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The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announced today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career, hypes the press release.

In addition, Bloody Disgusting’s Screambox Original Series “Tales From the Void” will be screening alongside Joe Begos’s newest grindhouse horror Jimmy & Stiggs!

Here are the full deets…

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces Full 2024 Program: "The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announces today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career.

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New Zealand director Sasha Rainbow’s film Grafted.

The festival will feature the world premieres of Izzy Lee's first feature, House Of Ashes; the atmospheric ghost story,...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 2024 edition, which runs from Oct. 17-24. All films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.

Opening with Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s crime thriller “Dead Mail,” Bhff will feature the North American premieres of Tiago Teixeira’s erotic body horror “Custom,” Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton’s late ’90s horror documentary “Generation Terror” and Sasha Rainbow’s “Grafted” starring Jess Hong.

Films receiving their world premieres at Bhff include Izzy Lee’s directorial debut “House of Ashes,” the queer science fiction adventure “Psychonaut” and “Lilly Lives Alone” starring Jeffrey Combs.

“Fear in Focus” is set to return for Bhff 2024, with this year’s rendition centering around horror films from Spain. The sidebar program will feature a 35mm screening of “The Blood Spattered Bride” and a showing of the Spanish version of “Dracula” with...

At this year’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, we were lucky enough to catch up with directors Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott about their new horror documentary, Generation Terror, which had its world premiere at the event.

Immediately after the screening, the pair granted us the following interview about the documentary, and fans of their work will definitely be interested in hearing what they have to say. Appleton and Escott are already an established duo, as they previously co-directed another horror documentary called The Found Footage Phenomenon, which examines the found footage subgenre. While Escott individually helmed a documentary about the popular Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise called The Legacy of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Appleton individually helmed a documentary about filmmaker David Hamilton Grant called Damaged. She also previously co-directed a feature length documentary about Japanese horror called The J-Horror Virus alongside Jasper Sharp.

Generation Terror examines the horror genre throughout the 1990s,...

If there’s one thing horror fans and filmmakers love to do, it’s compare notes on their favourite facets of the genre. About movies, about influences, about giant creepy-crawlies. And most of all, about the different driving trends of the many eras; what we were scared of, and how that bled so openly into the defining genre cinema of the time. From the atomic fallout of the 1950s and the creature features that followed, to the rise of exploitation, and the real-world killers behind the eventual slasher boom of the ’80s, it’s the subtext that an entire community is built on.

So there’s something particularly warm and comforting about Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott’s similarly-tinged doc Generation Terror, which seeks to unravel the real-world fears behind the particularly grisly output of the 2000s. An era often characterised by iffy remakes and gnarly extremity which made for...

The J-Horror Virus

One thing which you can always guarantee about Frightfest is that it will have a good selection of documentary content, and this year’s Pigeon Shrine-sponsored event is no exception. Sarah Appleton has been there before, in 2021, to present The Found Footage Phenomenon, which she made with Phillip Escott. She’s now teamed up with Jasper Sharp to create The J-Horror Virus. As soon as I heard that it would be screening there, I dropped her a line, and we arranged to have a chat about it – Jasper included, of course. She told me that she has been a fan of J-horror for as long as she can remember.

“When I was growing up, I think I watched basically all of the J-horror films,” says Sarah. “When I was really young they scared the shit out of me. I've always watched horror films, so in contrast to.

I thought I was done buying The Texas Chain Saw Massacre after upgrading to the 40th anniversary edition Blu-ray in 2014. Between the crisp presentation and the copious extras, I was certain it was the definitive version of Tobe Hooper‘s 1974 masterpiece. Yet here I am, nearly a decade later, ready to sing the praises of Dark Sky Films‘ 4K Ultra HD edition.

Long before “gritty” was an industry buzzword, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre epitomized the term. As such, one might be wary that a 4K restoration could hinder the viewing experience, but that is not at all the case. Utilizing the 4K scan from the aforementioned Blu-ray, which was approved by Hooper, and now with a wider color gamut courtesy of Hdr, the picture is presented in staggering clarity while maintaining the 16mm film grain. The oppressive heat is virtually palpable.

