4th Act Film Collective, a new cinema blog, just posted an in-depth retrospective on Fessenden’s HABIT. Written by Craig Ian Mann, the piece is part review/part remembrance.

From ‘Death and Drink: Remembering Larry Fessenden’s Habit’:

Written, directed and edited by Fessenden, Habit is a truly sad, mesmerising and ultimately brilliant film about addiction, urban alienation and, yes, vampirism. But despite its inherent genre trappings, a documentary aesthetic – reminiscent of George A. Romero’s Martin – lends Habit a certain sense of realism. This is a beautiful if depressing snapshot of New York in the mid-1990s; a place where anything seems possible, but it is all too easy to get lost amongst the neon and noise. The film’s naturalism only renders its artistic flourishes more effective; Fessenden often cuts away from his characters, laying the soundtrack of their poignant dialogue over a montage of New York’s late-night city streets. And when the film does become truly surreal, – such as a scene that may or may not be a dream sequence in which Anna, withered and rotting, visits Sam in the middle of a fitful sleep – Habit’s grainy, choppily edited style only renders these moments all the more terrifying.

And Habit is terrifying. Perhaps it is not frightening in a way we might traditionally expect of a horror film – there are no jump scares here, and only a few scenes genuinely designed to shock. Instead, it is a chilling portrait of self-destruction. Fessenden’s is the stand-out performance; a realistic, unnerving portrait of a spiral into the abyss brought to life by a man who has clearly witnessed the devastating results of addiction first hand. And it is his ascent into the bottle that is really at the heart of Habit’s horror. A debate exists as to whether Anna is or is not a literal vampire but, honestly, the answer doesn’t matter; the true blood-sucker here is alcohol, a substance that slowly drains the life from Sam until he is a husk of his former self with nothing left to do but drink himself to death. Snaider’s uncaring vamp is simply along for the ride.

Mickey Keating’s DARLING, produced by Glass Eye Pix, starring Lauren Ashley Carter (JUG FACE, THE WOMAN, upcoming THE MIND’S EYE), will have its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest! Hollywood Reporter announced the news today, and the Fantastic Fest site has more details on the movie:

In DARLING, a young woman takes a seemingly simple job as the caretaker for an enormous, historical New York home. In fact, as she’s picking up the keys, the lady who hired her mentions that it’s the oldest home in New York. And with that age comes several stories… and then there was that incident with the caretaker. When the young woman asks what happened, the lady begrudgingly admits that the he committed suicide, but they don’t know why and “it’s nothing to worry about. Nothing like that could ever happen again.” With that, the woman is out the door, leaving the young lady with a check and the first pangs of anxiety about her latest career move. But with no other choice, she resigns herself to her decision, and starts to look around. She discovers an odd necklace with an upside down cross as well as a single locked door at the end of a short hallway. Both are strangely ominous, just like the odd noises she hears at night. When she finds herself frightened by an innocuous encounter with a man on the street, she starts to slowly spiral out of control.

Mickey Keating returns to Austin hot on the heels of the SXSW premiere of his film POD. Filmed in black and white with disorienting sequences of fast edits, DARLING feels nightmarish with a thick atmosphere of fear and apprehension that calls to mind elements of REPULSION. Lauren Ashley Carter, who fans will recognize from JUG FACE as well as POD, stars as the main character and perfectly portrays a descent into madness. Punctuated by heightened sound effects and a score that’s constantly evolving to drive the tension, DARLING is a dark, unsettling experience filled with dread and the constant threat of impending doom. (Luke Mullen)

Monday night saw the first international performance of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, with special guests including Jeremy Gardner and Tony Todd! Check out Twitch’s review along with some pics from the evening below!

From TwitchFilm.com:

“…What was old is new again. The radio shows that previous generations would entertain themselves by in years gone by should have been a lost art form. But horror filmmaker and producer Larry Fessenden has, for the past five years, been turning out regular seasons and live performances, radio plays for the digital age as the main site states it. And since Fessenden’s work and passion is slanted to towards the horror genre the shows take on that dark and twisted nature.

