We’ve got a crop of new photos from the latest TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, written / directed by Stuart Gordon. Stay tuned for more updates about this TALE, starring Ezra Godden, Barbara Crampton, and Chris McKenna with Glenn McQuaid and Rebekah Brown producing.

For more photos, read on!

Gaming website New Game Network just wrote a nice long piece about their time playing UNTIL DAWN at E3. UNTIL DAWN, written by Fessenden and Graham Reznick, hits game store shelves on August 25th.

Here’s the run down (kind of spoiler-y), written by Alex V, over on New Game Network:

Despite being first announced a few years ago, it would be a while until we heard about Until Dawn again. The PlayStation 4 exclusive horror title was first planned for PS3 release with motion controls at the core, but has since re-emerged as a more focused and perhaps serious title. Motion controls are still an option, but the game defaults to the classic button layout. We had a chance to play through a short section of the game at E3 2015.

Before starting, the game showed off a recap of events based on simulated choices a player would have made thus far. We observed a group of college friends arriving at a ski lodge for a getaway vacation, without a care in the world. Unfortunately, they soon realized that there’s a serial killer on the loose in the area, and things don’t go well for their friends. There’s also some relationship drama that occurs within the group, in a classic teen horror film style. We pick up on the plot of Matt and Emily as they meet two survivors of the serial killer. Shocked, they decide the best course of action is to reach a nearby forest guard tower and radio for help.

They lose their way and somehow end up on a cliff. No problem – except they are suddenly surrounded by angry looking group of deer. As Emily begins to freak out, playing as Matt we get a dialog option to either insult her fear or comfort her. The choices that players make in conversation will decide their relationships with others, and maybe even their fate. As we cautiously began to move forward, most of the deer gave way, but one stood firm in the path. At this point, a prompt to attack appeared. Not knowing any better, we decided to take the hatchet to the deer’s neck. This freaked out the animals, and they pushed forward. Matt had to step back – and lost his footing. He grabbed on to the edge below the cliff, and we had to follow a series of QTE inputs in order to climb out. The inputs left surprisingly little time, perhaps giving an indication that this won’t be a forgiving story.

Indeed, given that almost all characters can die, and with a multitude of story and sequence branches, there will be a lot of replay value in Until Dawn. Looking over at other demo stations, we saw some players ignore the available prompt to attack the deer – and they passed safely through. Doing nothing is an option, and sometimes a good one, giving players another layer of choice. The developers call these branching story lines the Butterfly Effect, where presumably almost any action can have far reaching consequences.

Having made it back to the cliff, the deer have seemingly left, so we carried on to the guard tower. At this point the control switched to Emily, and we walked up the snowy road, using the left stick to move our flashlight around the environment. We found a totem on the side of the road, and upon inspecting it (holding R2 to pick up, using the stick to rotate) we got a vision of a character death. It didn’t amount to anything in the scope of the demo, but it”s likely these items can foreshadow possible events. The final game will jump between the story threads of different characters and attempt to link them together at one point or another.

After walking up the steps and climbing a series of ladders to the guard tower, we found it to be without power. We had to guide Emily to the outside catwalk of the tower and flip the generator. Back indoors, there were a few interactable objects. A printer and a locker contained posters of missing students, said to be mysteriously gone over the past few weeks. But the goal here was to call for help, so we used the radio and actually got someone on the air.

Once again, with the signal being poor and the man on the other end acting rude and unsympathetic to our panicking heroes, we had a few conversation choices. Keep Emily calmly answering basic questions, or losing it and yelling for immediate help. Despite picking a calm approach, the man on the other side of the radio wasn’t much help. Suddenly, there was a noise outside, and a cutscene showed someone cutting the supporting cables of the tower.

It wasn’t long before the whole thing started to collapse. The two characters tried to hang on for dear life, but for a few moments all seemed to be lost. When the dust finally settled, we were in control of Matt again. He managed to reach the top of the tower and could see a safe ledge he could reach. Suddenly, he heard Emily cry for help – she was helplessly hanging on some railings below, above what appeared to be a deep cavern.

We had a few conversation choices again – keep Emily calm or just tell her to stop freaking out. At one point, we even had an opportunity to bring up earlier relationship drama that we learned about from the introductory recap. It would have been cheesy, but at least the option is there and some players would agree it perfectly fits the teen horror movie dialog cliches. But the most important choice came minutes later – try to save Emily or simply jump to safety. Given how very far down she was from Matt, it seemed a better option to leave her… so we did. Matt jumped to safety, and Emily plummeted to her doom. The demo ended.

Again, peeking over to other players, we saw those who saved Emily instead saw a graphic death for Matt. Player choice and consequence is at the heart of Until Dawn, and from what we’ve played in the demo, it seems very competently executed. The atmospheric soundtrack, decent voice acting and good facial animations and level of detail means the game also looks the part. The game was written in collaboration with Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, two creators that are well versed in the horror genre. It also stars some Hollywood talent in the form of Hayden Panettiere, Brett Dalton and Rami Malek.

