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It was another bustling, not to mention fruitful, year for horror. And because the amount of new horror releases is staggering, especially when looking beyond the popular and commercial side, it is very understandable if a lot of titles flew under radars.

So, like previous years, the objective of this end-of-year list is to bring attention to just ten of those overlooked, underrated, and less-known newer horrors that can be considered hidden gems of 2024.

Dead Teenagers

Pictured: Jordan Myers and Chris Hahn in Dead Teenagers.

Quinn Armstrong, who gave us the dark comedy Survival Skills, is behind the Fresh Hell Presents trilogy. This set of self-contained horrors began with the conversion therapy haunter The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, then tackled neo-Nazis and werewolves in Wolves Against the World. The final installment, Dead Teenagers, sounds the most conventional of the batch; young friends are picked off by a mysterious killer. Soon enough,...

Exclusive: Cranked Up Films, the genre film offshoot of Good Deed Entertainment, is launching its own streaming service, Cranked Up TV.

This fall, the SVOD service will debut with a catalog of horrors, including exclusive and original content and programming, interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and much more. Original film productions will include Nightmare Cinema, Extra Ordinary and the Fresh Hell trilogy among others.

Cranked Up Films distributes high-concept horror, thriller, and supernatural movies.

“We’re excited to offer alternatives to the existing streaming services by providing horror fans access to more exciting content. We look forward to growing our brand to horror enthusiasts and providing independent filmmakers a home for their content,” said Cranked Up Films CEO Scott Donley.

Separately, Cranked Up Films is releasing the Fresh Hell films, which come from writer/director Quinn Armstrong, in select theaters and VOD. The Exorcism of Saint Patrick on August 30, Wolves Against the World...

"We're all wolves... All just circling & snarling & snapping at each other." Cranked Up Films has debuted the official trailer for an indie horror film titled Wolves Against the World, the second in a genre trilogy from filmmaker Quinn Armstrong. This one is about a group of neo-Nazi metalheads who can't harness the beasts inside them. Part of the new horror trilogy called Fresh Hell - "shooting films on a small budget back-to-back, each film with its own unique aesthetic and cleverly interconnected elements between them. Each film is shot with great creativity and killer practical effects by industry legend Dave Greathouse." Wolves Against the World features Michael Kunicki, Jordan Mullins, Jacob Southwick, with Quinn Armstrong. The first in the new trilogy is The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, and this is the second one - opening just a week later in September this year. Check it out. // Continue Reading ›...

Two members of a defunct neo-Nazi metal band reunite at the site of their bandmate’s suicide. One sinks into depravity and grievance and one tries to atone for what he has done. What ensues is an occult battle of wills between two men who have done terrible things as one tries to lure the other back into the movement, unleashing the animals that hide inside them. Wolves Against The World, the second film in Quinn Armstrong's 'Fresh Hell' trilogy will be available On Demand and in select theaters starting September 3rd. A red band trailer was sent out today, check it out down below. The first film, a converison horror flick called The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, will be coming out (no pun intended)...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"I'm saving your soul from an eternity of torment." Cranked Up Films has revealed an official trailer for an indie horror film titled The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, the first in a new trilogy from filmmaker Quinn Armstrong. It's set for release in August this summer. A pastor takes a gay teen to a cabin for conversion therapy. When he goes way too far, bullying the kid into suicide, the ghost of his victim returns to plague the pastor and avenge the deaths of so many other ghosts like him. It's part of a new horror trilogy called Fresh Hell - "shooting films on a small budget back-to-back, each film with its own unique aesthetic and cleverly interconnected elements between them. Each film is shot with great creativity and killer practical effects by industry legend Dave Greathouse." Saint Patrick stars Steve Pinder, Michael J. Cline, Maya Jeyam, Caitlin McWethy, Alan Tyson,...

Indie film studio and distribution company Good Deed Entertainment (Gde) has announced this week that they have wrapped production on their inaugural original production, the horror trilogy Fresh Hell. Just completed, the three feature-length films in the series are eyeing a summer 2024 release via Gde’s horror vertical Cranked Up Films.

Fresh Hell is a three-feature film anthology series from writer/director Quinn Armstrong; the films are titled Dead Teenagers, The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, and Wolves Against the World, each different film said to be “linked by time and space.”

“The first horror movie I ever remember watching was Creepshow and I still think that horror anthologies are the backbone of the genre,” says Armstrong. “It’s been such a pleasure to work in the tradition of horror anthologies to create Fresh Hell, an anthology of features with a modern twist.”

