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Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has added Iranian feature Bidad by Soheil Beiraghi as the 12th and final title for its main Crystal Globe Competition.

When Karlovy Vary unveiled its line-up in early June, it said would add an Iranian film to the competition but was keeping it secret till closer to the festival to protect the safety of the film’s delegation.

Bidad is the story of the young singer Seti who refuses to accept the fact that women in Iran are not allowed to perform in public. In defiance of her country’s religious laws, she decides to sing in the street.

Subhash K Jha celebrates the career of noted director Ravi Tanson and shares his selection for Tandon’s best work in this fascinating feature.

1. Anhonee (1973):

Ravi Tandon turned producer-director with this eminently engaging murder thriller, which starred Sanjeev Kumar as what seemed to be a mentally unstable man. But wait, there was a delicious twist in the story, which I suggest you experience for yourself if you haven’t already. With Sanjeev Kumar was the pretty Leena Chandavarkar seducing him with Lata Mangeshkar’s superhit song ‘Buddhu pad gaya palleyk. The hit Sanjeev-Leena pair was back in Ravi Tandon’s comedy Apne Rang Hazaar two years later. That, too, was a hit.

2. Zindagi (1976):

Many see this Ravi Tandon directorial as a precursor to the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini autumnal drama Baghban. Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha play a couple who are separated by their children who can only afford...

Charles Bronson, star of action movies, westerns, and war films during the late 20th century, was synonymous with "tough" on and off-screen. Bronson's television and film appearances included numerous spaghetti Westerns, including Red Sun. Released in 1972, Red Sun was directed by Terrence Young and starred Ursula Andress (also in Dr. No), Alain Delon, and Toshir Mifune alongside Bronson. It was based on a true story from the American frontier.

When the Japanese ambassador is robbed en route to meet with the US president, bandit Link Stuart (played by Bronson) is double-crossed by his gang. Link ultimately teams up with samurai bodyguard Kuroda (Mifune) to retrieve the ceremonial sword the rest of the gang has made off with. Considered one of the earliest examples of Asian martial arts movies uniting with Western cowboy adventures, Red Sun offers action, drama, and a bit of levity. It is an underrated movie that showcases...

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has represented his country in the International Oscar race an impressive five times, winning the coveted prize on two occasions (for The Salesman and A Separation).

His latest feature, the social drama A Hero, is once again a hotly tipped contender for this year’s race. The film, which debuted in Competition at Cannes and won the Jury Grand Prize, stars Amir Jadidi as a man in prison because of a debt he is unable to pay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum, but things don’t go as planned.

Central to the feature is the performance of Jadidi. During the Amazon Studios panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International, Farhadi explains that he didn’t always intend to use a professional actor in the lead role.

“When I started...

Chile’s Sanfic Industria, the industry section of the Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic), and Grupo Morbido, the Mexican horror conglomerate, have unveiled details for the 2021 Sanfic-Morbido industry events unspooling in early November, as well as a special poster designed by Chilean-Ecuadorian artist Alberto Montt to mark the occasion.

In August 2019, Sanfic and Grupo Morbido announced a collaborative venture which would see Grupo Morbido founder and CEO Pablo Guisa attend and participate in a dedicated genre project section at the South American festival. Later that year, the first ever Sanfic Morbido Fest prize was awarded to Pilar Díaz, producer of Florencia Dupont’s “Aracne.”

Their arrangement was expanded upon in February 2020, when the two organizations embarked on a joint horror initiative to promote and grow the genre cinema industry in Chile and South America at large. Like so many best laid plans at that time, however, arrangements were thrown into upheaval by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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By Matt Davey

Released in 1972, The Valachi Papers depicts the rise and fall of Mafia informant Joseph Valachi, who became the first member of the Mafia (otherwise known as Cosa Nostra) to acknowledge its existence in public. Directed by Terence Young and produced by legendary Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis The Valachi Papers stars Charles Bronson in the lead role, alongside his real-life wife Jill Ireland as well as Lino Ventura, Walter Chiari and Joseph Wiseman.

The film covers five decades of Valachi’s involvement in organised crime – from his burglaries with the Minutemen to working under mob boss Vito Genovese from the 1930s – as the film unceremoniously portrays life in the criminal underworld. Told from the perspective of Valachi, the film begins with the ageing gangster in prison fearing for his life after a contract for his killing is ordered...

