

To mark thirty years of fierce independence, Glass Eye Pix is celebrating with a series of special screenings and events this autumn. On October 4th Larry will appear at SpectreFest in Los Angeles for a special screening of HABIT, followed by a conversation, and from October 8-11 Fessenden will appear at New York Comic Con alongside numerous Glass Eye directors, collaborators, and friends. October 20th sees Shout! Factory’s heavily-touted Blu-ray release of “The Larry Fessenden Collection,” containing four of the director’s most acclaimed works remastered in high-definition. Titles include No Telling (1991), Habit (1995), Wendigo (2001), and The Last Winter (2006).

Additional events will be announced in October, including a retrospective at New York’s IFC Center, screenings in New York and Los Angeles, and a special showing of EXPERIENCED MOVERS in the same East Village bar where it was shot 30 years ago.

For the first time on vinyl, the soundtrack composed by Jeff Grace (House of The Devil, In a Valley of Violence).

Limited edition of 500 copies on blood red and purple swirl vinyl. Housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with exclusive liner notes from the one and only Angus Scrimm!

Copies available for purchase from Deep Focus Records.

This Saturday, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL will screen at midnight at School of Visual Arts as part of their alumni program. Director Ti West and Producer Peter Phok will be on hand for a Q&A following the screening.

From the event page:

As part of After School Special: The 2015 School of Visual Arts Alumni Film & Animation Festival, we are pleased to present a special midnight screening of the cult horror hit The House of The Devil (2009), shown on 35mm film, accompanied by a Q&A with director Ti West (BFA 2003 Film and Video) and producer Peter Phok (BFA 2003 Film and Video).  The Q&A will be moderated by current SVA student Amanda DiMartino (BFA 2017 Film).

Synopsis: College student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse.  She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret.  Starring Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, and Tom Noonan.

The film will be preceded by the world cinematic premiere of The Hate My Day Jobs’ music video Double Vision (2015), by creative director Daniel Giachetti (BFA 2002 Advertising) and alumni from the BFA Illustration and BFA Photography departments.

The House of The Devil is rated R.  Parents are strongly cautioned – some material may be inappropriate for children under 17, and children under the age of 12 will not be admitted.

To RSVP please click here or on the ticket icon above.

Fangoria’s got a brand new poster for Mickey Keating’s DARLING, which Fangoria describes as:

Written and directed by Mickey Keating, whose POD just saw release (see story here), DARLING stars JUG FACE’s Lauren Ashley Carter as a young woman who takes a job as a caretaker in a mysterious Manhattan mansion, where the last person to have the job committed suicide and her own sanity begins to crumble. The cast also includes Brian Morvant, Sean Young, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos and Helen Rogers, and the film was produced by Fessenden, Jenn Wexler, Sean Fowler, Keating and Carter.

 

For the full post and an exclusive image, head to Fangoria.

Appearing in three films at London’s Fright Fest, Mickey Keating’s POD, Ted Geogehan’s WE ARE STILL HERE and BODY by Dan Burk and Robert Olsen, Scifinow took notice and posts this extensive interview with Fessenden.

It’s a bastard genre and I stand by it. I think the world is a frightening place and people should be shocked out of their complacency. Now the irony is, I don’t know that everybody thinks of horror that way, but I think of it as a confrontational genre, a way to scream from the rafters, ‘Look at humanity, it needs fixing, it’s a mess, look at how we treat each other.’ So I use it as a punishing genre! [laughs]

I love it, and I also love the aesthetic of horror, the creepy, the cobwebby cellars and corridors, I like the darkness and I like the night and a big full moon and a creaking tree. So these are actually purely aesthetic things and you can almost not quite put your finger on why you’re like that. I think it’s literally psychology or something dreadful happened when I was a kid that I don’t remember [laughs].

But at the same time I do resent not being taken seriously as a filmmaker because you’re involved in the genre. I think that’s just an oversight of the culture and so it will be. People actually are afraid of death and they’re a little wary of people who are constantly harping about death [laughs]! So you’re a little bit like the weird guy in the room, let’s face it, and that’s like being a punk rocker, it makes me feel OK, I don’t mind. I don’t know that the pristine glowing happy smiling society is particularly accurate to our experience in life so I’d rather call it like it is: a bit of a scary place.

read the full article at scifinow

Lovechild Pictures is set to re-release James Felix McKenney’s AUTOMATONS as a special-edition, limited print run VHS. Copies go on sale on October 15th, but if you stop by the Glass Eye Pix booth at New York Comic Con, you’ll have a chance to snatch up an early copy.