The unique horror trilogy is said to “lovingly...

Exclusive: Ahead of this year’s Cannes Film Festival and market, indie distributor Good Deed Entertainment (Gde) has launched an international sales division.

Gde’s Executive Vice President of Acquisitions Erik Donley will be leading the unit, alongside Executive Vice President of Production and Distribution Andy Myers and Head of Sales Marco Disilvio.

Gde says it currently has 30 films available for worldwide distribution. In addition to selling acquired titles, the company will also work with their own original productions, via their fledgling production division led by Head of Production Phil Garrett.

First on deck is filmmaker Quinn Armstrong’s Fresh Hell film series, produced by Myers and Garrett. Fresh Hell is a three-feature film anthology series from writer-director Quinn Armstrong (Survival Skills) and will be released under Gde’s genre film label, Cranked Up Films, which has included the titles Extra Ordinary and Nightmare Cinema.

“Expanding our reach into the...

Exclusive: Indie film distributor Good Deed Entertainment has today announced the launch of their new production division, to be led by Head of Production and Development Phil Garrett.

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Garrett will report to Good Deed’s Executive Vice President of Production and Distribution, Andy Myers, who tells Deadline that the company’s new hire “has an incredible passion for the breed of indie cinema that fuels Gde: the offbeat, the breathtaking, the movies that stick with you. His skill, experience, and vision are the perfect fit to lead our new production slate.”

Good Deed’s production arm will...

Stars: Sylvie Mix, Justin Rose, Quinn Armstrong, Jacob Rice, Maika Carter, Joseph Moreland, Darryl A Wright, Layla Pritt, Ralph Scott | Written by Sylvie Mix, Colin West | Directed by Colin West

Colin West, producer of the superb Survival Skills, teams with Sylvie Mix, star of the well-received indie film Poser, for Double Walker – which tells the story of a young Ghost (Sylvie Mix), who haunts her cold Midwestern hometown trying to piece together the horrific flashes of memories from her past. One by one she kills the men she believes were responsible for her death, though her plan is derailed when she meets Jack (Jacob Rice), a kind cinema usher who inadvertently intercepts as she’s stalking her next victim. While Jack takes her in and offers her a glimpse at a normal life, her desire to avenge her own murder lingers on.

Double Walker is less of a story and more a mood,...

"Like a haunting... A 'good' haunting." Cranked Up has unveiled an official trailer for an indie supernatural horror thriller titled Double Walker, from filmmaker Colin West, produced and co-written by and starring Sylvie Mix. "She was given two choices: live one more day as a human, or live forever as a ghost. She chose the latter." Sylvie Mix stars as a young Ghost who walks the earth mostly unseen, trying to piece together the horrific flashes of memories from her past. One by one she kills the men she believes were responsible for her death, though her plan is derailed when she meets Jack, a very kind cinema usher who inadvertently intercepts as she's stalking her next victim. While Jack takes her in and offers her a glimpse at a normal life, her desire to avenge her own murder lingers on. Also starring Jacob Rice, Maika Carter, Justin Rose, Tina Matthews,...

Quinn Armstrong's Survival Skills is coming to On Demand and digital, with an eye on some limited theatrical play, across the U.S. at the beginning of December. Screen Anarchy has an exlusive clip to share with you today. You can see it, and the trailer, below. We open on a crackling VHS title sequence where our Narrator (Stacy Keach) introduces us to the movie, or, a police training video starring Jim (Vayu O’Donnell), a bright-eyed police cadet who is anxious to begin his life on the force. Good luck, Jim! Our own Josh caught the film when it played during the collaborative virtual festival Nightstream. You can read his full review here. Here are a couple excerpts. Reminiscent of any number of...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"Wish me luck, honey!" Good Deed + Cranked Up have released an official trailer for a film titled Survival Skills, a spoof comedy / mockumentary designed as a training video from the 1980s. This premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival earlier this year, and also played at Fantasia Fest this summer, as well as the Rhode Island, Horrible Imaginings, and Raindance Film Fests. "This film stems from my years of work in domestic violence, filtered through a darkly comic lens and a full-throated attack on modern American policing," says writer / director Quinn Armstrong. Survival Skills is a biting police training video expertly narrated (by Stacy Keach) like so many of the educational videos we remember fondly from back then... Lost for years and only now recovered, we meet Jim (Vayu O'Donnell), the perfect policeman in a perfect relationship in a perfect community, who gets in over his head when he tries to resolve a domestic violence case.

