I’ve been on a bit of a Larry Fessenden kick lately either intentionally or by circumstance. I really wanted to talk about the movie Late Phaseswhich has a cameo from the man and his name in the produced by section. This led to one of our favorites in Danielle Harris wishing that more people knew about a movie she did called Stake Land. While this had a six degrees of separation angle attached to it with Late Phases star Nick Damichi also starring and writing Stake Land, it also brought back Fessenden in his comfortable producer role, oh and another cameo. We’ve gone down another rabbit hole and heard from the man himself that The Last Winter (watch it HERE) is a movie of his that he wishes had been seen by more people. This movie see’s Larry in not only his producing and cameo roles that he is known for but also in the hats of Director, Writer, and Editor. We here at JoBlo Horror Originals happen to agree with the man that The Last Winter in one of the Best Horror Movies You Never Saw.
CUT & RUN, the newest short flick penned & directed by former Glass Eye Intern Luke LeCount, comes to Arrow Video Player this June. Starring GEP pal Rigo Garay (BLACKOUT, CRUMB CATCHER), cinematography by Sean Myrick Sellers, music by Garren Reach aka Blood Handsome, produced by Ori Manahan, edited by Jordan Yagiello.
Poster art by Dusty Neal
Watch the June on ARROW trailer, featuring Cut & Run.
From Arrow: Featuring a witchy new Cult film, the blood-splattered new restoration of a slasher classic, a fun foursome of action and shenanigans from Nico Mastorakis, and the new series of addictive and immense gangster epic Gomorrah. Plus, there are incredible short films featuring giallo, under-pressure crime, ouija boards, and even navel fetishes!
In this episode of the American Cinematographer Podcast, cinematographer Collin Brazie and writer/director/producer Larry Fessenden talk about their work on the feature film Blackout, starring Alex Hurt as Charlie, a tortured man with a dark secret — he’s a werewolf — and he might be the only one who can put an end to the random acts of violence plaguing the idyllic hamlet of Talbot Falls.
Set at an isolated mountain lodge where nothing is as it seems, 8 friends try to stay alive with a killer on the loose. Players define the relationships between the characters through dialogue and experience the night from their unique point of view. Written in collaboration with famed horror writers and directors Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, find out who will survive Until Dawn.
Rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, Until Dawn has seen enhancements across the board, all made with passion and care for the original from the team of horror lovers, film fanatics, and veteran game makers at Ballistic Moon; and it’s coming to PS5 and PC this year!
Until Dawn has been rebuilt with the latest tools and techniques. New and improved animations build on the success of the original character performances. Characters, environments and VFX have been upgraded – all for a truly enhanced cinematic horror experience.
We use a broader cinematic tonal colour palette and new perspectives to make the story more nuanced and emotional. We’ve been brave enough to shine a light into the dark, unseen corners of Blackwood Mountain and added a third-person camera, which means you can now look behind the curtain of the original game, exploring enhanced and new locations with new interactions and collectables.
Incorporating a third-person camera and adding contextual character movement animations, the game now allows the player to really feel the experience of that fateful night.
Until Dawn’s sound has undergone a massive overhaul too, featuring a new score from legendary horror composer Mark Korven.
We’ve endeavoured to keep the fantastic narrative integratory of the original, but we have seized the opportunity to expand upon unexplored emotional parts of the story.
Look out for more news on this enhanced version of Until Dawn coming later this year.
Fessenden and Kunkle animating the Creepy Christmas epic SANTA CLAWS, 2008
Brent began his career assisting at indie non-profit film champion IFP, and then joined Iridium Entertainment for a short period as a producer’s and development assistant. He later transitioned into film production as production coordinator and music supervisor on LIBERTY KID (Winner of Best Picture at the 2007 NY Int’l Latino Film Festival), produced by Mike S. Ryan and Larry Fessenden.
