The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) always delivers an incredible selection of chillers, thrillers, the funny, and the outrageous, and this year’s edition — once again virtual — certainly keeps that tradition alive. The fest has announced its first wave of films, and from the frightening (such as The Ones You Didn’t Burn) to the freaky […]
Margot K. Juby, British author of the 2018 book The Martyrdom of Gilles de Rais, has spent much of her life fascinated with de Rais, the controversial French historical figure who was once made a Marshal of France for his valor in the war against the English but later tried and executed for crimes ranging […]
Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest has announced the full lineup for its 2022 edition from March 4-6, and it’s a wild one, as always! This unique film festival offers up a bounty of cinematic strangeness, including documentaries and narrative features about alien contact, cryptid creatures, and slasher mayhem. The official press announcement follows. MidWest WeirdFest announces its […]
The excellent short film You’re Dead Helen (AKA You’re Dead Hélène and its original title T’es morte Hélène; 2021), which Gruesome Magazine called “a remarkable genre-blending effort that takes viewers on a ride through three different storytelling genres and a wide range of emotions” in an enthusiastic review, has been shortlisted for Oscars nomination and […]
FrightFest has outdone itself with its line-up announcement for the FrightFest Glasgow 2022 edition! With no less than a dozen outstanding fright-fare and thriller offerings from around the globe, this is a can’t-miss film festival for aficionados of the strange and the suspenseful. Following is the official press announcement. The UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy […]
The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival hosts a treasure trove of incredible fear fare for its 7th edition, which is set for February 3-6, 2022 on the big screen and in person, with a worldwide On Demand presentation of most of its scheduled short films. In addition to presenting 7 fine feature films, the fest […]
Chile/Argentina coproduction Apps is a horror anthology based around smartphone apps. Its segments are much like apps in that some work well while others are disappointing. After the first segment of the good-looking but rather lackluster wraparound “Date Freak,” the film kicks into high gear with director Jose Miguel Zuniga’s “Eye Wolf,” in which female […]
U.K. horror feature The Last Rite mixes a few different elements of terror, resulting in an effort that tries to pack too much into one film but boasts some effective spookiness. Bethan Waller’s performance, especially during the second half, is enough to warrant a recommendation. Waller stars as Lucy, a young woman who begins seeing […]
What’s a young girl to do when she has a mother that isn’t big on communication and interaction, a teen sister who worships H.P. Lovecraft’s fictional Old Gods, her father has recently passed away — and she begins seeing a strange, frightening creature outside her window? Writer/director O.B. De Alessi explores these questions and others […]
Writer/director Michiel Blanchart’s Belgian/French short film You’re Dead Hélène (T’es morte Hélène; 2021) is a remarkable genre-blending effort that takes viewers on a ride through three different storytelling genres and a wide range of emotions. Hélène (Lucile Vignolles) is in a complicated relationship with Maxime (Théophile Roux). She is having a hard time letting go […]
The Australian feature An Ideal Host (2020) is a horror/science fiction/comedy hybrid that delivers on all three fronts. Liz (Nadia Collins) and Jackson (Evan Williams) are planning the ideal dinner party at which Jackson will “spontaneously” propose to Liz — something that the couple has rehearsed well — surprising all the guests. We all know […]
The latest entry in the folk horror/religious cult subgenres of cinema is the Canadian offering The Family (2021) and it is a dark film, indeed. It offers top-notch acting and a heavy sense of dread from the opening scenes, but unfortunately recalls films — one in particular that I won’t spoil here — that have […]
The Grue-Crew members love a good monster movie, and it looks like we have one coming our way from the U.K. Walking Against the Rain from first-time feature director Scott Lyus has entered its post-production stage, and the filmmakers have released a few images to whet our fright-fare appetites. Following is the official press announcement. […]
Writer/director Kåre Bergstrøm’s Lake of the Dead (De dødes tjern, 1958), stated by some sources as being Norway’s first horror film and voted by critics in 2001 as one of the country’s top five films of all time, is a superb folk horror film filled with haunting black-and-white imagery. It boasts top-notch acting and intelligent […]
Writer/director Philipp Yuryev’s Russian short Tale of the Deaf is one of the most visually extraordinary films of this year. Shot in sumptuous black-and-white by director of photography Mikhail Kasaya, this gothic chiller is a diabolical delight. A deaf man (Russian rapper Husky) tries to entertain a tavern full of paupers with shadow play but […]