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.

Metallica had booked gigs all around the world, including several summer festival headliners in the U.S., but Covid had other plans for 2020. After the group canceled its tour dates, it donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Covid relief organizations through its All Within My Hands charitable foundation, using money it raised from streaming video of past concerts.

Ramiro García Bogliano's crime thriller Deeper Wounds is all set to have its world premiere tomorrow at the 42nd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba. We have been asked by our friends at Crudo Films, one of the film's producers, to share the trailer with you. Check it out below.    Two sisters decide to find their estranged father with the aim of killing him, in retaliation for the murder of their mother years ago.   Ramiro is of course the brother of Adrian. Together they directed Penumbra and has written such films as Cold Sweat and White Coffin. His stars include Sara Hebe, known up to now as a rapper, musician and performing artist this film is her acting debut....

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

Thin Lizzy will pack 74 previous unreleased tracks into a new box set, Rock Legends, set to arrive October 23rd via Umc.

The six-cd/one-dvd collection, which is available to preorder, spans the band’s whole career and comprises a mix of demos, radio sessions, live recordings and rare single edits. The set is based around a collection of newly discovered tapes, and the tracklist was compiled by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and band expert Nick Sharp.

The first disc of the Rock Legends set will boast the single edits...

Veteran English actor Ben Cross, whose many roles include playing Sarek in J. J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot, has sadly passed away. Reportedly, the performer died after a short illness on Tuesday in Vienna, and there are little other details about his passing. According to the German publication Kurier, he had been in town for treatment after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 72 years old.

Born Harry Bernard Cross, the veteran performer came into this world in 1947. From an early age, he began performing in grammar school plays, catching the acting bug at the start of his life. At the age of 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts to further hone his craft. Based on his great work, Cross was awarded the academy's Vanbrugh prize for performance of the year. This led to significant stage roles, making it just a matter of time before Cross would appear in movies and television.

Portal will feature eight ‘screens’.

Colombian theatrical distributor Cineplex has set the first two premieres for the launch of its virtual cinema portal CineplayMAX, offering online screenings of features across Latin America and, in some cases, the world.

The portal will have eight ‘screens,’ with titles available at launch to include two premieres and five features that have recently appeared in cinemas.

Films that have previously been in cinemas will screen on the portal in the usual transactional VoD (TVoD) window 45-60 days after theatrical release. Titles will be geo-blocked for markets where Cineplay does not have the rights or has made a prior deal.

As most cinemas remain closed across most of Latin America due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Colombian indie distributor Cineplex, run by Elba McAllister, has set a July 1 launch for the region’s first virtual theatrical exhibition initiative, CineplayMAX.

Inspired by similar schemes in the U.S., led by Kino Lorber, and Spain’s A Contracorriente Films, CineplayMAX has entered pacts with a host of independent exhibitors in the region to play their first-run and repertory titles online.

A host of independent exhibitors have already joined the initiative including Colombia’s Cineland, Vo Cinemas, Cinelandia, Multiplex Villacentro, Colombo Americano, Maloka and Cinematheque of the Caribbean while a handful more from Peru, Ecuador and Argentina have also signed on.

CineplayMAX will also premiere documentary “Jinetes del Paraiso,” directed by the anthropologist and director Talia Osorio and narrated by Grammy winner El Cholo Valderrama, which will take viewers on an exploration of the grand plains of Colombia.

“It was important to let people know what we were doing.”

Owners of the first arthouse cinema to reopen in the Central American country of Costa Rica say they have been encouraged by the response from audiences as they head into the second week of business.

Cine Magaly in the capital San José opened its doors on Monday (May 11) with a first-run presentation of The Lighthouse after the ministry of health said patrons could return to theatres that demonstrated sufficient safety and hygiene protocols in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Programming director Anabelle Carcheri said the family-run business – sister Jessica is manager of operations,...

“It was important to let people know what we were doing.”

Owners of the first art house cinema to reopen in the Central American country of Costa Rica say they have been encouraged by the response from audiences as they head into the second week of business.

