cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19066860

> > For a good scare with a local twist, look no further than Haunted Ulster Live — a new Belfast-based spookfest that is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. > When interviewed last year by this newspaper about the comedy-horror film, director Dominic O’Neill had described it as being a bit like “UTV meets The Blair Witch Project”. > > > >Now he has referenced it as also being a love letter to Northern Ireland in the “90s, and local community television”. > > > >A synopsis for the movie says: “On Halloween night 1998, Northern Ireland TV veteran Gerry Burns teams up with popular new children’s presenter Michelle Kelly to investigate poltergeist activity in a reputedly haunted house in Belfast. Light entertainment turns to horror when an unseen terror reveals itself. > > > >“Combining found footage horror, folklore and a nostalgia for regional television, Haunted Ulster Live recreates a familiar world of 90s light entertainment which, much like Belfast itself during the Northern Ireland Troubles, is haunted by something unseen and sinister.” > > > >Haunted Ulster Live premiered at FrightFest 2023, with a local premiere at the Belfast Film Festival. > > > > ... > > > > Having been released on streaming services on October 14, Dominic said the film has had “a really good reception and great print reviews”, including glowing reports from The Guardian, and movie/fantasy magazines such as Total Film, SFX and Filmhounds. > > > > ... > > > > ​Viewers can buy/stream Haunted Ulster Live now on Prime Video, Apple TV or Google Play > > Previously: > > * 'Haunted Ulster Live' Exclusive Clip: A Strange Case of Sleepwalking > * 'Haunted Ulster Live' Trailer- Chilling Mockumentary Compared to 'Ghostwatch' and 'Late Night With the Devil'

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19042886

> >Members Club may be the rarest type of comedy horror movie. The plot follows a group of middle aged men who work together in a strip group known as Wet Dreams. Business is not as strong as it once and their manager soon announces he will be selling the company. Just when things are at their worst, the friends are offered a lucrative gig. They soon learn they are part of a bloody scheme to resurrect a centuries old witch. > > >Folk horror can be difficult to define. It is not as in your face as a slasher or as obvious as a haunted house story. Since it is based in folklore, this makes the definition very broad. It is one of those cases of “I know it when I see it.” However, most people will agree there are not many folk horror comedy movies. (Unless you count ghost stories as folk horror, in which case there are a large number of films that mix folk horror and comedy.) > > >There are no ghosts in Members Club, but there are witches, books of magic, rituals, sacrifices, and a number of mystical symbols. The creature design is great with the witch being of the old hag variety. She looks suitably disgusting. There are also some great special effects involving missing eyes, body parts being removed, and some gruesome deaths...

> It’s possible that no one wants to see a Happy Death Day 3 more than director Christopher Landon, with the filmmaker recently confirming he has written a treatment for the project, though hasn’t committed to writing a full script as the project hasn’t yet been confirmed. Fans have been asking Landon about the third entry, which was teased with a post-credits scene in Happy Death Day 2U, ever since 2019, and another promising tease is that Landon doesn’t get sick of all the love fans show him and even encourages audiences to keep showing their support. Despite fan enthusiasm for the series, the last entry wasn’t a major financial earner, which has prevented momentum from developing on a trilogy closer. > > “I could say that I wrote a treatment. I didn’t write the script, because I wouldn’t write a script unless it was a sure thing,” Landon confirmed to ComicBook at New York Comic Con when asked about the status of the third entry. “Here’s the cool thing: It is a bigger movie, and it is not set on the same day as the previous two films. That’s the biggest spoiler I’ve put out there.” > > As far as whether fans should stop pestering Landon about it, the filmmaker teased, “I don’t hate it at all. I love it, I’m all for it. I want people to keep asking because I feel like if people keep asking, we all might actually get it.” > > ... > > Not only is Landon hoping that the sequel will move forward, but star Rothe is just as excited, as she shared earlier this year how passionate she is about reviving Tree. > > “Well, I can say [writer/director] Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe confirmed to Screen Geek. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row. But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18926791

> > Liquid Slam's ad campaign for their "Big Game" line of snacks and sugary beverages was pulled almost immediately. > > IMDb