Co-written by Hooper and Kim Henkel, the plot...

Ahead of its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, the trailer has been released for Phillip Escott's The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and we're thrilled that Daily Dead Managing Editor Heather Wixson is one of the documentary's interviewees!

You can check out the new trailer below, and stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates on The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre!



Poster via Phillip Escott on Twitter:

The post Watch the Trailer for New Documentary The Legacy Of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Featuring Daily Dead Managing Editor Heather Wixson! appeared first on Daily Dead.

Earlier this week, we learned that one of the many movies that will be premiering at this year’s edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas will be director Phillip Escott‘s documentary The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which “presents a journey into The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, exploring the elements that garnered the film its cult status.” With Fantastic Fest set to run from September 22nd through the 29th, the premiere of The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is just over a month away at this point – and a trailer has arrived online to give a preview of what Escott has in store for viewers! You can check it out in the embed above.

The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre was set on August 18, 1973, so today is the perfect day to share this trailer.

The trailer reveals that The Legacy of The Texas Chain...

Amidst the sea of slashers that came out from the early 1970s onward, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre stands as one of the more heralded and unique entries in the genre. Where Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street focused on brutal kills and a more polished, cinematic quality, Tobe Hooper's classic brings a raw nature to the screen that adds to its realistic feel and terror, all while inspiring the slashers to come. The impact of the film will be explored in a new documentary from veteran director Phillip Escott (The Found Footage Phenomenon) which just received a new trailer.

Premiering at Fantastic Fest next month, director Phillip Escott‘s The Legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has unleashed a trailer, cutting deep into Tobe Hooper‘s horror classic.

In the 83-minute documentary, “Fest alumnus Phillip Escott presents a journey into The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, exploring the elements that garnered the film its cult status.”

The documentary features insights from critics and filmmakers alike, including Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro, alongside Fangoria’s editor-in-chief, Phil Nobile Jr.

The Daily Dead’s Heather Wixson, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) producer Fede Alvarez, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) director Marcus Nispel, master of horror Mick Garris, Jason Goes to Hell director Adam Marcus, and more are featured in the trailer, found below.

“You feel a sense that the people making this movie may not be okay,” Mick Garris comments in the documentary’s trailer, pitch perfectly describing Tobe Hooper’s game-changing vision.

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! We have a brand new round of home media releases on tap for today, and we have a mix of new and classic titles headed home this week. As far as new genre offerings go, Rob Savage’s Dashcam, The Last Thing Mary Saw, and Shark Bait are all being released on DVD, and The Twin featuring Teresa Palmer is coming out on Blu-ray. Galaxy Quest, which is an all-timer in our house, is getting a new Blu-ray today, and as far as older films go, both The Last Broadcast and Terror Circus are getting an HD overhaul, too.

Other releases for July 12th include Death Hunt, Blood Bath and While We Sleep.

Dashcam

Weary of pandemic life, Annie makes a surprise, unwelcome visit to her old bandmate, Stretch, stealing his car and taking over his food delivery gig while live-streaming outrageous antics for internet fans.

Do you see yourself as an ultimate fan of Italian horror cinema? Left feeling like no documentaries to date have met your idea of the be all and end all of Italian horror coverage? What if we said that a pair of documentary filmmakers are seeking your input on their upcoming documentary. Would you be interested? Author Eugenio Ercolani (Darkening The Italian Screen) and filmmaker Phillip Escott (The Found Footage Phenomenon) are leading a project called Nightmare Industry, what they see being the 'ultimate superdoc on Italian horror', and they want Italian horror fans to participate in the production - from beginning to end. Nightmare Industry will be the ultimate survey of Italian horror – charting the rise and fall over the decades...

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

Considering Fantastic Fest 2021 is this writer’s first time back at an in-person festival since Sundance 2020, I’m very excited (and a teeny bit nervous) about getting to spend a whole week indulging in movies from all over the world once again. Later this week, Fantastic Fest will be kicking off on Thursday, and will continue running in-person through September 30th (and the Ff Virtual Fest will begin the very same day).