So, armed with guest stars, top horror writers, musicians and some dandy foley artists Fessenden has set out to bring back that tradition and inject it with his own dark energy. The foley artists had all manner of tools up there with them. The small door was cute. They used half a watermelon and a butcher’s knife for the stabbing effects (hence the title). TwitchFilm’s own Izzy Lee was performing that night and she said that if you are close enough to the stage you can smell the watermelon when someone gets stabbed in the story. How’s that for having that on your subconscious on every Summer picnic from here on out? There was just all manner of tools, practical and digital, for providing a soundscape for every tale. Fessenden, doing his best Crypt Keeper homage, introduced each radio play.

The first radio play was Hidden Records by Douglas Buck. A young man living with his fundamentally religious mother may wonder what his father was really like. One day he meets a jazz pianist (played by The Candyman Tony Todd!) who has been holding on to the only recording his dad ever made. But the recording held a dark secret message and family secrets are exposed. The confrontations will turn deadly and murderous in the end. Of all three radio plays Hidden Records played it the most serious. Bolstered by terrific live music and the groovy growl of Tony Todd’s voice you could say it was the most soulful as well. Then the guitar would wail and scream just like the victims in the climax. The first radio play helped set the mood for the night.

The second radio play was Speaking in Tongues by Glenn McQuaid, who is also the show’s other curator with Fessenden. To appease the partisan masses this second tale was set in Montreal and for us anglophones we had to be patient as half the dialogue was in Quebec French. Just like Fessenden’s character Mr Glas, we had to wait for the translation, which was no trouble at all. In the story Mr. Glas came to Montreal to find four people and collect their memories. Think of it like a supernatural Collateral. He was going to combine the words in their memories to make a phrase that would kill him. Because he is immortal and he wants to end his life now. Fessenden was delightful as Mr. Glas. Our own Izzy Lee lent her vocal skills as one of his victims. The mix of comedy and horror really picked up in this second play. The real highlight was Fessenden up on stage. I was trying to follow the advice of our filmmaking friend from earlier but it is just as fun to watch the performers as much as it is to listen to them.

The final play of the night was Barricade by Larry Fessenden. The Battery’s Jeremy Gardner was a newlywed husband who takes his new wife to a secluded house. They are about to consummate their marriage, including the making out with one’s own hand, when a earthquake shakes up the area. Subterranean creatures come out and attack anything on the surface. Tony Todd returned to the lineup as a worker from a nearby research facility. Admittedly details got kind of lost as events escalated and Fessenden started hammering boards in background as the characters boarded up their honeymoon destination, but I believe that they were responsible for making the creatures and now everyone was going to die. By the third act the balance between horror and humor skewed favorably towards humor. And funny is good. Barricade was the remote location of Night of the Living Dead combined with small creature horror flicks like Ghoulies.

All in all, it was a terrific night out. The perfect way to cap off my week in Montreal. And it was a nice change of pace, something different but complementary to the festival going experience…”

Check out Twitch for the full post.

15 year-old writer/director/cast member Jack Fessenden wrapped his first feature film on Sunday July 19. Glass Eye Pix is proud to announce the spectacular cast that joined the production for its 17-day shoot. James Le Gros (DRUGSTORE COWBOY, SAFE, LIVING IN OBLIVION, THE LAST WINTER, MILDRED PIERCE) appears with Glass Eye regular John Speredakos (WENDIGO, I SELL THE DEAD) along with producer/cinematographer Larry Fessenden (HABIT, JUG FACE, I SELL THE DEAD). Also in the cast, Robert Burke Warren (COLD IN JULY), Asa Spurlock (ALL FOR ONE) and Kevin Corrigan (THE DEPARTED, GOODFELLAS), as well as local thespians from the Upstate location.

In upstate New York, two teenage boys are tasked with cleaning out their father’s old mobile home on an abandoned property, but the boys are in for a surprise when they discover three crooks on the run have taken refuge in the trailer.

Exclusive pictures below!

James Le Gros as Cody

Roger Peltzman as Kauffman

John Speredakos as Dutch

Robert Burke Warren as J.T.

Jack Fessenden as Conner 

Asa Spurlock as Ash

Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden’s audio drama series Tales From Beyond the Pale will be presenting a live performance of three brand new original Tales at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal this coming Monday, July 27.

Performers include Tony Todd (CANDYMAN), Jeremy Gardner (THE BATTERY), Noah Segan (DEADGIRL, STARRY EYES) and Tales regulars Roxanne Bejamin, Sam Zimmerman and Fessenden, among many others. Tales are penned by Douglas Buck (CUTTING MOMENTS, SISTERS, THE ACCIDENT), McQuaid and April Snellings (“Cold Reading”) and Fessenden. Poster by live Tale regular Trevor Denham.