> Sean Astin may not be getting the Goonies sequel he’s hoping for, but he does have a role in an upcoming movie that has a shot at achieving cult classic status: a horror comedy called The Invisible Raptor, which will be receiving a theatrical and digital release (courtesy of Well Go USA) on December 6th. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival and currently, with seven reviews, has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. > > Directed by Mike Hermosa from a screenplay by Mike Capes and Johnny Wickham, The Invisible Raptor has the following synopsis: After a top-secret experiment goes wrong, a hyper-intelligent invisible raptor escapes the lab and begins wreaking havoc in the surrounding neighborhood. When the creature’s identity is uncovered, it soon becomes clear that a disgraced paleontologist—alongside his ex-girlfriend, an unhinged amusement park security guard, and a local celebrity chicken farmer—is the town’s only hope for surviving the raptor’s ravenous rampage. > > ... > > The positive reviews of The Invisible Raptor have described it as “the smart version of a stupid movie,” “hilariously dumb,” “downright batshit,” “joyously silly,” and “inventive throughout,” and it’s said to have “likeable characters” and some “genuinely entertaining gore.” That sounds like a good time to me, so hopefully a trailer will be dropping online soon.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18439721

> > A teaser trailer has been released for a Scottish horror comedy film about mutant killer midges. > > > >Fort William-based author and screenwriter Barry Hutchison posted his idea for the movie on social media last summer as a joke. > > > >The response to the post has led to Midgies going into a pre-production phase with cast and locations being considered ahead of a plan to film next year. > > > >Glasgow-based film-maker Alessio Avezzano shot the short teaser this summer, with some of the filming done in Balloch Country Park, West Dunbartonshire. > > > > ... > > > > The teaser features two walkers coming across a frightened scientist, and a laboratory under attack from an unseen menace. > > > >Scottish companies including Motif Studios, which worked on visual effects for a Mad Max film, and digital entertainment firm Blazing Griffin were involved in making the three minute-long short film. > > > > ... > > > > He said the new teaser would form part of a package of materials which will be pitched at film production companies and potential funders. > > > >"We were hoping to be a little further on," said Hutchison. > > > >"Writer and actor strikes in the US ground film production globally to a halt in many ways. As a result of that we lost our US producer." > > > >Hutchison said the focus was now on making the film as much of a Scottish production as possible. > > > > ... > > > > Hutchison added: "We are looking to shoot next year in the summer, although we will be plagued by actual midges which could be problematic." > > Teaser trailer > > IMDb

> Workaholic yuppie Conor is in an existential rut until one night he catches a bizarre ad for a party hotline hosted by a strange dancing goblin: Frankie Freako. Could this be just the recipe to spice up his boring life?

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> Obsessed with living up to her dead father's legacy a young sheriff finds her mettle tested when locals are found ripped to shreds.

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> An aspiring teen filmmaker casts the perfect lead for his breakout zombie film: his undead dad.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/16564038

> A karmic journey that sees the hapless heroine Agnes (Alice Lowe) reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man. > > https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/706693-timestalker

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18155281

> > Fans of mockumentary horror such as Ghostwatch or the more recent Late Night With the Devil prepare to add another to your nightmarish collection with Haunted Ulster Live, which takes viewers back to Halloween night, 1998, where a live broadcast from a haunted house in Belfast goes hauntingly wrong. The footage is so disturbing that it hasn’t been seen in 25 years. > > > > Bloody Disgusting is excited to share the trailer for Halloween-themed horror that will release across all platforms, including our SCREAMBOX streaming service, on October 8th. > > > >Haunted Ulster Live takes place on Halloween night. Gerry Burns (Mark Claney) teams up with popular children’s presenter Michelle Kelly (Aimee Richardson) to investigate poltergeist activity in a haunted house in Belfast. Dead Northern writes: “Ghostwatch finally meets its match with Haunted Ulster Live!” > > > >Written and Directed by Dominic O’Neill (“Belfast 1912”), the film also stars Siobhan Kelly. > > > >“We’re found footage fanatics, and devotees of the genre will hopefully enjoy the faux doc chills of Haunted Ulster Live,” said O’Neill. “We grew up on old Irish and British horror TV, the kind of TV that makes you want to hide behind the couch when you’re a kid! Our film is firmly rooted in 90’s Belfast, drawing from the rich well of Irish folk stories, and the conflict of that time.” > > Trailer > > IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18011510