To say the police are not well liked by the more liberal populations of the world right now would be an understatement, but why? We all want and deserve security. No one wants to feel unsafe in or out of their own home, and yet over the last six months cities around the world have erupted in protest against well documented police brutality and abuses of power. Surely a well trained, level headed police force should be able to maintain order and establish a kind of rapport and reputation among its constituents that would render most complaints moot. But that's just not the reality, and writer/director Quinn Armstrong's Survival Skills is a slick indictment of the chasm between what should be happening and what does...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Nacelle Company is teaming with Breaker’s Blockchain Entertainment Studio on the release of Antarctica, a romantic comedy written and directed by Keith Bearden. Starring Chloë Levine, Clea Lewis, Damian Young, and newcomer Kimmie Muroya, the pic will be released sometime later this year.

It’s a story of two life-long best friends that experience a tidal wave of adult pressures and problems as they face down their last year of high school in small-town USA. Will they crack under the societal pressures, or will they triumph over the metaphorical icy tundra they call their late teens?

The deal was negotiated by Anna Roberts of The Nacelle Company and Jake Craven of Breaker.

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Dark Star Pictures has nabbed the North American distribution rights to Climate Of The Hunter, the Mickey Reece-helmed horror film which will screen at the Nightstream...

Hello everybody, what’s up? You’re listening to I Was Just Wondering With Tom Salmon! The podcast that dives into music, film and games and everything else in between.

My guest on this week’s episode is Quinn Armstrong who directed, produced and wrote his first feature-length film Survival Skills (2019) starring Stacy Keach and Vayu O’Donnell. The film tells the story of Jim, the perfect policeman and the subject of a lost 1980s training video detailing his attempts to resolve a domestic abuse case outside of the law.

We jumped into Quinn’s experience working with the police as a domestic abuse volunteer that inspired him to write and direct the film, the pitfalls of nineteen-eighties nostalgia and what’s it like directing the Hollywood legend Stacy Keach.

You can find out more about Survival Skills right now at https://www.survivalskillsmovie.com...

Stars: Vayu O’Donnell, Tyra Colar, Spencer Garrett, Stacy Keach, Ericka Kreutz | Written and Directed by Quinn Armstrong

Presented as a police training video from the 80s, Survival Skills places the audience in the position of police trainee, telling the story of rookie cop Jim Williams – the star of the training video and the perfect human being; perhaps too perfect… his idealistic, almost unemotional, naive, personality earning him the nickname of Robocop. Jim’s idealism gets the ire of his partner Allison (Ericka Kreutz) who warns Jim about trying to be the perfect cop to no avail. However Jim’s idealism is set to be broken when Jim and Allison answer a domestic violence call at the Jennings household.

You see, in his attempt to be the best he can be as a police officer, Jim can’t leave the case alone. Even when the omnipotent narrator, and presenter of this...

The genre show goes on as Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival moves online for its 24th annual edition happening from August 20 to September 2, 2020. The best news for the host nation is that anyone in the country (all films save #Shakespearesshitstorm for the US will be geo-blocked to Canada) can experience the fun that only those able to travel to Montreal have in the past.

Each on-demand title will be available through their festival portal for $8 Cad and accessible during the course of the festival (with 30 hours to finish once you’ve pressed play). Attendance numbers will be capped similar to the capacity of the auditorium it would have screened at had an in-person event been possible and there will be select live screenings that must be watched during specified times as a communal experience.

Don’t think that the virtual nature of this installment will water down the product,...

The world isn’t what it used to be no matter how vehemently a Republican believes the opposite when explaining that the 1791 ratification of an American’s “right to bear arms” includes the civilian purchase of military-grade automatic weaponry. Technology exploded exponentially over the past two decades and our laws, infrastructure, and politics have been very slow to adapt. The reason is simple of course: the patriarchy. It’s why our country still believes it holds jurisdiction over a woman’s body. It’s why we funnel finances from education and mental health initiatives to our national thirst for violence a lack of both exacerbates further. It’s why our police force has ostensibly gone to war with the citizens it’s supposed to keep safe. “Protect and Serve” became “Control with Fear” overnight.

Because writer/director Quinn Armstrong understands that a lot of the suffering felt today comes as...

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...