From the press release:

Newly established niche distribution label Lovechild Pictures is proud to announce its first in a series of artisanal VHS releases; James Felix McKenney’s dystopian sci-fi opus, AUTOMATONS.

Set in the distant future following an all-out robot genocide, AUTOMATONS follows a lone female survivor, sparring on against all odds with the aid of her mechanical companions.

Lensed in gritty black & white Super 8mm, Lovechild Pictures’ analog presentation enhances the experience of this nostalgia-inspired horror epic, best described as ROBOT MONSTER meets ERASERHEAD.

Produced by Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix and McKenney’s MonsterPants Movies, AUTOMATONS stars newcomer Christine Spencer (SATAN HATES YOU), Brenda Cooney (I SELL THE DEAD) and genre icon Angus Scrimm (the PHANTASM series). Also featured are Don Wood (COLONIAL HOUSE, HYPOTHERMIA), John Anthony Blake (DOCTOR WHO, PSYCHOMANIA) and Executive Producer Larry Fessenden (HABIT, THE LAST WINTER).

Packed to the brim with bonus content and an original making-of interview zine with director James Felix McKenney, Lovechild Pictures’ AUTOMATONS tape will be available for online purchase October 15th, signed and limited to 50 copies. NYC Comic Con attendees receive an advance opportunity to grab a copy at the Glass Eye Pix booth, where 20 of the tapes will be for sale, limited to one per customer.

“Automatons is bound for cult status and should be dug up in ten years and viewed again — that is, if humanity is still around” – RUE MORGUE

“The movie’s loving attention to light and shade transcends its hermetic setting and meager budget. At times the buzzing static and fizzy backlighting recall the glistening surrealism of the filmmaker Guy Maddin… enormously endearing” – NEW YORK TIMES

“Robot radness achieved! Budgets are for bitches.” – VILLAGE VOICE

Inspired by late-night cable broadcasts of yesteryear’s horrors, Automatons spins a fever-dream nightmarescape that must be seen to be believed.

There’s a new, bold poster for the suspense/thriller BODY. Starring Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen, Lauren Molina, and Fessenden star, the movie follows three college students as they accidentally end up in a terrifying situation.

A darkly funny and twisted journey taking place entirely on one unforgettable Christmas Eve, Body revolves around a trio of college co-eds whose dalliance with breaking-and-entering goes horribly awry. Sneaking off to a secluded mansion to party, the young girls are faced with dire choices after they unexpectedly encounter the property’s groundskeeper. 

 

Following a freak accident, the girls find themselves entangled in a Hitchcockian nightmare steeped in tension, suspicion, double-crossing, and murder, where no one is to be trusted and a new twist lies around every corner.

“… A large part of what keeps this in place is actually Body’s surprisingly incredible cast. The until-now, relatively unheard of trio of Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen and Lauren Molina deliver performances that are both funny and especially believable at every turn. The group’s chemistry is nearly unparalleled, making even just the early scenes of the girls hanging out relentlessly watchable, whilst their more sober, dramatic dealings are equally as effective. Horror legend Larry Fessenden even proves his emotional worth also, with a small but grounded role that tugs on the film’s inner morality tale beautifully…”

Read the full review

Matt Barone, writing for Tribeca Film, spoke at length with Graham Reznick about UNTIL DAWN, the PS4 Horror Video Game written by Reznick and Fessenden.

“Until Dawn gives you a very stereotypical approach and very stereotypical characters and has them do the things you’re familiar with, but then it puts you in control,” says Reznick. “Our players are given a certain amount of control over the characters, which allows you to take a stereotypical character and mold them into something that’s more reflective of you, the person who’s playing. That immediately raises the stakes and makes things scarier, because you’re truly invested in the characters. With each move and decision they make, the game’s characters start to resemble aspects of the player’s own personality.”

Read on for the full review and conversation with Graham Reznick.

New short by Glass Eye Pal Chris Skotchdopole starring newcomer Taylor Zaudkte and THE BATTERY’s Jeremy Gardner heads into post-production after summer shoot in Upstate New york.