> >Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun), the male half of the married couple at the center of the devious horror comedy Sleep, suffers from a seriously disturbing case of somnambulism. But he otherwise enjoys the blissful slumber typically reserved for holy innocents. He drifts off easily and sleeps deeply, even when encased in the mummy bag and oven gloves meant to prevent him from unconsciously hurting himself. Sometimes, there’s even a hint of a smile on his dozing face, which starts to seem like more and more like an affront to his wife, Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi), when she stays up watching him with a mixture of concern and fear. You can be in lockstep in every other area of your relationship, and still, sleep remains a kingdom that can only be entered alone. And when there, Hyun-su has a tendency to do upsetting things he has no memory of later, like stare into the darkness while muttering “Someone’s inside” or stand in front of the fridge eating raw meat. One night, he scratches his cheek until it’s gouged open, and that’s before the situation gets really dark — like, don’t get too attached to the pair’s little Pomeranian dark. Sleep is a film about parasomnia that’s really more about marriage — in particular, the idea that any relationship challenge can be overcome with enough dedication, even one that leaves you afraid that your partner is going to unwittingly do something terrible to your newborn daughter... > > > >... The pleasures of Sleep come from the turns it takes but also from the deftness of Yu’s approach. The film is unpredictable because it feels like it’s formulating its journey in real time. And despite that, there’s care in its every intimate detail. Sleep may be modest, taking place largely in the one-bedroom Hyun-su and Soo-jin share, but that modesty is a strength, with every well-loved detail of the set reflecting the relationship the couple assumed was unshakably solid. Yu uses each foot of the confined space to his full advantage — a scene in which blood has been tracked across this place of cozy domesticity plays like a defilement — and shows how an intimate home can become a threateningly claustrophobic arrangement in a sequence in which Soo-jin seeks refuge in the bathroom, the camera mirroring her wary gaze. But it’s the sly way that the film starts off lodged in one character’s perspective, and makes its way to the other’s, that enables its rollicking final act to work as well as it does. Sleep is a wild ride, but it refuses to lose sight of the emotional state of the people it puts onscreen, even as they fall apart.

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18011751

> >Ghosts usually come with a fair bit of baggage in the movies: A tragic romance leading to an even more tragic suicide, maybe, or a howl for justice from a murder victim from beyond the grave. The protagonist of “Dead Talents Society” has no such tale attached to her untimely (and embarrassing) death, and this is where her problems begin. John Hsu’s frightfully entertaining Taiwanese horror-comedy imagines a world where the dead are just as beholden to the pressures of fame as the living, and an industry has grown around ambitious apparitions building their personal brands. Urban legends live forever, and forgotten ghosts literally disappear — so get out there and scare ‘em good, kid!

> A man learns that his immortality comes with severe mental consequences.

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Now with added Al Jourgensen:

!

> It's a love affair > Mainly Jesus and my hot rod

> Nick Frost is no stranger to horror comedies, having starred in such modern classics as Shaun of the Dead and Attack the Block. This year, the actor has already starred in Krazy House (review), and now he is reuniting with that film’s director Steffen Haars in Get Away, a frequently amusing folk horror comedy that relishes in bloodshed almost as much as it does cringe comedy. > > The Smith Family, comprised of patriarch Richard (Nick Frost), matriarch Susan (Aisling Bea), sister Jessie (Maisie Ayres) and brother Sam (Heartstopper‘s Sebastian Croft), is spending their holiday on Svälta, a fictional Swedish island with a dark past tied to Susan’s ancestor. Despite warnings not to from quite literally everyone they cross paths with along the way, the Smiths arrive on the island and are greeted with immediate hostility from the mainlanders, especially from the skeptical town elder (Anitta Suikkari), who is busy directing a play for their annual Karantan festival. Upon arriving at their AirBnb, the Smith family starts to notice strange occurrences happening on the island, as well as a few too many coffins being loaded onto boats at the harbor, leading to a comically violent fight for survival as Karantan draws near.

IMDb

> The 1980s were a great decade for science fiction movies in general, and this included some great sci-fi comedies. With Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and two classic Star Wars movies, the 1980s was filled with classic sci-fi movies that changed the genre forever. This change was reflected in some great comedies too, many of which spoofed the genre's many tropes. > > Movies like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters showed that sci-fi could be hilarious while still telling fascinating stories. Some of the best sci-fi comedies of the decade would still be just as compelling with their humor ripped out, and this is often what separates a good comedy from a great one. Many of the decade's funniest sci-fi movies started long-running franchises, while others have a distinctly 1980s feel that gives them a nostalgic quality.

