Director McClain Lindquist takes Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and gives it a modern updating that is true to the source material but adds a new approach in his short film The Tell Tale Heart. The result is a fascinating character study of a narrator who speaks in 19th-century fashion while […]
After its wildly successful online edition last year, The Fantasia International Film Festival will once again go the virtual route as it celebrates its 25th edition from August 5 through August 25, 2021. The festival has announced its opening night feature film, the world premiere of Julien Knafo’s Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze, and revealed […]
Australian short film The Moogai won this year’s SXSW Jury Prize in the Midnight Short section, and for good reason. Writer/director Jon Bell’s harrowing short film is rich in spine-tingling atmosphere, with a gripping, meaningful story and solid performances. Sarah (Shari Sebbens) and Fergus (Meyne Watt) have a newborn baby, and Sarah begins seeing haunting […]
Writer/director Nicholas Woods’ Echoes of Violence is a taut revenge thriller with occasional moments of dark humor. It is headier than the usual offerings in this subgenre, looks great, is well acted and directed, and offers some intriguing subplots. Job-hating real estate agent Alex (Heston Horwin) is trying to show a remote property in Sedona, […]
Winner of this year’s MidWest WeirdFest Best Horror Film award, writer/director George Adams’ Lady Usher is an outré, warped modern reimagining of the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It’s a delirious psychosexual trip featuring solid performances and an auteur vision. Roderick (John Tupy) takes a break from college to […]
No matter the number of extraterrestrial contact documentaries you have watched in the past, the chances are good that you have never seen one quite like the short film Alien Abduction (2021). It hovers somewhere in the planes of the experimental, pop art, and the outré. AV Super Sunshine and Philomena, members of the Wisconsin […]
The tension between Abel (Eoin Slattery) and his wife Grace (Rebecca Palmer) is palpable, but their strained relationship takes a back seat when the titular creature comes calling in the U.K. horror short The Thing That Ate the Birds. It’s obvious from their terse interactions that the couple has had problems for a long time, […]
Writer/director J.M. Logan’s horror short The Relic starts pretty much just before where the climax of a feature film would be kicking in, dropping viewers in on a highly tense, dizzying situation. The short builds from there into a grand, breathtaking climax. Mind-bending visuals, solid performances from its ensemble cast, and suspenseful direction highlight this […]
Returning to the free, online format that worked so successfully for it last year, Brazil’s Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival will again hold a free online version for its 2021 edition. The fest has announced the first batch of its scheduled offerings for this year, including international horror films and horror comedies galore. Following is the […]
Vienna, Austria’s SLASH Filmfestival showcases horror, science fiction, fantasy, and other genre films from around the world and the fest has planned two exciting events this year. SLASH Filmfestival is currently open for submissions for both features and shorts. Following is the official press announcement. SLASH Filmfestival, Austria’s leading festival for Fantastic Film and the […]
In the following review for syndication, director Chris Bell talks about familial horror influences, his South London ‘hooligangster’ phase, and learning new lockdown skills, ahead of the U.K. Digital release of THE HEIRESS on March 15, 2021 courtesy of the Movie Partnership, in association with Old Way Film & Television, and its U.S. and Canadian […]
Writer/director Caroline Lindy’s horror comedy Your Monster is a sharp, sweet short film that explores relationships with lovers and friends — while wryly commenting on social topics such as gender neutrality — through the eyes and mindset of a young woman and the monster that has lived in her bedroom closet since she was a […]
Writer/director Mark Sheridan’s Irish feature Crone Wood (2016) combines folk horror elements with stuck-in-the-woods fright-fare basics. The result is an interesting effort that doesn’t cover a lot of new ground, but does offer an entertaining 86-minute ride. The film is shot in a cinéma vérité style with multiple handheld cameras. As I have mentioned in […]
Director Kerry Prior, who helmed the 2009 horror film The Revenant, will see his previously lost 1999 found footage feature The Blare Rabbit Project receive its world premiere screening at Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest this March. Details follow in the festival’s official press announcement. A found footage feature film, thought lost for over 20 years, is […]
Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest reliably features some of the most unusual, exciting, and entertaining narrative features and documentaries from around the world, and the fest’s first wave announcement for this year shows that the tradition continues. From Lovecraft and Poe to Mokele-Mbembe and far, far beyond, the first seven features announced are something to look forward […]