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Brut Post TikTok Subscriber Milestone

France’s young adult-focused, online news-skewed platform Brut is sounding its own bell after hitting 10 million subscribers on TikTok, making it the top French publisher on the Chinese-owned platform. The subscriber gains also make the platform the second most followed European news publisher on TikTok after the Daily Mail. “Making news on TikTok was a challenge. A successful bet with 10 million subscribers, which makes us the leading news media in France on a platform historically focused on entertainment,” said TikTok Editor in Chief Laurent Lucas in a release. “This symbolic milestone reflects the success of an editorial policy developed especially for new uses of information consumption in France and around the world.” Launched by Guillaume Lacroix and Renaud le Van Kim in 2016, the Paris-based platform employs some 250 people. It has had its financial ups and down over its existence but reported last year that it...

Horror fans have been starving for the return of Showtime's Yellowjackets, and the arrival of the new trailer simply isn't enough to fill the void. The smash hit series that gives new meaning to the term "man-eater" has created cravings for more cannibalistic entertainment — and this list of cinematic delicacies from around the world has a little something for all tastes.

Cannibalism has long been a staple of horror fare, from the grindhouse shockers of the 1980s to Oscar-worthy entertainment starring a certain snooty psychiatrist. However, even without Hannibal Lecter or Leatherface in the picture, there is much to enjoy on this international menu of terrifying treats. Not all entries will be in "good taste," but it will give fans something to chew on while they wait for the Valentine's Day drop of Yellowjackets Season 3.

In Raw, Meat Becomes a Murderous Addiction

Naive young Justine (Garance Marillier) has only just...

As the first installment of the evolving Has Fallen franchise made for television, Paris Has Fallen delivers a strong and promising foundation in its new medium. Series creator Howard Overman of Misfits acclaim takes the reins of the Gerard Butler-led movie franchise that collectively brought in $523 million at the worldwide box office across three films. While Butler plans to return for Night Has Fallen, the upcoming fourth feature film in the series, the Has Fallen franchise has proven its capacity to work in an episodic format with its latest offering.

Paris Has Fallen follows a protection officer and an MI6 operative as they join forces in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Suspecting a mole, they race against time to uncover a larger conspiracy that threatens the safety of Paris.

Cast Karina Testa, Laurent Lucas, Paul Gorostidi, Clémentine Baert, Camille Rutherford, Damien Bellard, Michael Shelford, Fantine Harduin, Cameron Cook,...

Body horror, a subgenre of horror that delves into the visceral and grotesque violations of the human body, occupies a distinctive and unsettling space in cinema. As a genre that takes pride in showcasing nightmarish transformations, mutilations and mutations, body horror reveals the raw and often uncomfortable truths about the human condition. Films like The Fly, The Brood, Hellraiser, Videodrome and the recent The Substance reflect not only primal anxieties and physical decay but also the fragility of our humanity. In the realm of body horror, few films leave as indelible a mark as Julia Ducournau’s debut movie Raw (2016), who established herself as the protégé of ‘the king of body horror’ David Cronenberg, a reputation she further solidified with her sophomore feature Titane (2021).

It is a French-Belgian horror that juxtaposes cannibalism with the sinister initiation rituals of college hazing, weaving a dark allegory that explores the dichotomies of abstinence and excess,...

Philippe Lesage’s Who by Fire begins with a vision of what could be called stasis in motion. Following a car on a highway as it winds its way deeper into the woods, the opening shot holds for an unnervingly long time, accompanied by droning ambient music, before moving into the car, where the legs and hands of two people sitting side by side can be glimpsed. Only later will it be made clear that the occupants of the car are screenwriter Albert (Paul Ahmarani), his two kids, Aliocha (Aurelia Arandi-Longpré) and Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon), and Max’s friend Jeff (Noah Parker), on their way to the cabin of Albert’s former collaborator, Blake (Arieh Worthalter), that’s only accessible by seaplane.

The portentousness of this early journey is laced with a somewhat spiky sense of humor; in one scene, captured in a single long shot, Albert teasingly drives forward several times,...

An immense yet slinking police procedural that slips with disturbing ease into its audiences’ subconscious, Fabrice Du Welz’s Maldoror owes a debt to many contemporary serial killer creepers to come before it but comes together as a formidable, restrained, uniquely resonant work that finds the director at the height of his powers in telling a story at once hauntingly personal and broad in scope.