Cine Magaly in the capital San José opened its doors on Monday (May 11) with a first-run presentation of The Lighthouse after the ministry of health said patrons could return to theatres that demonstrated sufficient safety and hygiene protocols in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Programming director Anabelle Carcheri said the family-run business...

In the heatedly performed drama Cold Sweat (Araghe Sard), a professional female soccer player finds herself stranded at home as her team takes off to Malaysia for the Asia Cup finals. The reason she’s left behind is due to a simple and completely lopsided facet of Iranian civil law: A woman needs permission from her husband in order to leave the country. If he says no, she’s stuck.

And so, in writer-director Soheil Beiraghi’s quietly gripping second feature, Afrooz (Baran Kosari), the captain of Iran’s national futsal squad — futsal is a form of indoor soccer that’...

In the heatedly performed drama Cold Sweat (Araghe Sard), a professional female soccer player finds herself stranded at home as her team takes off to Malaysia for the Asia Cup finals. The reason she’s left behind is due to a simple and completely lopsided facet of Iranian civil law: A woman needs permission from her husband in order to leave the country. If he says no, she’s stuck.

And so, in writer-director Soheil Beiraghi’s quietly gripping second feature, Afrooz (Baran Kosari), the captain of Iran’s national futsal squad — futsal is a form of indoor soccer that’...

An angry woman rails against the system in the punchy and timely “Cold Sweat,” a fact-based drama about an Iranian national futsal team member whose husband uses his legal right to prevent her traveling abroad and playing in the most important game of her life. This intelligently written, well performed and emotionally rewarding second feature by writer-director Soheil Beiraghi (“Me”) will enlighten and entertain audiences everywhere. A hit in local cinemas when released in late September, “Cold Sweat” ought to enjoy a long festival life at the very least. French arthouse outfit Sophie Dulac Distribution will screen the film theatrically Nov. 28.

A tale with especially strong appeal in these #TimesUp times, “Cold Sweat” draws from the real-life cases of many Iranian sportswomen whose dreams were dashed when their husbands invoked patriarchal laws. Its success at the local box office comes in the wake of well-publicized protests at the men’s soccer World Cup in June,...

For the fourth year, the Stockholm Impact Award, which comes with a prize of SEK1 million and a trophy designed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, will be handed to a film playing at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival that “reflect our times.” This year the organizers are expanding the number of titles competing to eight to allow a wider range of films and filmmakers to be considered, the fest says.

The films selected are Brady Corbet’s Venice title ”Vox Lux,” starring Natalie Portman; Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” likely to be an Oscar contender; Sergey Loznitsa’s satire ”Donbass”; Beatrice Seigner’s social drama “Los Silencios,” applauded at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes; Soheil Beraghi’s “Cold Sweat”; Natalia Meshchanninova’s “Core of the World”; Phuttiphong Aroonphengs ”Manta Ray”; and Richard Billingham personal documentary ”Ray & Liz.”

”[The award] is all about films that reflect our times through the perspective of visionary directors,...

Bronson’s Loose Again!: On the Set with Charles Bronson is author Paul Talbot’s all-new companion volume to his acclaimed Bronson’s Loose!: The Making of the ‘Death Wish’ Films. His new book reveals more information on the Death Wish series and also details the complex histories behind eighteen other Charles Bronson movies. Documented herein are fascinating tales behind some of the finest Bronson films of the mid-1970s (including Hard Times and From Noon Till Three); his big-budget independent epics Love And Bullets and Cabo Blanco; his lesser-known, underrated dramas Borderline and Act Of Vengeance; his notorious sleaze/action Cannon Films classics of the 80s (including 10 To Midnight, Murphy’S Law and Kinjite: Forbidden Sunjects); the numerous unmade projects he was attached to; and his TV movies of the 90s (including The Sea Wolf). Exhaustively researched, the book features over three dozen exclusive, candid interviews including...

It came, it saw, and it left with all the major horror awards, along with lots of major accolades. We're talking about Mexican horror film Here Comes the Devil, written and directed by Adrián García Bogliano of Cold Sweat fame. In Here Comes the Devil, a couple on holiday lose their two young children while walking in the hills. To their immense relief the kids are found the next day, but they seem a bit... different. Soon, the mother starts suspecting something else came home with them. It's not often that you hear a film described as being "sleazy", "exploitative", "creepy", "intelligent" and "terrifying" all at the same time, but apparently Adrián worked wonders here. At Fantastic Fest last month it won Best Film, Best...