Genre legend Eric Red (Near Dark, The Hitcher, Body Parts) records remotely from LA with his East Coast cast which includes Ella June Conroy (Run All Night), Jill Zarin (Real Housewives of New York), and Jack Ketchum (author, “The Girl Next Door”). Fessenden (pictured), McQuaid and Jenn Wexler produce.

Fangoria just released an awesome write-up/revisit on HABIT, written, directed, and starring Fessenden. As writer Ken W. Hanley states, HABIT is “an astoundingly well-made tale of sex, blood and psychological distress that functions as not only a great horror film, but a great film period.”

From the article:

For those unfamiliar with this macabre indie masterpiece, HABIT follows a young, alcoholic man grieving the loss of his father and a recent break-up, who meets an enigmatic young woman at a Halloween party. Soon, he finds himself inexplicably obsessed with the woman, with whom he embarks in a sexually-driven relationship that involves violent nightly trysts and orgasmic bloodletting. However, the man soons finds himself experiencing an inexplicable illness, and as his symptoms become worse, he begins to suspect that his partner may be something more vicious than a vixen.

But to Fessenden’s credit, HABIT doesn’t look like a horror movie; in fact, the style of the film is incredible indicative of the work of his indie contemporaries Abel Ferrara, Jim Jarmusch and Richard Linklater in that there’s a very purposeful, intimate composition of every shot, yet the camera is allowed to breathe and move around. The film’s descent from urban fantasy to hallucinatory fever dream terror is gradual and contemplative but also hypnotic in a sense, and the audience gets almost a claustrophobic sense from the predicament from our hero. And once the film goes firmly into genre territory, it’s completely in line with the narrative, with drives just enough doubt into the situation to ride the line of psychological horror and full-on vampire flick.

Shout! Factory just released the artwork for the special Larry Fessenden Collection Blu-Ray release!

From Shout! Factory’s Facebook Page:

Four tales of terror from the multi-talented filmmaker Larry Fessenden will be making their Blu-ray debuts on October 20th within THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION. As reported back in June, the films are NO TELLING (1991), HABIT (1995), WENDIGO (2001) and THE LAST WINTER (2006).

Extras on the 4-disc set will be announced at a later date but we can officially share the final artwork (provided from the Director himself) and also an exclusive offer if you order from us directly: The set will ship two weeks earlier than national street date PLUS the first 300 who order will received a signed slipcase from Mr. Fessenden himself!

Pre-Order the collection now!

This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival—Montreal’s amazing film fest that runs from July 14th to August 4th, 2015—includes a live TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE!

From the press release:

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE: LIVE!

Monday July 27, 10PM at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club

 

Fantasia is thrilled to be presenting the first-ever Canadian presentation of indie genre legends Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s adored TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE radio drama.

 

Touting itself as “Radio plays for the digital age”, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE has become the stuff of horror legend in the five years since its inception. Prepare yourself for a trip back in time with live radio drama, complete with musical accompaniment, on-stage foley work, and extensive sound design – all created before your very eyes (and ears)!

 

With performances across the United States, popular CD sets, a Communicator Award of Excellence, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE shows are notoriously entertaining, imaginative, frightening… and FUN.

 

And now, it’s coming for Montreal.

 

Fantasia is immensely proud to present the first-ever TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE live show on Canadian soil.

 

Taking its inspiration from the vintage radio shows of Hitchcock and Welles, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is the creation of acclaimed independent filmmakers Larry Fessenden (HABIT, THE LAST WINTER) and Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD, V/H/S). Through them, their extensive Glass Eye Pix production team, and indie film allies, they’ve produced a unique series of “radio play” podcasts and theatrical storytelling happenings that have mesmerized and amazed audiences lucky enough to have the experience.

 

For this special Canadian debut, the Glass Eye Pix team are putting together a night that will surely go down in festival history, featuring all new Tales by McQuaid, Fessenden, and series newcomer Douglas Buck (SISTERS, THE THEATRE BIZARRE), starring a special secret cast to be revealed soon!

 

A Glass Eye Pix / Fessypix production.