In early ‘90s Belgium, impulsive young police officer Paul Chartier (Anthony Bajon) is preparing to marry his sweetheart, Gina (Alba Gaïa Bellugi) but is soon distracted when he’s tapped by his superior, Hinkel (Laurent Lucas) to participate in Maldoror – a secret operation to monitor a dangerous sex offender named Marcel Dedieu (Sergi López) and investigate the abduction of two pre-teen girls. But, as Chartier gets closer to uncovering the truth, he grows increasingly erratic and frustrated with the calcified bureaucracy of his department, jeopardizing...

As a general movie rule, when a group of happy weekenders head to a woodland cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation, the great outdoors has some grisly surprises in store for them. In “Who By Fire,” however, the horrors all come from inside the house — or more specifically from the people themselves, many of whose worst impulses and insecurities are unleashed by their tranquil surroundings. Dramatizing a curious case of cabin fever with keen human observation and patient wrangling of intangible dread, the third narrative feature from Quebecois director Philippe Lesage underlines his ability to carve a semblance of a horror movie from everyday domestic drama — confirming him as a filmmaker of considerable grace and daring.

It’s been six years since Lesage’s last film, “Genesis” — a long wait for his admirers, a select club still largely confined to the festival circuit, notwithstanding the polish and rigor of the director’s work.

It’s been almost a decade now that French-Canadian director Philippe Lesage’s intense, intricate dramas have been premiering in top festivals and receiving rave reviews from critics. And yet he unfortunately remains more or less unknown to general arthouse audiences.

Lesage began his career shooting documentaries, including the 2010 hospital chronicle The Heart That Beats, then made his first fictional feature, The Demons, in 2015, following it up in 2018 with Genesis. Both movies were coming-of-age stories — or more like cruel stories of youth, to cite the Nagisa Oshima film — helmed with laser-sharp precision and backed by formidable turns from a young cast. Fine-tuned and freewheeling at the same time, his narratives keep bubbling up until they boil over, in explosive sequences where the characters let it all out or start bellowing pop songs at will.

He’s a gifted and original filmmaker who should be getting more attention — which is why...

Montreal-based international sales company H264 has unveiled its lineup for this month’s European Film Market in Berlin, which includes François Delisle’s “Waiting for the Storms” and Léa Pool’s “Hotel Silence.” Variety has exclusive access to the first image from “Waiting for the Storms.”

“Waiting for the Storms” is described as “a fable about the climate crisis that transcends artistic boundaries to spark a dialogue between our past, present and future.” Delisle’s credits include “Chorus” and “Le Météore.”

“Across various timelines and locations, four characters weave a web of stories that explore human resilience in the face of environmental upheaval,” according to a statement.

The film follows four characters: Marie, who is gripped by obsessive, heart-wrenching questions as a young mother whose child faces a dead-end future, and channels her anxiety into passionate activism; Terence, a climate-change refugee, who tells strangers his story in the hopes of...

WTFilms will be at the Rendez-Vous with a genre-focused slate.

Paris-based sales outfit WTFilms has taken on Fabrice du Welz’s Belgian crime thriller Maldoror and unveiled a first look at the film inspired by a true story.

The film stars Anthony Bajon as an impulsive police recruit tasked with a secret mission to track a dangerous sex offender. But when the operation fails, he goes rogue to hunt down the culprits. Now in post, the film is produced by Belgium’s Frakas Productions, with The Jokers Films’ production arm.

Maldoror also stars Alexis Manenti, Béatrice Dalle, Sergi Lopez, Laurent Lucas...

This article contains discussions of suicide and violence.

The horror genre is a box of surprises, and quite often, these movies will not deliver what everyone else expected. Some will say a movie lacked scares or relied too much on comedy; others will say a movie's atmosphere could be darker or was simply too bleak. Of all the movie genres, horror consistently has the most difficult task of appeasing everyone's tastes. However, time tends to do movies that were initially poorly received justice.

The 2000s was a period of intense transformation in the horror genre as filmmakers began to embrace the digital and the peculiar features that came along, resulting in a boom of found footage movies as well as a wave of horror movies with a distinctively digital-looking aspect. In such a period of transition, some movies feel merely like products of their time, while others remain underrated hidden gems that deserve more love.

Blue Finch Film Releasing will release Calvaire on Digital Platforms from 19th September 2023. Synopsis: Marc Stevens is a travelling singer in rural Belgium. At the nursing home where he is performing, the concert has ended, and Marc takes to the road. Shortly afterwards his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He is taken in by Bartel, an innkeeper who became psychologically fragile after his wife Gloria left him. This is how Marc’s ordeal begins… Re-released on UK Digital Platforms from 19th September 2023, director Fabrice Du Welz’s unrelenting modern horror classic Calvaire, considered a key part of the New French Extremity movement of bold and challenging horror cinema, was shot by cinematographer Benoît Debie (Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible) and stars Laurent Lucas (Raw), Philippe Nahon and Jackie Berroyer.