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

Magnet Releasing gave us a look at the Us poster for Here Comes the Devil earlier this week and we now have a new red band trailer:

“A young family with two preteen kids — a son and a daughter —stop their car at a roadside gas station across from a large, unusual hill while on a family trip in Tijuana. The two kids, Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adolfo (Alan Martinez), explore the hill on their own, only to vanish into thin air. The following day, they return to their distraught parents, seemingly unharmed, and claiming to have gotten lost in a dark cave on the slope.

While father Félix (Francisco Barreiro) is relieved to have the children back, mother Sol (Laura Caro) soon starts to notice that something isn’t quite right with Sara and Adolfo, who are acting sullen, avoiding school and freaking out their babysitter. As these domestic...

Here Comes the Devil was acquired by Magnet Releasing after its Fantastic Fest screening last year and will be released in December. Here’s a look at the new Us poster:

“A young family with two preteen kids — a son and a daughter —stop their car at a roadside gas station across from a large, unusual hill while on a family trip in Tijuana. The two kids, Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adolfo (Alan Martinez), explore the hill on their own, only to vanish into thin air. The following day, they return to their distraught parents, seemingly unharmed, and claiming to have gotten lost in a dark cave on the slope.

While father Félix (Francisco Barreiro) is relieved to have the children back, mother Sol (Laura Caro) soon starts to notice that something isn’t quite right with Sara and Adolfo, who are acting sullen, avoiding school and freaking out their babysitter.

While there may be a shortage of theatrical horror films scoring a nationwide release, there are still plenty of titles touring the festival circuit and coming out via VOD and DVD that are equally worthy of your attention. Unfortunately, films that don’t get the big-studio marketing treatment often wind up passed over by a lot of horror fans... or, sadly, overlooked entirely. To shed some light on some of these lesser-known features, we ran a piece last month spotlighting a series of impressive films released over the past five years which may not have received all the publicity they deserved (due to financial limitations, being overshadowed by larger scale releases, or myriad other reasons). For your consideration, today we're showcasing five more titles that may have passed you by, but are certainly worthy of your attention. We hope that even die-hard fans of the macabre will find a film...

Frank Pavich’s Jodorowsky’s Dune won the Fantastic Fest audience award and claimed best picture prize in the Documentary Features section.Scroll down for full list of winners

Ari Folman’s The Congress was named best picture and that film’s Robin Wright won the best actress prize in the Fantastic Features strand.

Derek Lee and Clif Prowse’s Afflicted dominated the Horror Features section, winning best picture, screenplay and directors.

In the Next Wave Spotlight competition, Matt Johnson’s The Dirties was named best picture, while Sion Sono’s Why Don’t You Play In Hell? prevailed in the Gutbuster Comedy Features’ best picture contest.

In Fantastic Fest’s inaugural genre co-production market, Fantastic Market | Mercado Fantastic, Cuban filmmaker Alejandro BruguésThe Wrong Place won Gold Prize.

The Wrong Placebeat 15 other submissions at the market, which ran from September 19-21, and will receive a production support package comprising products and services provided by Panavision, Chemistry, Assimilate...

Here Comes the Devil was acquired by Magnet Releasing after its Fantastic Fest screening last year and we now know when Us horror fans will be able to see it in theaters. Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Cold Sweat, Penumbra), we’ve been told that the movie will have a limited theatrical release on December 13th and we’re also expecting a VOD release around the same date.

“A young family with two preteen kids — a son and a daughter —stop their car at a roadside gas station across from a large, unusual hill while on a family trip in Tijuana. The two kids, Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adolfo (Alan Martinez), explore the hill on their own, only to vanish into thin air. The following day, they return to their distraught parents, seemingly unharmed, and claiming to have gotten lost in a dark cave on the slope.

While father Félix...

I think everyone remembers where they were August 31st, 2003 when they heard that Charles Bronson had died. I was visiting my brother in Atlanta when my nephew knocked on my door and informed me that CNN had announced his death. I collapsed into a sobbing heap. Bronson was my hero, my muse, my role model. Hollywood’s brightest star would shine no more. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone ten years.