And even though I’m always pumped for Fantastic Fest’s entire genre-spanning programming slate, there are a handful of films that have already caught my eye, and I thought I’d go ahead and preview 13 titles that I’m incredibly psyched to see as a horror and sci-fi fan. Also, I just wanted to make a note: I didn’t include films that Daily Dead has already covered at previous festivals. Not that they’re not worthy,...

The Found Footage Phenomenon Photo: Courtesy of FrightFest

Often created on a very low budget by inexperienced teams, found footage doesn’t have the best reputation in filmmaking circles, but audiences love it – and as new documentary The Found Footage phenomenon reveals, there’s a lot more to it than you might think. Part of the Frightfest 2021 line-up, it’s the work of Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott, and it features contributions from many of the key players in the development of the found footage format as well as going on to tie it to current debates about fake news and how we identify what’s real. One rainy afternoon just before the festival started, Phillip and I met up to talk about the film, and he began by telling me why this subject means so much to him.

“I'm a lifelong horror fan. A huge fan of Eighties horror.

Ask most people about found footage – at least, those people old enough to remember a time before it was everywhere – and they’ll tell you it first appeared sometime in the Nineties, perhaps mentioning The Blair Witch Project. Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott’s film begins by challenging this notion. Identifying elements of found footage as far back as the 1930s, it links the cinematic genre to the epistolary novel and examines the unifying idea behind numerous such works – the desire to convince viewers that what they’re engaging with is real. Early cinema, we are reminded, was basically a parade of shorts allowing people to witness things that they would probably never see in real life. Fiction came late to the party. Perhaps it still feels the need to justify itself.

This documentary sets out to explore the development of the phenomenon at the same time as tracking changing.

With March in full swing, we have another big batch of horror headed home this week that genre fans should keep an eye out for, including one of my most anticipated releases of the month: Scream Factory’s Collector’s Edition of The Craft (so excited to call the corners with this new Blu-ray!). Beyond that, we have even more great titles to get excited about, including the criminally underseen Kolobos from Arrow Video, Man’s Best Friend, featuring one of my favorites—Ally Sheedy—and Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, which features some brilliant performances from the likes of Mia Wasikowska and Christopher Abbott.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for March 12th include Garden Party Massacre, She Wolf, The Greasy Strangler: Special Director’s Edition, Lifechanger, Silk Scream, and The Wild Pussycat.

The Craft: Collector’s Edition (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Sarah has always been different. So as the newcomer at St.

This documentary is by fans and for the fans, chronicling why John Carpenter’s classic has stood the test of time. Bringing together some of the brightest voices from independent horror we will explore what makes the film so special. From the music, the mask to Michael Myers, everyone has their own take on Halloween (1978), and why it is the blueprint for slasher horror and in our humble opinion, has never been bettered.

2018 is a big year for Halloween fans as it marks 40 years since the release of John Carpenters original holiday classic which introduced us to the bogeyman Michael Myers. In addition, we can also look forward to a new sequel which follows on from the original film and looks to rewrite the history of the series, bringing back Jamie Leigh Curtis as Laurie Strode, Nick Castle as The Shape and John Carpenter as the producer.

The Halloween series...

Principal photography on the film is set to start in Wales this summer.

London-based Sc Films is launching sales in Cannes on UK sci-fi horror 3 Days On Planet Earth.

From director Phillip Escott, the film begins with an alien spacecraft crash-landing on a remote farm in Wales, leaving the owner cut off from the world. She soon finds herself working with a mysterious MoD agent in order to try and save the planet

Casting is now underway. Principal photography is set to start in Wales this summer, with delivery scheduled for Q1 2019.

Director Escott’s credits include Cruel Summer, which...

Based on a horrifying true crime, the UK horror flick Cruel Summer premieres on VOD 2/27 from Wild Eye Releasing. Screen Anarchy has your first look at a new trailer and poster for the flick.   From filmmakers Phillip Escott and Craig Newman comes the powerful story of an autistic teen that is tormented by a group of local thugs after he ventures into the woods alone for a camping trip.   Danny, an autistic teenager, is bullied and tormented by a group of thugs after he ventures into the woods alone for a camping trip. Their rage against him is based on lies spread by a local girl, who claims Danny committed a crime against her that he had nothing to do with.   ...