The post Extreme modern horror classic Calvaire – on Digital Platforms from 19th September 2023 appeared first on Horror Asylum.

Brut, the influential digital media publisher which became one of the main partners for the Cannes Film Festival last year, has just finalized its fourth funding round for approximately $40 million.

The company, founded by Guillaume Lacroix, Renaud Le Van Kim and Laurent Lucas six years ago, has enlisted a pair of powerful financial backers: CMA Cgm, the world’s third-largest container shipping company owned by billionaire businessman Rodolphe Saadé, which also recently nabbed 10% of France’s second biggest commercial network M6, and the daily newspaper La Provence; and MoonPay, a leading Miami-based financial service company for web3 whose investors include former tennis star Maria Sharapova, as well as Snoop Dogg, Drake and Justin Bieber, among others. Aryeh B. Bourkoff’s LionTree advised the deal with MoonPay.

With this fourth round, Brut has raised nearly $140 million since its launch, and has been able to keep its former investors on board, including James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems,...

Although hailing from Belgium, Fabrice du Welz’s debut Calvaire has been considered a staple of New French Extremity, as coined by James Quandt around the turn of the 21st century. Now, nearly two decades after its initial release, a new HD remaster of the film is arriving. Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures, it’ll arrive in theaters on February 24 and digitally on March 3 followed by a collector’s edition Blu-ray.

The first part of the director’s Ardennes trilogy, the film follows a traveling entertainer who falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper determined to keep him captive. “A lucid nightmare… A dark absurdist descent into hell… Calvaire’s meditation on identity, possession, and cruelty remains horribly vivid,” said Guillermo del Toro.

See the trailer and poster below for the film starring Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, and Brigitte Lahaie.

Calvaire opens in theaters on February 24 and arrives...

Bloody Disgusting has learned this afternoon that the HD remaster of Fabrice du Welz’s 2004 Belgian horror movie Calvaire will be re-released in theaters February 24 followed by VOD and a limited edition Blu-ray release this spring from Yellow Veil Pictures.

Released at the height of the New French Extremity movement, Calvaire follows a traveling entertainer who falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper determined to keep him captive.

Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro called Calvaire “a lucid nightmare,” further describing it as “a dark absurdist descent into hell… Calvaire’s meditation on identity, possession, and cruelty remains horribly vivid.”

As du Welz’s first feature, Calvaire would go on to become the first part of his thematic Ardennes Trilogy (alongside 2014’s Alleluia and 2019’s Adoration) and immediately define the young director as a voice to watch in Belgium. Calvaire takes its cues not only from the contemporary extreme cinema of France and Belgium,...

Raw (Grave) is a horror and drama movie directed and written by Julia Ducournau magnificently starred by Garance Marillier who is given a life changing opportunity that does not go wasted.

Terror that is not suitable for all audiences in a movie that goes into the taboo of cannibalism.

Raw is the (already famous) movie directed in 2016 by Julia Ducournau. And, yes, it is about cannibalism, so if you are having a bad day… it is not a movie for you. However, the movie is not bad at all and it surprises us with a different focus and although at times it is sensationalistic and even morbid, it undertakes the narrative in a special, different way and with a blatant setting that matches the plot very well.

Storyline

Justine is a brilliant girl who starts studying veterinary sciences. She, and her family, is vegetarian, and a sort of initiation ritual...

Everyone remembers the old Stouffer's commercials. A nice American family sits down for some kind of baked casserole or microwaved TV dinner while a soft guitar thrums in the background, urging them to reprioritize family time. In truth, it's not an especially bad sentiment. Interpersonally speaking, the dinner table is as good an opportunity as ever to connect to the people one loves most, sharing notes on respective days — the good, the bad, and everything in between.

As an opportunity to unwind and connect, it's priceless, though if horror movies have taught audiences anything, it's that the dinner table can be one of the scariest places to be. It's par for the course, with scary movies frequently exploiting quotidian fears to terrifying, remarkable success. The dinner table is perhaps one of the scariest, however, largely because it's so intimate. At the table, guards are down and closeness is elevated. It's...

Bloody Disgusting has learned this afternoon that Yellow Veil Pictures have acquired all distribution rights in North America for the HD remaster of Fabrice du Welz’s 2004 Belgian horror movie Calvaire. Released at the height of the New French Extremity movement, Calvaire follows a traveling entertainer who falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper determined to keep him captive. The U.S. premiere of the remaster will take place next month as part of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.