Charles Bronson was the unlikeliest of movie stars. Of all the leading men in the history of Hollywood, Charles Bronson had the least range as an actor. He rarely emoted or even changed his expression, and when he did speak, his voice was a reedy whisper. But Charles Bronson could coast on presence, charisma, and silent brooding menace like no one’s business and he wound up the world’s most bankable movie star throughout most of the 1970’s.

Following are some supplemental sections featuring notable director & actor teams that did not meet the criteria for the main body of the article. Some will argue that a number of these should have been included in the primary section but keep in mind that film writing on any level, from the casual to the academic, is a game of knowledge and perception filtered through personal taste.

****

Other Notable Director & Actor Teams

This section is devoted to pairings where the duo worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in 1 must-see film.

Terence Young & Sean Connery

Must-See Collaboration: From Russia with Love (1962).

Other Collaborations: Action of the Tiger (1957), Dr. No (1962), Thunderball (1965).

Director Young and actor Connery teamed up to create one of the very best Connery-era James Bond films with From Russia with Love which features a great villainous performance by Robert Shaw...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 4th of June

Super Collider is Megadeth’s fourteenth studio album and the first to be released on Dave Mustaine’s new label, Tradecraft. This is not the album that fans were expecting from the current generation of the band, and as such it has already drawn a fair amount of fire and hate from many with statements such as those from this Metal Sucks review:

“Super Collider is undoubtedly the worst Megadeth album since 2001′s The World Needs a Hero, and it is very possibly as bad as 1999′s infamous Risk…This isn’t metal — it’s muzak, an album populated predominantly by old man rock…”

Reviews such as this one are dismissive, plain and simple. Born from this line of thinking: “I dislike either the person, or the band, so this is instantly bad.” My advice, look out for a “MegaDave” reference,...

Latin America has become a horror film hot spot over the past couple of years, thanks in large part to director Adrián García Bogliano, whose 2011 slow burn terror flick Penumbra is a must-see for fans of the genre. Now, Bogliano is hoping to make a splash in the U.S. with his new movie, Late Phases, which is currently shooting in upstate New York.

The director’s first English-language film, Late Phases relates the story of a cantankerous blind vet named Ambrose McKinley (Stake Land’s Nick Damici) who moves into a retirement community where residents have been dying from dog attacks — although,...

"Spartacus" star Erin Cummings hit Twitter today and revealed that she and Ethan Embry have joined the cast of Adrian Garcia Bogliano's werewolf thriller Late Phases for Dark Sky Films/Mpi and Glass Eye Pix, which is now shooting in New York. Nick Damici and Tina Louise co-star.

Cummings (pictured) and Embry play a married couple in the flick. Thanks to Shock Till You Drop for making the early catch. Expect a full press release soon.

Late Phases marks the first English-language project for director Bogliano (Cold Sweat, Penumbra, Here Comes the Devil).

Synopsis:

Late Phases tells the story of Ambrose McKinley (Damici), who moves into a community where the residents have been dying in increasing numbers - oddly, all have supposedly been the victims of dog attacks. But after barely surviving his own attack on his first night there, Ambrose discovers that the assailants are much more than canines.

Erin Cummings (Spartacus, pictured) and Ethan Embry have joined the cast of the werewolf thriller Late Phases, currently lensing in New York for Mpi/Dark Sky Films.  

The film is the first English-language project for director Adrian Garcia Bogliano, who made a splash on the genre scene with Cold Sweat, Penumbra and the upcoming Here Comes the Devil.

Cummings and Embry join previously-announced cast member Nick Damici (Stakeland).  Shock Till You Drop has also exclusively learned that Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island's "Ginger") will appear in the film.

Read more...

ShockTillYouDrop.com reports that Erin Cummings ("Spartacus," pictured) and Ethan Embry have joined the cast of the werewolf thriller Late Phases , currently lensing in New York for Mpi/Dark Sky Films. The film is the first English-language project for director Adrian Garcia Bogliano, who made a splash on the genre scene with Cold Sweat , Penumbra and the upcoming Here Comes the Devil . Cummings and Embry join previously-announced cast member Nick Damici ( Stakeland ). ShockTillYouDrop.com has also exclusively learned that Tina Louise ("Gilligan's Island's" "Ginger") will appear in the film. Late Phases will tell the story of Ambrose McKinley, who moves into a community where the residents have been dying in increasing numbers -...