1. Back To The Future (1985)
2. Ghostbusters (1984)
3. Brazil (1985)
4. Spaceballs (1987)
5. Back To The Future Part II (1989)
6. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
7. Repo Man (1984)
8. Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989)
9. Short Circuit (1986)
10. Weird Science (1985)

> Horror can be a difficult genre to get into. While its fans enjoy feeling the tension provided by a good horror movie, those who are less experienced with the genre often don't enjoy that feeling. But, for many, a comedic tone can help to remedy this issue. > > Horror comedies are a great way to get into the genre. Horror is all about building tension, but laughter is all about relieving it. As a result, the best horror comedies don't stay tense for too long because they know when to put audiences on edge, while also knowing when to make them feel comfortable with a joke. The filmmakers behind these movies expertly blend screams and laughs to create horror films that are perfect for those who don't typically like the genre.

1. 'Evil Dead II' (1987)
2. 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004)
3. 'Zombieland' (2009)
4. 'Ready or Not' (2019)
5. 'The Cabin in the Woods' (2012)
6. 'Gremlins' (1984)
7. 'Freaky' (2020)
8. 'Tucker & Dale vs. Evil' (2010)
9. 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space' (1988)
10. 'Happy Death Day' (2017)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17632508

> IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17623208

> > Breaking Glass Pictures is releasing the horror comedy Hayride to Hell on the road to Halloween, and Bloody Disgusting is exclusively debuting the film’s official trailer today. > > > >Starring horror legends Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder, who previously worked together on Old 37, Hayride to Hell will be released on Digital and On Demand on September 24. > > > >Take a ride on the Hayride to Hell by watching the official trailer below. > > > > ... > > > > “Set on the Coxe Family Farm in rural Willis County, Farmer Sam (Bill Moseley) exacts his bloody revenge on unscrupulous local town-folk, including Sheriff Jubel (Kane Hodder), who menace him and attempt to steal the farm that has been in his family for 200 years.” > > Trailer > > IMDb

> Director Max Minghella (Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Horns) wears his cinematic influences on his sleeves with sophomore feature effort Shell, a body horror dark comedy written by Jack Stanley (The Passenger). > > Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) finds herself embarking on a scary new beauty treatment as aging actor Samantha Lake. She quickly befriends Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson), CEO of health & wellness company Shell. When their patients start to go missing, including starlet Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber), Samantha realizes Shell may be protecting a monstrous secret. > >The escapist love letter to ’90s cinema leans into dark comedy, but embraces everything from Paul Verhoeven to Soapdish, Species, and Sliver, if that’s any indicator of genre range here. Bloody Disgusting spoke with Minghella, who made his feature directorial debut with 2018’s Teen Spirit, about the genre-bender out of TIFF, where the film had its World Premiere.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17574706

> > “That was never going to work for Tim,” Abdy said about making the “Beetlejuice” sequel for streaming. “You’re talking about a visionary artist whose films demand to be seen on a big screen.” > > > >The big issue between Burton and the studio was that the projected budget for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at one point was around $147 million, largely due to “star salaries and producer fees.” That’s when De Luca and Abdy approached Burton and said he could make the sequel for an exclusive theatrical release as long as he got the budget down below the $100 million mark. They worked together to greenlight “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” for $99 million, with Burton and cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Catherine O’Hara agreeing to less money up front but sizable back end deals that will now surely pay off since the sequel is a box office hit.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42606764

> > From director Bong Joon Ho, comes Mickey 17 - only in theaters January 31, 2025.

> In her “Krazy House” review for IndieWire, critic Katie Rife described writer/directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil’s absurdist Dutch horror comedy as testing “the limits of taste.” > >With its hyper-violent style and blasphemous dark humor, the latest feature from the filmmakers behind “New Kids Turbo” and “Bros Before Hos” also inspired Rife to write that their movie was “like an Adult Swim infomercial directed by black-metal teenagers.” That’s a point of pride in the outrageous project’s equally unapologetic first trailer — which debuted exclusively with IndieWire after “Krazy House” made its divisive world premiere at Sundance in January.