As du Welz’s first feature, Calvaire would go on to become the first part of his thematic Ardennes Trilogy (alongside 2014’s Alleluia and 2019’s Adoration) and immediately define the young director as a voice to watch in Belgium. Calvaire takes its cues not only from the contemporary extreme cinema of France and Belgium, but also from iconic works like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to create a poetically brutal study of human nature.

Stars: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss, Bouli Lanners, Marion Vernoux, Thomas Mustin, Marouan Iddoub, Jean-Louis Sbille | Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau

When Raw was first released it was one of those movies that caught people’s attention based on the fact people felt sickened from watching it, even walked out of the movie theatres instead of watching it to the end. For those who could stomach it though, they found an experience that may be Raw, but is also a very good movie. This of course makes it perfect for a Second Sight Blu-ray re-release.

Raised as a strict vegetarian Justine’s (Garance Mirillier) beliefs are tested when she goes to veterinarian school. When forced to eat meat, this awakens a new hunger in her that she did not expect, which opens up a whole new world to her. This wakes her up...

Presents Vernon Subutex Directed by Cathy Verney Starring Romain Duris, Céline Sallette, Laurent Lucas & Juana Acosta Premiering on March 5th, 2020 only on Topic Streaming Vernon Subutex, an unemployed former owner of legendary record shop Revolver is evicted from his apartment. In his search for a place …

The post Vernon Subutex Starring Germain Duris | March 5th only on Topic Streaming appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Paris-based company Indie Sales will head to the Paris-set industry showcase UniFrance Rendez-Vous With French Cinema with five anticipated French movies, including “Welcome to the Jungle” with Catherine Deneuve.

The other titles are the comedies “Enormous” and “Man Up!,” as well as the ecological tale “Fishlove” and the drama “Under the Concrete.” All five films will be having their market premieres at the Rendez-Vous which kicks off Jan. 16.

Co-directed by Hugo Benamozig and David Caiglioli, “Welcome to the Jungle” stars Deneuve as possessive mother and renown ethnologist who sets off to rescue her beloved son, a young and naive anthropology researcher, in the Amazonian jungle. The adventure comedy also stars Vincent Dedienne (“The Rose Maker”), Jonathan Cohen (“Budapest”) and Alice Belaïdi (“Odd Job”).

“Enormous” is wacky romantic comedy directed by Sophie Letourneur and starring Marina Foïs (“Polisse”) as a world-renowned pianist whose pregnancy turns into a nightmare. Foïs stars opposite...

Bertrand Bonello's Zombi Child is having its exclusive online premiere on Mubi in the United Kingdom. It is showing from October 18 - November 17, 2019.Zombi ChildIt’s never unusual for someone to end a conversation and begin dancing in the cinema of Bertrand Bonello. His fealty is to rhythm, to fabric, to swagger, to the perfect song, to what’s cool—and there is nothing cooler than the best Bonello films. He has turned insouciance into a bedrock style; his sense of the aesthetically voluptuous is ironclad and whatever point he’s in the mood to make will have to pass through the aura of manicured diffidence. This has made him a polarizing figure in critical circles. Is he charlatan or genius? Why not both? Investing so much of his gifts as a visual storyteller to reveling in what’s fashionable may give the impression of a shallow mind at work,...

Netflix has set the premiere date for its police interrogation drama Criminal. The series, which stars For Life’s Nicholas Pinnock, Doctor Who’s David Tennant and Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell, will launch on September 20.

The Svod service has also unveiled the first images for the format bending series.

Criminal consists of 12 episodes of 45 minutes with three episodes each set across four countries – France, Spain, Germany and the UK. The drama takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. It is a stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question.

Pinnock, Cheat’s Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf star in the UK episodes with Tennant and Atwell guest starring alongside Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay and Mhamed Arezki...

Thriller evolves around a crazed and destructive love story between two teenagers who meet at a psychiatric hospital.

Memento Films International has boarded sales on Belgian director Fabrice du Welz’s thriller Adoration ahead of its premiere on the Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande in August.

It is the final film in du Welz’s Ardennes trilogy set against the backdrop of the rugged, forested region spanning southeast Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany.

It revolves around a crazed and destructive love story between two teenagers who meet at a psychiatric hospital and embark on a dangerous trip together.

The...

Here’s a series taking a new spin on the old British procedural. Netflix is bringing us an anthology series that set in four different countries, with different casts and directors, and different stories… that are all set in the interrogation rooms in police stations.

The series will be set in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. The series is described by Deadline as a “stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question” that will be written, directed, and produced by the local language and talent to each country.