The Stanley Film Festival, which will host its debut fest at the iconic and legendary Stanley Hotel in Colorado from May 2-5, has announced its official feature film line-up, with the Eli Roth-starring earthquake thriller Aftershock taking center stage as the fest’s closing night film.

Roth will be on hand to accept the Inaugural Visionary Award and take part in a Q&A after the film.

“Since his debut on the film festival scene with Cabin Fever in 2002, Eli Roth has become a leading force in the horror genre. Whether acting, producing, directing or writing – his many talents are what made titles like Hostel and Inglourious Basterds shine,” says Festival Director Jenny Bloom. “His body of work will set the Stanley Film Festival Visionary Award precedent high for years to come.”

The Stanley Film Festival is curated by Programming Director Landon Zakheim and programmer Michael Lerman, who selected films from 13 different countries,...

Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s creepy thriller Penumbra and the Us horror fantasy anthology Chillerama will receive their UK TV premieres on Horror Channel – which is good news for horror fans as both films are not currently available on DVD in the UK!

Penumbra (2011) – Sat Mar 23 @ 22:55

From Adrián García Bogliano, director of unique chiller Cold Sweat, comes a bold experiment into creeping paranoia with a nasty twist. Marga, an arrogant businesswoman from Spain is on a business assignment in Buenos Aires – she must find a new tenant for her family’s decrepit apartment. But what’s behind the décor signals a startling fate worse than death. Penumbra is a superbly realized horror entry from the Argentine talent rapidly becoming a genre powerhouse all to himself.

Chillerama (2011) – Sat Mar 30 @ 22.55 (UK Premiere)

From the depraved minds of Us directors Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan, Adam Green, and Joe Lynch, a horror fantasy anthology...

Nick Damici, star of Twitch faves like Jim Mickle's Stakeland, Mulberry Street and his upcoming re-imagining of Jorge Michel Grau's We Are What We Are, will take the lead in Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Late Phases. Bogliano is also a favorite of ours with tremendous output into the Spanish-speaking horror scene with films like Here Comes The Devil, Penumbra, and Cold Sweat. From our perspective, this is a match made in genre heaven. This will be Bogliano's first English language project and shooting is expected to begin some time in the Spring. Bogliano had this to say about the addition of Nick to the project, "I'm super excited about having him on the project. He's a very talented actor and it's pretty obvious for his work as a writer that he is a very sensitive...

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

Mpi's Dark Sky Films has announced that Nick Damici, star of cult horror faves Stake Land and We Are What We Are, will lead the cast of Late Phases, the first English-language production from rising horror director Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Here Comes The Devil, Penumbra, Cold Sweat). Dark Sky is co-producing Late Phases with Zak Zeman's Site B Productions (S-vhs), and will also be joining forces again with Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix (as they did previously on House of the Devil, Stake Land, The Innkeepers and more). The story focuses on a man who moves into a town where the residents are being killed by predators believed to be dogs... but after barely surviving one such attack, he discovers that the assailants are something even more dangerous. "We're excited to be working with Mpi Dark Sky again, with a great script and Damici in the lead,” said Fessenden.

The ABCs of Death is now available on a variety of VOD services and will receive a limited theatrical release on March 8th. If you’re looking to learn more before checking it out, we have a new featurette with a number of the directors involved talking about the movie and their segment.

“Twenty-six directors. Twenty-six ways to die. The ABC’s Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived with productions spanning fifteen countries and featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children’s educational books, the motion picture is comprised of twenty-six individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death.”

Directors: Kaare Andrews (Altitude), Angela Bettis (Roman), Ernesto Diaz Espinoza...

A red band trailer for The ABCs of Death gave us the first good look at the anthology horror film last month. If you’re looking for more, we have the new green band trailer that was just released. The ABCs of Death is an anthology horror film with 26 short chapters. Each chapter is directed by a different filmmaker, including Ti West, Xavier Gens, Adam Wingard, and more:

“Twenty-six directors. Twenty-six ways to die. The ABC’s Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived with productions spanning fifteen countries and featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children’s educational books, the motion picture is comprised of twenty-six individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death.