Trailer

> This cheeky suburban black comedy-horror confection builds from a slow start to a delicious finish, making up for what it lacks in subtlety with a whopping dose of impish delight. > > ... > > To reveal more would spoil a good last-third twist that morphs from suspense to high-camp comedy drenched in gore. Let’s just say there’s more going on behind Janet’s glossy veneer of sang-froid than you might initially think. Eastwood’s deadpan expression, the one thing that strongly recalls her father as an actor, is a secret weapon here, along with Culpo’s snippy timing, which does justice to screenwriter April Wolfe’s chucklesome one-liners.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17520035

> > # Kevin Smith reveals how and why KillRoy Was Here became an NFT release > ====================================================================== > > Two years after his horror anthology KillRoy Was Here received an NFT release, Kevin Smith has revealed exactly how and why that happened > > By Cody Hamman > > September 16th 2024, 9:14am > > Two years have passed since Kevin Smith's horror anthology KillRoy Was Here made its way out into the world as an NFT -- and to this day, the only people who have seen the movie are those who have either bought the NFT, been given access to one of the NFTs, or attended a special screening. Which means so few people have seen KillRoy Was Here, it could almost be described as Smith's "lost movie." Now, while speaking to Entertainment Weekly and promoting his new film The 4:30 Movie, Smith has revealed exactly how and why the movie became an NFT release. > > Directed by Smith from a script he wrote with Andy McElfresh, KillRoy Was Here was made on a minuscule budget as a project with film students at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. The movie is a throwback anthology horror film featuring a creature that kills evil adults at the behest of victimized kids. The creature at the heart of the story is KillRoy, inspired by the "Kilroy was here" graffiti that became popular during World War II, showing a long-nosed man peeking over a fence. In this case, KillRoy started out as a Florida man named Roy Huggins, who was a soldier in the Vietnam War, not World War II, and when he was captured by enemy soldiers he got loose, killed a whole lot of people, and cannibalized one of the corpses. He had to be locked up in a mental institution, and when the place caught on fire Roy was left to burn. Now he's a supernatural being who stalks the Florida swamps, and his burns have left him looking a lot like that figure in the Kilroy graffiti. They say he has a psychic connection to kids, and if someone says his name three times he'll show up with his machete and start hacking away at anyone who has wronged a child. > > The cast includes Harley Quinn Smith, Jason Mewes, Chris Jericho, Betty Aberlin, Ralph Garman, Daisy McElfresh, and Justin Kucsulain. > > Smith told Entertainment Weekly, "We made this movie KillRoy Was Here with the kids at the Ringling College of Art and Design. I wound up with possession of the movie. When it was all done, I had this movie; perfectly watchable, Creepshow type of movie. So I reached out to Shudder and I was like, 'Hey man, you guys wanna run this? It's a Kevin Smith original, kind of horror movie. 30 grand.' That was it. Shudder was like, 'This is terrible. This isn't good enough for Shudder.' Then our producer on the movie, David (Shapiro), he goes, 'I met with this company, they are interested in buying a movie to release as an NFT. The first movie to release as an NFT, and what they wanna do is use it to showcase their blockchain technology.' And I was like, 'Oh, all right.' Perhaps this is another version of indie film, this is a new playground to go play in. Company paid us over a million dollars. I made a million dollars off of this movie. 'Not good enough for Shudder.'" Now, with that explanation, the whole NFT release strategy finally makes sense. > > KillRoy Was Here may not meet up to Shudder's standards, but here's hoping more of Smith's fans will have the chance to see the movie eventually. > >

> In a commentary track on Frankenhooker's DVD release with Frank Henenlotter (co-writer/director) and James Lorinz (actor), the problems the movie faced when going up against the MPAA were brought up. Henenlotter recalled a phone call with Richard Heffner who told him “Congratulations, you are the first film rated ‘S,’” When asked what that meant, he was told that 'S' stood for "sh*t." Henenlotter expressed that he was deeply hurt at the time, feeling that it was not their place to provide commentary on what they felt about the movie. This started a feud over the rating of the movie, and producer James Glickenhaus made it publicly known that he was fighting back. > > The movie eventually got an X rating (which was in use before being phased out the same year, 1990, in favor of NC-17). Henenlotter and his team refused the rating and released the film uncut and unrated, which came with its own problems with distribution. Frankenhooker would eventually gain an R rating when they cut some of the scene of exploding sex workers to six minutes from its original seven; again reflecting how petty and shallow the MPAA can be in their decisions. > > ... > > Frankehooker, along with Henenlotter's Basketcase and Brain Damage, have earned a substantial cult following. It is easy to see why, with all the movies blending dark humor chocked with memorable lines of dialogue, gore-soaked horror, and over-the-top creature effects. For Frankenhooker, you have the wonderfully charismatic Patty Mullen as the titular monster roaming the streets of New York asking random strangers if they "Wanna date?" There is also the infamous scene where multiple sex workers blow up after taking "super crack." To name but a few of the scenes that have made Frankenhooker a fan favorite.