Deadline reports the following descriptions and cast info for each installment:

Pinnock, Cheat’s Katherine Kelly Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf star in the UK episodes with Tennant and Atwell guest starring alongside Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas,...

A host of guest stars have signed on for “Criminal,” the stripped-down Netflix procedural set in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. The action takes place within the confines of a police interview suite. There are three 45-minute episodes set in each country.

Guest stars in the British installments include David Tennant (“Good Omens”), Hayley Atwell (“Agent Carter”), Youssef Kerkour (“Dracula”) and Clare-Hope Ashitey (“Doctor Foster”). George Kay (“Killing Eve”) and Jim Field Smith (“Endeavour”) are the showrunners.

The Idiotlamp-produced series was filmed at Netflix’s new production hub in Madrid. The series bows globally on Netflix in the fall.

In France, the roster of guest stars includes Nathalie Baye and Jérémie Renier, and in Germany Peter Kurth and Christian Berkel. The Spanish episodes will have Carmen Machi and Inma Cuesta guesting.

The episodes are all in the local language, with writing and directing talent from the individual territories...

Nicholas Pinnock, star of ABC’s forthcoming legal drama For Life, Doctor Who’s David Tennant and Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell are to star in Netflix’s police interrogation drama Criminal.

The format bending series consists of 12 episodes of 45 minutes with three episodes each set across four countries – France, Spain, Germany and the UK. The drama takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. It is a stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question.

Pinnock, Cheat’s Katherine Kelly Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf star in the UK episodes with Tennant and Atwell guest starring alongside Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay and Mhamed Arezki star alongside guest stars Nathalie Baye, Jérémie Renier and Sara Giraudeau.

In Germany, Eva Meckbach,...

Netflix movies may still be question mark in terms of being allowed in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in May, but the streaming giant will be present at Cannes Series. The Cannes television festival will mark its second year next month with Netflix going up against rival Amazon in the competition section. The full lineup includes series from Israel, Norway, Spain, and Belgium.

Netflix’s competition entry is the German series “How to Sell Drugs Online Fast,” from writers Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann. Amazon is heading to Cannes Series with “The Feed,” a London-set drama created by Channing Powell and based on the novel Nick Clark Windo. “The Feed” stars “Game of Thrones” favorite Michelle Fairley opposite David Thewlis in a story about a piece of technology that allows people to instantly share thoughts and emotions. The tech falls into the wrong hands and becomes a murderous weapon.

Cannes Series has revealed the lineup, jury and masterclasses for its second edition, which takes place alongside the Mip TV market on the French Riviera.

Among ten series in competition at the TV festival are Netflix’s German show How To Sell Drugs Online and Amazon’s UK series The Feed with Michelle Fairley and David Thewlis. Out of competition shows include Starz’ Now Apocalypse and Russel T Davies’ Years And Years. Scroll down for the lineup in full.

The competition jury will be presided over by Dark show-runner Baran bo Odar with members comprising actor, director and author Stephen Fry (Gosford Park), actors Miriam Leone (Non Uccidere) and Emma Mackey (Sex Education), actor and director Katheryn Winnick (Vikings) and composer Rob (The Bureau). David Cross and Jude Law are among those with projects in the short form competition.

Among those set to give masterclasses will be Game Of Thrones...

“Vernon Subutex,” one of Canal Plus’ banner Original Series, will world premiere at the opening night of this year’s Canneseries.

Directed by Cathy Verney and starring Romain Duris (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped”) and Céline Sallette (“House of Tolerance”), the Canal Plus Création Originale will premiere three episodes, out of competition, at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes on April 5. International sales are handled by Studiocanal.

The premier and opening night slot will give a high-profile at this year’s event to Canal Plus, a partner of Canneseries, as the French pay TV giant attempts to mark itself apart in France as a quality but still edgy and Ya-appealing original series producer.

The series is inspired by a popular pair of novels from author Virginie Despentes, a bestseller in France which was crying out for a small screen adaptation.

The series’ nine, half-hour episodes track the titular main character,...

Adoration

Belgian provocateur Fabrice du Welz returns with Adoration, the third chapter of his celebrated Ardennes trilogy, which follows his 2004 debut Calvaire and 2014’s delicious Alleluia (our interview)—both titles which the director is perhaps best known for in the Us. Having taken recent trips abroad, including the troubled French production of 2014’s Colt 45 and du Welz’s English language debut Message from the King (available on Netflix), du Welz at last returns to the isolated hysteria which has marked his past Ardennes installment by reuniting with his Vinyan (2008) star Emmanuelle Beart. Also included in the fantastic cast are French icon Beatrice Dalle, Belgian actors Benoit Poelvoorde and Peter van den Begin, Haneke discovery Fantine Harduin (the troubled child of 2017’s Happy End), Xavier Legrand’s Custody breakout Thomas Gioria, and excitingly, the return of Laurent Lucas, who headlined the two previous Ardennes titles.…

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Every year, we here at PopOptiq celebrate the month of October with a series of articles we like to call 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list to 200 movies, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles.