Argetine filmmaker Guillermo Martinez has debuted a teaser trailer for his indie horror film When Your Flesh Screams! starring Cold Sweat's Victoria Witemburg.

The story revolves around Martina, a biology student, who after moving from her hometown to complete her studies, decides to undertake an excursion to the outskirts of the city in search of rare and exotic specimens for research.

Not finding the specimen after a long search, she decides to rest by the roadside. At that time, her new psychotic neighbors propose to take her to the woods where they claim is the specimen that she seeks. Martina accepts the crossing naturally, but on the way the thugs kidnap her, determined to cause all sorts of sinister and gruesome acts, both physical and psychological. The story takes an unexpected turn when Martina decides to release her pent- up anger.

Read more...

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get literary and remind ourselves of our aBCs. After a run on the festival circuit, the first, very red band trailer for horror anthology The ABCs Of Death has appeared online.

The premise of the project is simple, as you may recall – twenty six directors with minimal financial resources but full creative freedom were given a letter and the request to construct an on screen death in a manner connected to that letter.

Have a look at the trailer:

Directors involved in the project are:

Kaare Andrews (Altitude), USA

Angela Bettis (Roman), USA

Ernesto Diaz Espinoza (Mirageman; Mandrill), Chile

Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun), Canada

Bruno Forzani & Héléne Cattet (Amer), Belgium

Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Cold Sweat), Mexico

Xavier Gens (Frontiers; Hitman), France

Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Mexico

Noburo Iguchi (Robo Geisha), Japan

Thomas Malling (Norwegian Ninja), Norway

Anders Morgenthaler...

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to get literary. Yes, after a run on the festival circuit the first, very much red band, trailer for horror anthology The ABCs Of Death has arrived online. The premise of the project is simple. Twenty six directors with minimal financial resources but full creative freedom were given a letter and the request to construct an on screen death in a manner which connected to that letter. The results were mayhem.Directors involved in the project are: Kaare Andrews (Altitude), USA Angela Bettis (Roman), USA Ernesto Diaz Espinoza (Mirageman; Mandrill), Chile Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun), Canada Bruno Forzani & Héléne Cattet (Amer), Belgium Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Cold Sweat), Mexico Xavier Gens (Frontiers; Hitman), France Jorge Michel Grau (We Are...

In yesterday’s news, we told you to expect something from The ABCs of Death this evening and we now have the first trailer for you to watch. The ABCs of Death is an anthology horror film with 26 short chapters. Each chapter is directed by a different filmmaker, including Ti West, Xavier Gens, Adam Wingard, and many more:

“Twenty-six directors. Twenty-six ways to die. The ABC’s Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived with productions spanning fifteen countries and featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children’s educational books, the motion picture is comprised of twenty-six individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death.”

Directors: Kaare Andrews (Altitude), Angela Bettis...

After a number of festival screenings this year, The ABCs of Death is set for release early next year and we have two new photos to share with Daily Dead readers. The ABCs of Death is an anthology horror film with 26 short chapters. Each chapter is directed by a different filmmaker, including Ti West, Xavier Gens, Adam Wingard, and many more:

“Twenty-six directors. Twenty-six ways to die. The ABC’s Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived with productions spanning fifteen countries and featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children’s educational books, the motion picture is comprised of twenty-six individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death.”

Directors: Kaare Andrews...

Director Adrian Garcia Bogliano has become something of an Austin favorite in the last few years, making a splash with horror films "Cold Sweat" at South by Southwest and "Penumbra" at last year's Fantastic Fest, and the folks at this year's Ff showed their appreciation by giving "Here Comes the Devil" pretty much every award in the horror category. It's a good film, too, a solidly plotted and performed horror pic in a very 70's mold, punctuated with the occasional moment of legitimately shocking violence. What it does best, and probably the reason for its awards sweep, is create a crescendo of dread that Bogliano's script manages to sustain for most of its running time. Sol spends the movie being a good mother and trying to learn the truth about what happened on that fateful night, and there's a chance you might figure out the answers to her questions before she does.