> 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the iconic board game Clue, one of Hasbro's most recognizable properties throughout its existence. From fun nights with friends and family to the big screen with the surprising 1985 hit starring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd, among others, the tabletop deduction game has delighted with its simple yet effective cases, asking players to find the who, the what, and the where of a murder. Countless versions of the classic formula have been introduced throughout the years, including editions based on popular shows like Wednesday and Scooby-Doo. Now, The Op Games is bringing the Staten Island vampires into a whodunnit of their own with the new Clue: What We Do in the Shadows Edition and Collider can reveal an exclusive look at the game available now at major retailers. > > Lest you fear that the vampire housemates and their familiar Guillermo are going to be killing each other in this edition, fret not, as the goal of the game is not to find the killer, but the hider. Laszlo's cursed 100% witch skin hat, a frequent target of Nick Kroll's Simon the Devious, has once again gone missing. With Simon not around, though, one of the housemates is responsible for stashing the hat away somewhere in the Vampire Residence, and it's up to players to figure out who hid it, where it's located, and with what object it's obscured. Nandor, Nadja, Laszlo, Colin Robinson, Guillermo, and The Guide are all potential suspects, while the board itself features locations from the show like the Fancy Room and the attic where Baron Afanas once stayed. > > Everything from the board to the tokens, character movers, cards, and even the note sheets in the game is given a What We Do in the Shadows makeover, bringing the Vampire Residence to life as well as other iconic moments and locales from the series. The objects used to hide Laszlo's cursed hat are given grey and black etched pieces to place in each room and range from floorboards to the possessed Nadja doll. Intrigue cards also bring back memories from the show's five-season run thus far, with visits to the wellness club and invoking the classic "Bat!" granting players an advantage.

> Ageing and death are perhaps the foundation of all horror, but this droll French chamber piece, adapted from an 1839 novella by Aleksey Tolstoy, puts a devious spin on that. The titular “vourdalak” – a kind of Mitteleuropean vampire – is Gorcha, wizened patriarch of a family of forest-dwelling peasants, who is driven to feed on the blood of those he loves the most. With the film incarnating this beastie in the form of a toothy puppet resembling Norman Tebbit (voiced by director Adrian Beau), it’s a cruel but funny metaphor for parental authority and late-life dependency. Obviously they didn’t have assisted living in early modern Bohemia. > > ... > > Beau could have adapted this as straight gothic. Instead, he opts for an enjoyable high-strung comedy that, with him often shooting through Hammer-style soft gauze, skims pastiche. D’Urfé’s court manners are ridiculously superfluous in the rustic setting, exposed as hypocritical when he roughly pursues Sdenka, and then redundant in the face of the ghoulish paterfamilias scoffing at him down the dinner table.

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> Fresh off the film’s premiere at Sundance earlier this year, Netflix opened up their check book and shelled out a whopping $17 million to acquire worldwide rights to It’s What’s Inside, and the streaming service has released the upcoming movie’s official trailer this morning. > > It’s What’s Inside premieres globally on Netflix on October 4, 2024. > >Begin the twisted party game by watching the It’s What’s Inside official trailer below.

Trailer

> Meagan Navarro writes in her Sundance review for BD, “Its irreverent tone and Jardin’s visual eye ensure a highly entertaining time, though it becomes prone to tangled knots.” > >“The director pulls from his music video background for a vivacious, eye-catching feature that dazzles and lures you further into the tangled abyss, even as many of its central players frustrate,” Meagan continues. “Even still, It’s What’s Inside is pure fun. Moreover, it’s extremely funny. Jardin assembles an ensemble willing to push their frequently and intentionally insufferable characters past the point of insanity for our entertainment. On that front, Jardin’s debut is a stunning success. It’s a twisty puzzle box that demands your attention.” > > Meagan adds, “Not all the pieces fully come together, but Jardin’s ambitious debut will easily earn a devout following for its creative setup and commitment to bonkers fun.”