If you enjoy the “choose your own adventure” games with a cinematic focus, this title may very well fit the mold. It feels like a combination of horror, Heavy Rain, and Telltale’s TWD Season 1. And if Until Dawn can actually pull those great inspirations together into a satisfying experience, Sony will have another winner on their hands. Look for Until Dawn exclusively on PlayStation 4 this August.

GEP Pal Glenn McQuaid just wrote an amazing retrospective look at the work of director Freddie Francis for Shock Till You Drop.

In 1963, he directed Paranoiac, which marked the start of a loose trilogy of psychological thrillers Francis would direct for Hammer (1964’s Nightmare and 1965’s Hysteria followed). Paranoiac is a gothic romance of sorts – a return to the manor born for a long-lost sibling to a family surrounded by a crumbling mansion and a crumbling secret. It features a remarkable performance by Oliver Reed, who literally chews the scenery up from under his fellow actors, and his staccato, madcap delivery is something to behold. But it’s Francis, as the film’s director, who truly shines, especially in the choreography of the ever changing blocking and camerawork. His actors and camera are in a dance and not a beat is missed; it’s incredible stuff, and watching it, one is reminded of the power of the humble, single shot – moving from over-the-shoulder to close-up to wide and back again. Making it look this on-point must have taken a lot of effort.

For the full write-up, check out Glenn’s wonderful piece on Shock Till You Drop.

News just hit that the GEP-produced and Graham Reznick-written/directed THE DESIGNER was invited into Frontières at Fantasia Fest. What is Frontières?

“Frontières is the first and only co-production market to connect North America with Europe in an environment specifically focused on genre film production and financing. Frontières marks its return to Fantasia with an expanded project line-up that will allow more projects to participate in live pitch sessions.”

Twitch has a full list of the second wave of projects heading to Frontières, but be sure to READ ON for the teaser for THE DESIGNER featuring Fessenden!

“Why can’t Fessenden be in every movie? He’s channeling his best Nicholson here, complete with crazy eyes and electrified hair. Add the barren winter landscape to the mix and you’ve got a definite Shining vibe.”
— J.R. Kinnard, Sound on Sight

OPENS TODAY in SELECT THEATERS and on VOD

From the NEW YORK TIMES:

“The Sacchettis’ friend May (Lisa Marie, of “Ed Wood” and “Mars Attacks”), who dabbles in the paranormal, comes to investigate Anne’s hopeful sense that Bobby’s spirit is in the house.

Some of the scariest and funniest bits come from May’s husband, Jacob, the veteran horror actor Larry Fessenden (director of “Wendigo”), who reaches back to “The Shining” and Jack Nicholson’s crazy eyes, and draws on the archetypal genre battle for a human soul, “The Exorcist,” as he wrestles with a demon. (He loses and has to swallow a nasty-looking gym sock.)”

Read Full review in the New York Times

Twitch sat down with WE ARE STILL HERE cast members Barbara Crampton, Fessenden, Lisa Marie, and Andrew Sensenig, and they talked about everything from the gore in the movie to the possibility of sequels!

Read on for all the gory details from Twitch!

[Photo above, L-R: Andrew Sensenig, Ted Geoghegan, Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Travis Stevens, Lisa Marie, Karim Hussain. Set photos by Stacy Buchanan / Wicked Bird Media.]

We Are Still Here has been garnering enthusiastic reviews from its premiere at SXSW and subsequent screenings at Boston Underground Film Festival and the Stanley Film Festival, with other festival screenings to come. The film is currently playing a limited theatre run, and will be available on VOD on June 5th. You can read Peter Martin’s original SXSW review here. If you’ve missed the trailer, you can watch it below.

I was able to visit the set in freezing upstate New York in February 2014 and speak to cast members Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, and Andrew Sensenig.

TwitchFilm: Larry, how did you get involved with We Are Still Here?

Larry Fessenden: Ted (Geoghegan, director/writer) just asked me very casually at the bar if I would do it. Of course, I knew the executive producer, Greg Newman. I was excited tha Ted had gotten the green light, because I’ve known him for some time, and I said sure. Scheduling was a little more dicey, so I came in late to the shoot, but as a result, it was fun to see everyone already comfortable with each other and walk onto set get right into mayhem. We shot out of order, so the first stuff we did was the absolute craziest because we shot out of the house.

There’s lots of gore in the story.

READ ON…

As of this writing, WE ARE STILL HERE, featuring Fessenden, Barbara Crampton, and Andrew Sensenig, and directed by GEP-pal Ted Geoghegan, is getting tons of critical love! With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% fresh, it’s clear that WE ARE STILL HERE ain’t your average spook-show.