In 2007, Brent began working full-time for Fessenden at Glass Eye Pix. There he served as line producer on I SELL THE DEAD, starring Dominic Monaghan and Ron Perlman, and production supervisor on Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. He co-produced JT Petty’s short film BLOOD RED EARTH and produced Graham Reznick’s 3D short film THE VIEWER. Along with Peter Phok, Kunkle produced a slate of “pulp” thrillers with Glass Eye Pix and Dark Sky Films, including Joe Maggio’s BITTER FEAST, Jim Mickle’s STAKE LAND, (Midnight Madness award winner at 2010’s Toronto Int’l FF); and James Felix McKenney’s HYPOTHERMIA starring Michael Rooker. Brent went on to produce Rick Alverson’s Sundance dramatic competition selection THE COMEDY, starring Tim Heidecker. He is producer of Aram Garriga’s feature documentary, AMERICAN JESUS, and Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s LATE PHASES. He left Glass Eye Pix in 2014.
After Glass Eye, Kunkle worked with Morgan Spurlock (RIP) on CNN’s “Inside Man.” Since then Kunkle has become a verité driven documentary producer, who recently served as Co-Executive Producer on E. Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin’s six-part docuseries “Photographer.” Previously served as a Producer on Matthew Heineman’s Emmy-Winning Showtime Series “The Trade,” National Geographic “Explorer,” Animal Planet’s “The Zoo,” A&E’s “American Takedown” and Showtime’s “Seven Deadly Sins.”
Twenty millennia ago when we made spears, we did so, gazing at you. We chipped flint, scraped hides and sang our bison songs in soot and pigment. We begged old bones for marrow. Wrapping sinew, binding stone to wood, we crouched on red clay inventing new vocabulary: to stalk, to hunt, to terrify to defend against every sharp thing including ourselves.
In shadow we painted our faces ochre, stretched skin till it pounded, and gathered twigs to feed your crimson fury. Your blood-flame sears our eyes; we raise our sulfured veins to you. The white smoke rises. We scream your fire. Overhead, peering through dark branches you glowed approval, so we made you God of War.
You lurk in lovely places. Like Normandy. Sparta. Hastings. You galloped with Genghis Khan, loaded longbows at Agincourt, stiffened limbs at Gettysburg. Sun Tzu wrote your biography. In the killing fields of Khmer Rouge, you stirred the pot, and grinned at us. In mustard gas and mushroom cloud and shrapneled flags you beckon; at bloody dusk your colors flap while both sides slip away. When Augustus howled for his lost legions, demanding their return, it was you who whispered, “Never …”
What did you think of us, I wonder, when you crouched in the phalanx at Thermopylae, and picked your teeth on the Persian arrows? Were you ashamed when we dared show mercy? Or did you blush with pride at the slaughter, at the wailing and waste, the endless parade of penetration? We remain your eager children, grateful for the chores. You spoil us in skirmish, in genocide, in famine. And if we’re very, very good perhaps a holocaust. Meanwhile, the Tooth Fairy tiptoes in and leaves a hand grenade.
Your black-bearded sons — Phobos, Deimos — flash scorpion smiles, forked tongues flicking, while you circle closer now than ever before. Close enough to revel in the embers to sift the white ash to splash the black puddles to gnaw the young bones. Close enough to smell the charred cinders and touch the cold stones of every fire we light for you.
JOHN JAY SPEREDAKOS is a New York-based actor and writer with a BA from Muhlenberg and an MFA from Rutgers. He has performed on Broadway, in film, and in TV; and he is a devoted daddy to Calliope. His poetry appears in magazines, journals, and anthologies. More information can be found at his IMDb page. This piece first appeared in earlier versions in River Heron Review and Chaleur Magazine. John has appeared in over a dozen Glass Eye Movies including WENDIGO, I SELL THE DEAD, STRAY BULLETS, BLACKOUT, and CRUMB CATCHER. For more of John (and his latest poem, Keats is Keats, please enjoy his GEP MINIDOC.)
Glass Eye Pix is the fierce independent NYC-based production outfit headed by award-winning art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. Read more...