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> Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat set the bar high for herself in 2017, with her debut feature Revenge delivering a visceral, feminine twist to the rape-revenge thriller that climaxed in an epic bloodbath. So much that it seemed nearly impossible to top. Yet the filmmaker does just that with sophomore effort The Substance, transforming a familiar concept into something so entertaining and grotesquely over the top that it keeps you firmly in its grip until an epic, grand guignol finish.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16589411

> > The old eat the young. That is the back-of-a-beermat pitch for new Channel 4 drama Generation Z. And because the Z stands for zombie, the eating is meant literally. “I loved the idea of a horror story about societal breakdown, told from the perspective of different generations,” says its writer-director Ben Wheatley. “Once I started writing it, I couldn’t stop.” > > > >The film-maker’s first original series for TV begins with an army convoy crashing outside a care home. The subsequent chemical leak turns the residents into marauding monsters who attack local youngsters. “It’s a bit of a Brexit metaphor,” admits Wheatley. “But it’s by no means binary. We discuss it from each generation’s viewpoint, exploring the notion that boomers have ruined the lives of the young. Because it’s a genre piece, that’s basically by biting their hands and eating their brains.” > > > > ... > > > > “I love telly and watch a lot of it – Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos and Deadwood were the golden age for me – so I was keen to play with a different train set,” he says. “It was exciting to write in longer form, rather than the sprint that is a film script. In terms of production values and cinematic scale, TV has closed the gap on film. It’s like the difference between a single and an album. Actors move freely between the two now. The skillset’s no different. Any stigma has long gone.” > > > > Fittingly for a series punctuated by gruesome deaths, he’s assembled a killer cast. Playing the pensioners are veterans such as Sue Johnston and Anita Dobson. “Sue’s first day on set, she was biting someone’s nose off,” he says. “They got to do stuff they don’t usually do, running around covered in gore, and had a blast doing it.” The gore is created the old-fashioned way. “Everything is practical, with prosthetics or models. There are very few CG effects. When arms are ripped off and blood spurts, there are people pumping plasma just out of shot. We use jelly when organs need to be edible. It’s all very visceral.” > > > > ... > > > > Generation Z is coming to Channel 4 this autumn.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16563475

> > John Carpenter's The Thing as performed by the claymated, Antarctic cast of the hit children's animation Pingu. > > IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16411743

> > The first trailer for new vampire thriller The Radleys, starring Line of Duty's Kelly Macdonald, has been released. > > > >Adapted from Matt Haig's novel of the same name, the film centres around a married couple who are hiding a dark secret from their children: they're vampires. > > > > The film will receive its world premiere at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday, August 20. Sky has also confirmed The Radleys will then be released on Sky Cinema and in cinemas on October 18. > > > > ... > > > > "The Radleys are an ordinary family who hold a dark secret... they are abstaining vampires," reads the official synopsis for the film. > > > >"As if being a teenager wasn't bad enough, bloodthirsty instincts take over the teens of the family, revealing the terrifying truth and opening the door for an extended family member to re-enter and upend The Radleys' once perfect slice of suburbia." > > Trailer

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16340845

> > The Laundry Files started with an element of situational comedy juxtaposed on a background of nightmarish horror: the government agency for protecting us from the likes of Cthulhu turns out to be just another secret civil service bureaucracy with forms, committee meetings, and an obsession with secrecy. Into which we inject a narrator who is a brash young hacker-nerd from the late 90s dot-com culture (who has been conscripted willy-nilly into something structured a lot like a very 1950s-ish Len Deighton spy agency, if updated in line with health and safety and HR legislation). “The inappropriate hero” is one of the classic humorous narrative forms because it gives us a sympathetic viewpoint from which to explore the lunacy of a situation, and there’s plenty of humor in any bureaucracy (as the early Dilbert cartoon strips illustrated, before it jumped the shark circa 1998). > > > >By the eighth book in the Laundry Files, Bob isn’t an outsider anymore; indeed, he’s at the lower end of senior management, representing the agency in public. But there’s still plenty of situational humor to be extracted by watching how a government deals with a whole new bureaucracy it was hitherto unaware it possessed. > > > >And then, of course, there’s the horror element. Like humor, horror is a tone you can apply to any other genre of fiction. (You can have a horror-spy crossover, or horror on top of SF, or horror on top of historical fiction, or . . .) And I find combining horror and humor particularly useful because the one contrasts with the other to great effect.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16246386

