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Cinephobia Releasing has acquired North American rights from Visit Films to Fernando Andrés’s BFI Flare London selection Rent Free and has scheduled a June 8 release.

Andrés’s second feature after 2022 Tribeca and Outfest dramaThree Headed Beast follows best friends Ben and Jordan who, after hitting emotional and financial rock bottom, come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living “rent free” with the help of friends, family and strangers in a rapidly changing Austin, Texas.

Jacob Roberts, David Treviño, Zeke Goodman, Sarah J. Bartholomew, and Temple Baker star. Andrés, Roberts, and Baker served as producers.

Cinephobia Releasing...

Cinephobia Releasing has acquired North American rights from Visit Films to Fernando Andrés’s BFI Flare London selection Rent Free and has scheduled a June 8 release.

Andrés’s second feature after 2022 Tribeca and Outfest dramaThree Headed Beast follows best friends Ben and Jordan who, after hitting emotional and financial rock bottom, come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living “rent free” with the help of friends, family and strangers in a rapidly changing Austin, Texas.

Jacob Roberts, David Treviño, Zeke Goodman, Sarah J. Bartholomew, and Temple Baker star. Andrés, Roberts, and Baker served as producers.

Cinephobia Releasing...

Cinephobia Releasing has acquired North American rights from Visit Films to Fernando Andrés’s BFI Flare London selection Rent Free and has scheduled a June 8 release.

Andrés’s second feature after 2022 Tribeca and Outfest dramaThree Headed Beast follows best friends Ben and Jordan who, after hitting emotional and financial rock bottom, come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living “rent free” with the help of friends, family and strangers in a rapidly changing Austin, Texas.

Jacob Roberts, David Treviño, Zeke Goodman, Sarah J. Bartholomew, and Temple Baker star. Andrés, Roberts, and Baker served as producers.

Cinephobia Releasing...

At the end of September, JoBlo Media and Octane Multimedia teamed up to launch a new YouTube channel named JoBlo TV, which hosts multiple feature films to watch for free throughout the week. The genres we’ll be focusing on at JoBlo TV are Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Thrillers – and the free movies we shared this week covered action, sci-fi, and thriller territory, with some mystery and comedy thrown into the mix as well.

This week’s line-up consisted of the sci-fi action movie Assassin’s Game, the comedic mystery thriller All in the Family, and the sci-fi action movie Robot Riot. Here’s some information on each of them:

Directed by Keith Collins II, who also wrote the screenplay with Porche Robinson, Assassin’s Game has the following synopsis: A group of assassin known as the Shadows are placed in a “Battle Royale” against each other in a fight to the death.

Despite strong performances from a stellar cast and potent symbolism offering compelling ideas, Grotesquerie doesnt evolve much past its plodding narrative and scattershot story. The new FX series was created by Ryan Murphy, best known for co-creating American Horror Story for the same network. His latest horror mystery offers a similar feel to the anthology show, as seasoned Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts) investigates a series of grisly murders in her small town. She soon teams up with a local nun, Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), after learning the killings have key religious connotations.

Grotesquerie

Cast Warren Sweeney, Scott Anthony Simmons, Ryan Maltz, David St. James, Eve Sigall, Kody Batchelor, Susan Pingleton, Mike Tarnofsky, Quincey White, Joseph Schwartz, Jamie H. Jung, Lynn Downey, Al-Shabazz Jabateh, Jay Alan Christianson, Conrad Bluth, Micaela Diamond, Joshua Bitton, Sarah J. Bartholomew, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Niecy Nash-Betts, Travis Kelce, Raven Goodwin, Price Carson, Tom Virtue, Tessa Ferrer,...

We’ve seen Zoom call horror (Host), and live-stream horror (Deadstream), and now Welcome Villain Films brings us ‘wellness influencer horror’. This realm of online content can easily veer into the uncanny with its commodification of health and self-care through ultra-positive ambassadors. Mind Body Spirit explores the pitfalls of this lucrative corner of the internet while telling the haunting story of a woman trying to break into the industry.

Anya (Sarah J. Bartholomew) is a woman who is lost and on a journey to find herself through the online wellness community. She is able to embark on this venture by inheriting her estranged grandmother’s house which becomes her filming space. The film is shot like a found footage movie as she switches between her “on-screen” yogi persona and the woman struggling to find meaning in what she is doing. Bartholomew does a fantastic job in this practically one-woman show.

Rent Free puts mid-20s struggles on display: High rent, future uncertainty, and listless melancholy hindering progress. Rent Free captures the Gen Z plight with biting humor and real friendship. The film is a sobering comedy that delves into collapsing cities, post-college blues, and the radical act of resilience.

Finding purpose in your mid-twenties right now is kind of difficult rising rent prices make it nearly impossible to live anywhere notable, a sense of impending doom makes it feel as if the future doesn't really matter, and all of this has caused a sense of melancholic listlessness that could hinder any sort of desire to make meaningful progress. It's not all bad, but it also feels like it's never been worse, at least for young adults who find themselves trapped between college life and the eroding idea of what it means to be successful in a world that keeps moving the line.