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

Fractured Visions Film Festival director Phillip Escott has kindly provided us with a press release about the event, which will take place in Cardiff from September 29-30. If you’re in or around the Cardiff area, read on for the details! Announcing: The Fractured Visions Film Festival! Having established itself as the premier cult cinematic event […]

The post Announcing the Fractured Visions Film Festival appeared first on Dread Central.

Having established itself as the premiere cult cinematic event in Cardiff, Fractured Visions are now expanding and are pleased to announce the launch of the Fractured Visions Film Festival! Set to take place over the weekend of September 29th-30th, at the Tramshed Cinema, where everyone will be welcome to kick back, grab a beer and enjoy the films in luxury thanks to Tramshed’s beautiful seating, the festival looks to bring:

…the best in independent horror to the Big screen for a weekend filled with bloodshed, scares, laughs and downright terror! We aren’t interested in the big budget studio fare that will be projected in every cinema across the globe, we want to promote the underdogs and we want to promote the future of the genre.

Of course, it’s impossible to acknowledge the future without paying respect to the past, and as such, we will be inviting...

One film Dread Central has been championing since we first caught it is co-writers/co-directors Phillip Escott and Craig Newman’s brutally affecting debut, Cruel Summer (review); a film that went on to shock and surprise audiences at The Horror Show FrightFest and… Continue Reading →

The post Cruel Summer to Torment UK Homes From February appeared first on Dread Central.

UK genre fans are currently enjoying five days of nailbiting action with the 2016 edition of the Horror Channel FrightFest now underway in Shepherd's Bush, London, and we are chronicling the event with the official FrightFest TV daily highlights packages. Day Three's subjects? Director Steve Barker discusses The Rezort; Director James Crow discusses House Of Salem; Director Brad Watson discusses Hallows Eve; Director Lawrie Brewster discusses The Unkindness Of Ravens; Directors Phillip Escott and Craig Newman discuss Cruel Summer; Director Marcel Walz discusses Blood Feast; Director Jackson Stewart and Actors Jesse Merlin and Graham Skipper discuss Beyond The Gates; Director Jon Ford discusses Offensive; and Director Anna Biller discusses The Love Witch....

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

Late this summer, West London's Horror Channel FrightFest 2016 will host an eclectic collection of horror films, including Rob Zombie's 31, Sean Byrne's The Devil's Candy, Darren Lynn Bousman's Abattoir, Jackson Stewart's Beyond the Gates, and Adam Wingard's The Woods:

Press Release: From grindhouse to art-house, feel-good to squeal-good, blockbuster to ghostbuster FrightFest returns in all its gory glory, now housed at the 12-screen Vue Cinema at Shepherd’s Bush, West London, from Aug 25 - Aug 29.

In its 17th year, the world renowned genre film festival will present 62 new feature films, embracing sixteen countries and bringing together established filmmakers, British first-timers and emerging international visionaries from six continents.

The opening night attraction is the European Premiere of My Father Die, Sean Brosnan’s brutal and beautiful feature debut – an ultra-stylish, uber violent revenge thriller that’s a calling card for Brosnan’s brilliant talents. And our...

Chilling British drama Cruel Summer unveils new trailer; director speaks. Echoing the gritty horrors of films like 1986’s harrowing The River’S Edge, but with a decidedly contemporary Welsh twist is director Phillip Escott and Craig Newman’s new, fact-based dark British drama Cruel Summer, a picture that riffs on the sad truth about human evil: that…

The post Exclusive: Director of Stark New British Thriller Cruel Summer Speaks; Trailer Revealed appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Teenagers can be quite nasty, especially to those they perceive as weak or whom they think they can attack without fear of retribution. Such is the case in the new film Cruel Summer. Shot in South Wales during the incredible hot summer of 2013, the plot is loosely based on a true story of three teenagers who violently attacked a friend without provocation or motive. Written and directed by Phillip Escott and Craig Newman, it mixes British social realism with hints of horror (trapped in the woods with someone hunting you down) in its first trailer.Danny (Richard Pawulski), a teenager with autism, escapes the inner city for the beautiful countryside as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. Little does he know, that bitter...

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