> > This, though, is a very British journey into the macabre. The original title was “Tea Time of the Dead” (a spin on Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Dawn, and Day of the Dead). It was easy to understand the wariness among industry observers in April 2003 when they heard that the project was finally going into production. The director had sold his film to nonplussed trade journalists as “a naturalistic comedy about the zombified existence of late twentysomethings, crossbred with a full-scale zombie invasion”. > > > >That was a lot to devour. The director later elaborated on the Reel Feedback podcast that Shaun had been conceived in the manner of Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet (1990). Its heroes Shaun and Ed (Nick Frost) aren’t trying to save the world. They’re ordinary Londoners who, when clear and present danger looms, immediately look for refuge in their favourite pub, the Winchester, where they can have a “nice cold pint and wait for all this to blow over”. > > > > “Mostly in the American films, and even in 28 Days Later, it revolves around the military, or scientists, or people who can do something,” the director said. “What if it’s the least important people? What if it is two guys on the couch who are hungover and missed the news?” > > > >Wright’s admirers were ready to cut him some slack. He already had a fervent following in the UK thanks to cult TV sitcom Spaced, which also starred Pegg alongside Jessica Hynes. Nonetheless, that was no guarantee that he could make a successful movie. His debut feature A Fistful of Fingers (1995), a spoof western made in Somerset when he was barely 20, had received one or two encouraging reviews without making any impact at all at the box office. One critic summed up its ingredients as being “budget £10,000, cardboard horses and a handful of sixth-formers”. > > > >To certain foreign distributors, Shaun of the Dead didn’t seem a commercial proposition at all. It was far too quirky and sardonic. Senior managers at UIP, the company handling its international rollout, refused even to release it in some territories. > > > > ... > > > > A few weeks later, though, FilmFour went bust, and the funding for Shaun promptly vanished. There were many reasons why other industry executives were initially reluctant to bite on Shaun of the Dead. As Wright himself acknowledged in You’ve Got Red on You (2021), Clark Collis’s exhaustively researched book about the making of the film, British horror movies “died out” in the 1990s. The glory years of Hammer were a long way in the past. > > > > There had never really been a tradition of British zombie films anyway – and Wright himself was doubtful that the market was big enough for two of them at once. When he and Pegg were working on the first draft of the Shaun of the Dead screenplay, they were utterly dismayed to discover that Trainspotting director Danny Boyle and author Alex Garland were already hard at work on their own London-set story about the undead, 28 Days Later. > “I was like, “Argh, no! Oh, we’re f***ed!” Wright admitted to Collis. > > > >Omens on the comedy front weren’t any brighter. In February 2004, only two months before Shaun of the Dead was due to hit cinemas, The Sex Lives of the Potato Men, about the amorous misadventures of a group of vegetable delivery guys, had been fried to a crisp by indignant critics. “Nauseous”, “inept”, “smut for morons”, “witless and repulsive”, “useless”, and “one of the worst films of all time” were some of the nicer remarks reviewers made about the ill-fated film, which, like Shaun, starred several popular TV comedians. > > Archive

> Perhaps it’s fitting that a film about a ragtag rabble of not-so-superheroes failed to take off at the box office. But, 25 years since its release, the Ben Stiller-starring Mystery Men is worth rescuing from obscurity. That it hasn’t generated the cult following of so many other slightly under-the-radar movies of 1999 – think the cannibal horror movie Ravenous, or the Kirsten Dunst Watergate comedy Dick – feels criminal to the point of super-villainy. > >The first and to date last feature film by the TV commercial director Kinka Usher, Mystery Men now seems curiously placed within the history of comic book movies. Released on 6 August 1999 in the US, it spoofed the superheroes that came before it, while anticipating – or preemptively satirising, even – the yet-to-happen superhero boom with ideas as sharp as anything seen in almost two decades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14697456

> Trailer > > IMDb

> Story details are being kept hidden, but it is described as being set in a “post-post-apocalyptic” world where former zombies struggle to reintegrate. The project hit the market earlier in June.

> Fallout star Ella Purnell has joined the cast of Craig Roberts’ comedy-horror The Scurry, which is now filming in the UK. > > Purnell will play a leading role, of a park attendant who must use her unique skills and strength to survive a band of killer squirrels. > > True Brit Entertainment is co-producer and UK distributor on the film, which is shooting on location and at Dragon Studios in South Wales. > > Previously announced cast members include Rhys Ifans, Screen Star of Tomorrow Paapa Essiedu, and Antonia Thomas. The Mash Report writer Tim Telling penned the script. > ... > > The film follows two pest controllers called to a country park café to investigate a routine vermin problem, only for an avalanche of deranged squirrels to descend at nightfall, wreaking mayhem on the staff and visitors in the park.

IMDb