Exclusive: Visit Films has taken world sales rights on Tribeca competition titles Adult Best Friends and Rent Free.

Adult Best Friends is the first feature from the filmmaking team of Delaney Buffett (director/co-writer/star) and Katie Corwin (co-writer/star). The film follows a woman (Corwin) as she takes her codependent best friend on a weekend trip to break the news that she’s getting married. Starring are Zachary Quinto, Mason Gooding, and Cazzie David. Quinto co-executive produced the project with Marie Nikolova through his Before the Door Pictures banner.

Rent Free is Fernando Andrés’s sophomore feature following Three Headed Beast (2002). The film follows two down-on-their-luck Gen Z best friends as they come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living rent-free with the help of friends, family, and strangers alike in a rapidly changing Austin.

Stars: Sarah J. Bartholomew, Anna Knigge, Madi Bready, Kristi Noory | Written and Directed by Alex Henes, Matthew Merenda

Mind Body Spirit may be the first horror film centred around yoga. No, not yoghurt, The Stuff did that decades ago, but yoga. Yes, there was Yoga Hosers, but that was about two yoga practitioners, not about yoga itself. And it was a comedy, which this very definitely isn’t.

Anya was left a house in California by the grandmother she barely knew existed, let alone met. If she’d read a few of my reviews, she would have known what a bad idea that was, though after seeing a video call between her and her mother Lenka (Anna Knigge) I can’t blame her for moving cross-country to become a yoga and fitness influencer, something her childhood friend Kenzi has been very successful at.

It’s while making her first video,...

Who said found footage horror movies are dead? Pun intended and they're thriving. Last year's Lola was a masterpiece, though it wasn't exactly a frightfest like, say, Mind Body Spirit, which drops on digital platforms this week. If the title evokes yoga vibes, that's partly the point. Yes, this movie hits a lot of notes: horror, found footage, yoga, supernatural and more. Hey, yoga once helped Giancarlo Esposito bring his iconic Breaking Bad character to life, but a fictional movie like Mind Body Spirit warns that, combined with the wrong elements, such practices can run haywire.

Directors Alex Henes and Matthew Merenda prove that the possibilities for this fun little subgenre of cinema are seemingly endless. It's no surprise that Welcome Villain Films is the brand behind this horror entry's release, the same studio that released the hard-to-watch movie Beaten to Death and the terrifying film Malum not too long ago.

Mind Body Spirit critiques influencer culture and white Western appropriation of yoga. The film builds fear through anticipation, an absence of jump scares, and minimal violence. The ending is anti-climactic, with Anya's fate feeling predetermined, emphasizing journey over destination.

As technology evolves, so must filmmaking, and Mind Body Spirit understands this, managing to make the found footage genre fresh and familiar simultaneously. Starring Sarah J. Bartholomew, the movie follows the fledgling fitness influencer Anya as she embarks on a misguided attempt to reconnect with a deeper spiritual self. Taking place almost entirely through the voyeuristic lens of footage meant for a social media following, the story leaves us questioning our role as viewers. If I am watching this woman's unraveling, am I complicit, and what does that make me?

6/10 ProsMind Body Spirit nicely explores the complicity of influencer cultureSarah J. Bartholomew is excellent in her roleConsThe film doesn't trust...

"This is my heritage, and I am living it!" Welcome Villain Films has revealed an official trailer for Mind Body Spirit, a found footage yoga horror movie from filmmakers Alex Henes & Matthew Merenda making their feature directorial debut. This first premiered at the 2023 Phoenix Film Festival last year, and it will be on VOD this May. Breathe. Find your center... before it finds you. An aspiring yoga influencer embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her grandmother. As Anya becomes obsessed with the mysterious power of the practice, she unwittingly unleashes an otherworldly entity that begins to take control of her life – and her videos. She must figure out how to stop it from consuming her in this "extremely frightening and unsettling" new horror. Starring Sarah J. Bartholomew as Anya, with Madi Bready, Kj Flahive, Anna Knigge, and Kristi Noory. This also won the Audience Award for Best Feature...

A yoga influencer discovers just how flexible fear can be in Mind Body Spirit, a new found footage horror movie that Welcome Villain Films is bringing to the table in a couple weeks.

Mind Body Spirit will release on Digital outlets May 7.

Get twisted with the official trailer and poster art below.

Matt Donato raved in his 4-star review, “Mind Body Spirit is a knockout horror session for the livestream era, which has me desperately waiting to see what its creators and stars do next.”

In Mind Body Spirit, “Anya, an aspiring yoga influencer, embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother. She documents the practice on her YouTube channel for the world to watch, allowing her audience intimate access to her journey.