Saturday night, Fantastic Fest held the U.S. premiere of the anthology film, The ABCs of Death. Like last year's Slacker 2011, this film featured 26 of the best, up-and-coming or already established horror directors showing off their creative ideas about death. The directors include Adam Wingard (You're Next), Ti West (House of the Devil), Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl, Robogeisha), Austin native Angela Bettis (May) and Adrián García Bogliano (Cold Sweat, Penumbra).

Before the screening started, Tim League took the stage to apologize about the print we were supposed to see. In the craziness of various festivals it had been invited to, they had neglected to send a print back to the Alamo for this first screening. All was okay, as they had a working copy of the film, although it was missing a few big edits that made it to Tiff. So while this was close to the final film,...

Fantastic Fest has announced this year's Fantastic Fest Award winners. And in the horror category, Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Here Comes the Devil took a range of awards.

The supernatural thriller from Argentina and the director of Penumbra and Cold Sweat not only landed some kudos, but it was picked up by Magnet Releasing at the fest.

Barreiro and Caro are parents whose preteen son and daughter inexplicably reappear after being lost overnight on a desolate, cave-riddled mountainside after a casual hike became every parent’s nightmare. The good luck and good fortune of their return soon changes, as the children’s behavior suggests ominous and unspeakable events the night the children were lost that continue even now. As a loving couple – and loving parents – try to care for and protect their children, the ancient and half-whispered legends around the caves and the mountain and those who have gone there before...

Forget about the penumbral lesbian sex scene at the beginning of “Here Comes the Devil” and instead focus on the intriguing if somewhat hokily developed story of a young Mexican couple (also into sex, a lot of sex), whose two children go missing near a cave in Tijuana. This isn’t a missing-persons, film however, as they turn up, apparently safe and sound, pretty soon. What follows is an increasingly tense narrative in which it becomes clear that daughter Sara (Michele Garcia) and her sibling, little Adolfo (Alan Martinez), were perhaps more impacted than it at first appears. Another feature from the prolific, Spanish-born, Latin-America based director Adrían García Bogliano (“The Cursed,” “Cold Sweat”), this seems to have been developed in something of a hurry, with the acting occasionally rough in patches. Nonetheless, the central conceit’s pretty strong and Bogliano strikes a nice balance between realism and the...

It’s difficult to get excited about a new possession movie when we’re regularly disappointed by studio films that poorly mimic The Exorcist. That’s why I was really impressed with Here Comes the Devil, a film that premiered this month at the Toronto International Film Festival. This is a movie that isn’t afraid to tell a different type of possession tale that many will find unsettling, in part due to its taboo subject matter.

Coming from writer/director Adrián García Bogliano (Cold Sweat, Penumbra), Here Comes the Devil stars Francisco Barreiro and Laura Caro as parents whose children go missing after exploring a hill on their own during a family trip to to Tijuana. The children eventually turn up, but it’s apparent to Sol (Laura Caro) that her son and daughter faced some kind of trauma while they were missing. Somehow, this is all related to...

Fans of horror, rejoice! Just this past week, Screen Media Films announced the creation of Primal Screen, a new horror label that will develop, produce, and purchase films within the genre. Any time we get an opportunity for More horror (and more money in the industry), I think it’s cause for celebration. Screen Media is known for Ti West’s Trigger Man and the forthcoming Night Of The Living Dead 3D: Reanimation. What follows is the official press release:

Screen Media Films has announced the formation of Primal Screen, a new horror label that will focus on the development, production, and acquisition of new films relevant to the genre. Screen Media president Suzanne Blech will oversee this new unit of the company and Michael Dwyer and Seth Needle will be in Toronto at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in an acquisitions capacity to take meetings for worldwide rights.

Here Comes the Devil is only the second film I'm seen by writer-director Adrián García Bogliano, following a recent viewing of his "geriatric lunatics with nitroglycerine" horror movie Cold Sweat only a few weeks ago. Seeing both films in such close proximity caused me a small amount of psychic whiplash, with the first movie a seedy, sometimes silly work that careened from Saw-style torture scenarios in a decrepit mansion to an abrupt homage to The People Under the Stairs with sun-deprived boys replaced with nude, feral camgirls. And two years later, here we have the (relatively) more sedate, though no less lunatic Here Comes the Devil which goes for a more traditional psychological style of horror for most of its running time punctuated by abrupt,...