Note: Since there are so many great horror films and so much to choose from, I am not including documentaries such as Haxan — short films such as Outer Space – a mini-series such as Stephen King’s It — nor animated films such as Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll and Coraline. I am, however, including some films as special mentions along with a few movies that some people consider horror films, but I don’t.

****

Special Mention: King Kong

Directed by Merian C. Cooper...

Adoration

Belgian genre auteur Fabrice du Welz has been fast-tracking the third installment of his Ardennes Trilogy, which began with his delightfully macabre 2004 debut Calvaire and continued with the director’s greatest international success to date, 2014’s Alleluia (read ★★★★½ review) — both featuring Laurent Lucas.

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Fear doesn’t need subtitles, but some of the best horror films do. J-horror, the New French Extremity, and other foreign-language scary-movie movements have provided much in the way of terrified shrieks and heightened pulses. Although dialogue may get lost in translation, blood-curdling screams never do. Horror is an especially visual genre, and one of the most universal.

The world is dark and full of terrors, especially where the movies on this list are concerned. Here are our favorite foreign language horror flicks made since the year 2000.

20. “We Are What We Are” (2010)

Horror filmmakers ruthlessly mine for metaphor, often at the expense of credibility. The tricky balance in the Mexican cannibal drama “We Are What We Are” (“Somos lo que hay”) pairs a conventional family unit with the ludicrously grotesque to chilling and absurd effect. Writer-director Jorge Michel Grau’s feature debut has the goriest signifier for underclass strife this...

Author: Competitions

To mark the release of Raw on 14th August, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

Unsuspecting Justine (Garance Marillier) enrolls into veterinary school without the slightest idea that she’d graduate as a fully-fledged carnivore with an insatiable desire for human flesh. This young woman soon pays the price of trying to fit in when she is tempted into a hazing ritual which involves eating a piece of raw meat, thereafter her animalistic desires spiral out of control. Before she knows it Justine has bitten off more than she can chew, and will soon face the terrible consequences of her actions as her true self begins to emerge.

Ducournau’s breakthrough French speaking film with English subtitles, Raw, has received award wins at Cannes, Toronto and London Film Festivals. Starring an all-French cast, Garrance Marllier as Justine (Junior, It’s Not a Cowboy Movie...

This is the Pure Movies review of Raw, starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas and Joana Preiss, directed by Julia Ducournau. Written by Joshua Glenn for Pure Movies. Whether it’s Carrie getting her first period and proceeding to hone her telekinetic powers in murderous ways, or Buffy having to work through her high-school woes and fend off the undead in one fell swoop, female coming-of-age tales often reach for thematic richness by tapping into the supernatural or macabre. This isn’t always a guarantee of success – for every Heathers there are five Twilights – but those that work make one thing implicitly clear: tone is essential. Get this wrong and the whole thing falls apart. Nail it, though, and the disparate elements congeal into a riveting, rambunctious, resonant whole. Raw, Julia Ducournau’s riotous addition to the canon, is well and truly within the latter camp.

Stars: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss, Bouli Lanners, Marion Vernoux, Thomas Mustin, Marouan Iddoub, Jean-Louis Sbille | Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau

I’ve read the hype, I’ve heard of the faintings and walkouts. And I have no idea what film those “newsworthy” stories were based around. It’s certainly not the film that I saw… In fact I found the film to be somewhat timid compared to the online furore surrounding Julia Ducournau’s film. As a strange, ethereal coming-of-age tale, Raw is very, Very, effective. But as some kind of Martyrs-esque French fear-flick shocker? Less so. Much less so. Don’t buy into the hype and instead enjoy an pathos-filled tale of growing up. All wrapped up in the story of cannibal sisters attending veterinary school! Hey, I never said Raw wasn’t a strange film…

The film follows shy vegetarian...

Julia Ducournau's Raw arrives in UK cinemas - and here's our review...

Raw is the story of a young woman learning things about herself, her family, her sexuality, veterinarianism and the procurement of human flesh for her own consumption and satiation.