“But what starts as a spiritual self-help guide evolves into something much more sinister. As Anya becomes obsessed with the mysterious power of the practice,...

Filmmakers could spend the next decade highlighting the mounting horrors of influencer culture, especially with standout dissections like Alex Henes and Matthew Merenda’s Mind Body Spirit. The filmmaking duo organically recreates a hopeful celebrity vlogger’s downward spiral with the utmost Screenlife dedication. Henes and Merenda make tremendous use of a single-location California estate that never feels overused, while cinematography stays cleanly static when recreating YouTube-ready shooting styles. Where other Screenlife titles get bogged down in the technical nitty-gritty, Mind Body Spirit centers on an effortlessly zen production that becomes a haunting supernatural confrontation no positive mental attitude can exorcise.

Sarah J. Bartholomew delivers an obsessively grounded and engagingly imperfect-slash-quirky performance as an aspiring yoga influencer named Anya. We watch a playlist of videos recorded for her not-yet-famous “Mind Body Spirit” channel, complete with themed ad breaks. Everything takes place in Anya’s newly inherited house, a spacious...

A yoga influencer discovers just how flexible fear can be in Mind Body Spirit, an upcoming found footage horror movie that has been acquired by Welcome Villain Films.

The Wrap reports that Mind Body Spirit will release on Digital outlets May 7.

In Mind Body Spirit, “Anya, an aspiring yoga influencer, embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother. She documents the practice on her YouTube channel for the world to watch, allowing her audience intimate access to her journey.

“But what starts as a spiritual self-help guide evolves into something much more sinister. As Anya becomes obsessed with the mysterious power of the practice, she unwittingly unleashes an otherworldly entity that begins to take control of her life – and her videos. Now Anya must race to unlock the truth, before her descent into madness threatens to consume her mind, body and spirit. By the time she reveals...

A yoga influencer discovers just how flexible fear can be in Mind Body Spirit, an upcoming found footage nightmare set to screen next week at the Chattanooga Film Festival.

Just how flexible is fear? Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive trailer debut that teases the back-bending terror. Check it out below.

In Mind Body Spirit, “Anya, an aspiring yoga influencer, embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother. She documents the practice on her YouTube channel for the world to watch, allowing her audience intimate access to her journey. But what starts as a spiritual self-help guide quickly evolves into something much more sinister. As Anya becomes obsessed with the mysterious power of the practice, she unwittingly unleashes an otherworldly entity that begins to take control of her life – and her videos. Now Anya must race to unlock the truth, before her descent into madness threatens to consume her mind,...

New horror film, Pasture comes to Blu-ray on January 31, 2023 from Bayview Entertainment.

Synopsis:

A woman suffering from schizophrenia is taken against her will by a mad doctor. As she is subjected to insane experiments by the doctor, she loses her final grip on reality.

Directed by Sean Hardaway and stars Sarah J. Bartholomew, Hunter Brosig, and Gabriel Grant

Pre-order Pasture on Blu-ray

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pasture-Blu-ray/2620211795

The post Pasture comes to Blu-ray on January 31 from Bayview Entertainment appeared first on Horror Asylum.

Stars: Roxanne Saylor, Avril Dominguez, Danielle Lauder, Jacob Kogan, Anjali Nath, Anastasia Katarina, Sarah O’Connor, Lauren Elyse Buckley, Brittany Lewis, Sarah J. Bartholomew | Written and Directed by Zach Lorkiewicz

Tales from Middleton High is, as you may have already guessed, an anthology film centred around a high school. Five tales of what writer/director Zach Lorkiewicz refers to as “pop horror” related by Principal Clemens who is introduced in a spoof of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theater”.

The first segment “Pep” chronicles the battle between the Pom Poms and the Cheerleaders to win the 85th Annual Pep Rally Dance Off. The Poms have never won before but this year Penelope has something up her sleeve. Running just about ten minutes, “Pep” is mostly sendups of high school life building to a bloody final gag. Funny rather than scary it gets Tales from Middleton High off to a good start.

The second story,...

Stars: Honey Lauren, John Salandria, Mark Valeriano, Amber Gaston, Sarah J. Bartholomew, Thom Michael Mulligan, Frank Papia, Jesse LeNoir, Darn Oldham, Scott Alin, Lonny Curtis, Samantha Larson, Tess Dunlap, Jesse Turner | Written by F. Scott Mudgett | Directed by Terry Ross

You know that old superstition, oftentimes used as a trope in genre films, that taking someone’s photo would steal their souls? Well Sweet Taste of Souls takes this idea and builds upon in a surrealistic nightmare that doesn’t always make sense but whose central performance from Honey Lauren is enough to creep anyone out!

The film tells the story of four band members who, on a road trip to a gig, stop at an off-the-beaten path roadside cafe for a slice of pie. Run by Ellinore, whose demeanour is less than friendly, even for your usual “don’t like strangers” archetype of yokel-locals, the cafe is much more than Just a cafe…...