See related Better Call Saul season 3: new clip teases returning character Better Call Saul season 2 episode 10 review: Klick The subtle rise of good prequels

Despite the visceral, sensational and exploitable qualities of the subject, there are surprisingly few movies about cannibalism. I'm sure the film industry, not to mention the voracious appetites of the horror audience, could take a whole lot more.

Nonetheless, I did still manage to come out of Julia Ducournau's Raw thinking, and being disappointed to think, that much of what I had just seen seemed overly familiar. In at least the broader narrative strokes, as outlined in above, there wasn't really anything...

Raw (Grave) Focus World Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Julia Ducournau Written by: Julia Ducournau Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Joana Preiss, Laurent Lucas, Bouli Lanners Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 2/1/17 Opens: March 10, 2017 You are sitting in a restaurant with a woman who has been a lifelong […]

The post Raw Movie Review: The Action Is Literally Blood-Curdling appeared first on Shockya.com.

"A deliciously fevered stew of nightmare fuel." Focus World has debuted a juicy red band trailer for a highly acclaimed indie drama titled Raw, which played to rave reviews at the Toronto Film Festival and Fantastic Fest last fall. The film is about a young veterinarian student named Justine, played by Garance Marillier, who is a vegetarian. Everything changes when she's forced to eat raw meat as part of a hazing ritual at the vet school, and things get bloodier from there on out. The cast includes Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss, Bouli Lanners, Marion Vernoux. This acclaimed film is also playing at Sundance coming up this month. This looks disgusting, but the rave reviews have me interested anyway. Here's the official red band trailer (+ poster) for Julia Ducournau's Raw, direct from YouTube: Everyone in Justine’s family is a vet. And a vegetarian. At...

A maddening and twisted red-band trailer has been released for a cannibal thriller called Raw. No words are spoken in the trailer, but it's filled with some pretty jacked-up visuals that will make you squirm in your seat. As I mentioned in the title, it's a pretty effective dose of nightmare fuel. It looks absolutely horrific, which obviously means that I have to see it! Here's the synopsis:

Everyone in Justine’s family is a vet. And a vegetarian. At sixteen she’s a brilliant student starting out at veterinary school where she experiences a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her family principles and eats raw meat for the first time. Justine will soon face the terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.

The film was directed by French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, and the cast includes Garance Marillier Ella Rumpf,...

The flesh-eating movie that had them requiring ambulance intervention in Toronto never lets up. It’s also a complex drama of adulthood, sex, conformity, hazing, body image and lust

Julia Ducournau is a 33-year-old first-time feature director who makes her worryingly brilliant debut with this saturnalia of arthouse horror. At the Toronto film festival, it had audiences dry-heaving and indeed wet-heaving in the aisles and the cinema lavatories. This is the sort of film which pundits are often keen to label “black comedy” as a way of re-establishing their own sang-froid. In the same tongue-in-cheek spirit, it has been called coming-of-age drama. There is a grain of truth in both of these labels. It is a film about cannibalism, and has clearly been influenced by Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, and perhaps especially Marina de Van’s body shocker In My...

Scream Factory has announced all of the special features to be included in the June 14th Blu-ray / DVD release of the remake of Mario Bava’s Rabid Dogs, including a “Making Of” featurette, cast interviews, and more special goodies fans of the IFC Midnight film can look forward to:

Press Release: After their armed bank robbery goes haywire, three criminals take their hostages—a young woman, a father, and his sick daughter—on a berserk, blood-spattered road trip. Rabid Dogs, the chilling remake of the 1974 Mario Bava cult classic Kidnapped, makes its Blu-ray and DVD debut June 14th, 2016 from Scream Factory, in conjunction with IFC Midnight. Starring Lambert Wilson (The Matrix Reloaded, Dante 01), Laurent Lucas (Calvaire) and Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach , The Backwoods), Rabid Dogs comes loaded with over two hours of bonus feature, including the feature-length “Making of Rabid Dogs”, interviews with the cast, and an effects, weapons,...

Scream Factory announced on their Facebook page that The Funhouse Massacre, The Abandoned, and Rabid Dogs (2015) will be released on Blu-ray and DVD this June. Let the screams begin!

From Facebook: “Horror icons Clint Howard (Evilspeak, The Lords of Salem), Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn, The ‘Burbs) and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Robert Englund all pop up in The Funhouse Massacre—a scary new carnival ride of a thriller that will be releasing on Digital platforms, On Demand, DVD and Blu-ray on June 7th.

On Halloween night, a group of the United States’ most notorious serial killers escape from Statesville Asylum and descend upon a giant funhouse whose theme is based on their different reigns of terror. The unsuspecting carnival patrons think that the carnage created at the park is just part of the show… until they become part of the main attraction. The only people left...

Diving into the hundreds of new theatrical releases, including large chunks of grueling, gluttonous marathons through world cinema’s greatest offerings from a variety of film festivals, and coming to a reasonable list of selections demonstrating what one deems to be ‘the best,’ remains an utterly self-involved, sometimes fruitless tradition. Who, after all, can rightly determine what is indeed ‘best’ in an art form where one person’s trash is another’s treasure? Personally, I prefer to compile a list of ‘favorite’ things, items which remain meaningless unless you put stock in its author’s general tastes.

Amidst the incessant jabbering of awards season exaggeration, it’s difficult not to be swayed by the most topical, most shiny and brand new theatrical releases courting awards voters (which is why I felt it necessary to see Inarritu’s new film twice). Nearly half of my selections appeared on my mid-year list of favored theatrical releases,...

Starting with 2011’s House of Pleasures, Bertrand Bonello has been on the verge of some sort of breakthrough, but it’s telling that this is the most obvious starting point — it’s the only one. That was essentially the first project to got any real U.S. distribution, and its appreciation, while fervent, remains hermetic, while the attention paid to this year’s Saint Laurent wasn’t exactly significant. (This, I should stress, is in no way a reflection on their quality.) The very small release being granted to On War some seven-and-a-half years after its debut probably won’t launch him much further, thus all the more reason why it’s a work — familiar in its archetypes, entirely unique in its approach, and difficult to shake after the fact — in need of attention.

I got in touch with its U.S. distributor, Indican Pictures, who put me in touch...

Warning: This article contains spoilers that some readers may prefer to avoid.

Good news - The Returned is back, with its beautiful people, Gallic drama and Mogwai chords. Bad news - the first series aired in 2013 and, two years on, all we can remember is "the Lake Pub".

Great news - Digital Spy has prepared a handy guide, for anyone looking to refresh their memories ahead of tonight's (superb) series two premiere:

The basics

The dead have begun returning to life in a small French mountain town. But these are no flesh-chomping zombies - beyond a ferocious appetite, the 'Returned' appear perfectly healthy and normal.

The town, though, is plagued by other strange phenomena - power outages, the reservoir's water level dropping dramatically and strange marks appearing on the bodies of both the living and dead.

What happened in series one's finale?

Remember Toni (Grégory Gadebois), manager of the Lake Pub?...

After premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Belgian auteur Fabrice du Welz’s excellent fourth feature Alleluia went on to play in the esteemed Vanguard lineup in the Toronto International Film Festival before nabbing Best Actor and Actress awards at Fantastic Fest for superb performances from Laurent Lucas and Lola Duenas. Although this didn’t translate into notable box office profit for Us distributor Music Box Films (released in mid-July for a limited theatrical run, the title didn’t crack ten grand in its paltry five week run), du Welz’s beautiful cult-classic in the making will eventually secure a greater following. A recent Blu-ray re-release of Criterion Collection’s presentation of the 1969 Leonard Kastle film, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the same romantic killing spree, should funnel some attention to it, as well as du Welz’s break into English language in 2016 with his next title.

While the dead returning to life has traditionally been the foray of the horror genre, a number of movies and tv shows over the years have used the premise to tell different kinds of stories. Among the latter group is the French television series The Returned. Also known as Les Revenants, the show made its debut in 2012, growing its fans in ensuing years, with many eagerly anticipating the second season.

Following the airing of the second season premiere and second episode at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, a premiere date has now been announced. The second season will once again air on SundanceTV, beginning on October 31st at 10 pm Et. The second season synopsis is as follows.

The second season picks up six months after the deceased disappeared into the mountains with Simon (Pierre Perrier), Camille (Yara Pilartz), her mother, Claire (Anne Consigny), Julie (Céline Sallette) and the mysterious youngster Victor (Swann Nambotin). Since then,...

"The dead are back." That's the chilling message at the heart of this trailer for The Returned's second series.

The Lake Pub is back open for business on Friday, October 16 at 9pm.

The series will also be moving from Channel 4 to More4.

The Returned centres on a small French town where many of the deceased rise from the dead, seemingly fine and normal.

Series two picks up six months later, with Adele (Clotilde Hesme) about to give birth to Simon's (Pierre Perrier) child.

Lena (Jenna Thiam) and her father Jerome (Frederic Pierrot) are still searching for Claire (Anne Consigny) and Camille (Yara Pilartz), while a mysterious man named Berg (Laurent Lucas) pays a visit to the town, appearing to know more than he actually claims.

The second run is getting a Halloween premiere in the Us, launching October 31 on SundanceTV.