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Welcome to IndieWire After Dark, where we pick a new theme for our midnight movie programming every month!

Join us on Friday nights (and special occasions!) to explore some of the strangest fringe films available at any hour in the Streaming Age.

The scariest puppet this side of the “Saw” franchise, Jenny Pen is an early frontrunner in the race for 2025’s favorite new horror icon. She’s the reason for the season and the inspiration behind this month’s IndieWire After Dark lineup — Two Midnight Movies (and a Muppet!) That Influenced “The Rule of Jenny Pen.”

A labor of love from filmmaker James Ashcroft, puppeteer Paul Lewis, and star actor John Lithgow, the titular prop drew on a slew of sources. The movie is based on a story by Owen Marshall, which was optioned by Ashcroft and his co-writer Eli Kent more than a decade ago, and it’s...

In Josh Cooley's "Toy Story 4," Woody (Tom Hanks) falls out of his family's Rv on a road trip, and falls in with a group of lost toys. As audiences know from the previous "Toy Story" movies, toys are only happy when children play with them, and lost toys have found a way to travel throughout a neighborhood's multiple public parks, burying themselves in sandboxes right when certain preschools break for the day. Lost toys live in a strange state of chaotic bliss. 

Toys that don't get played with, meanwhile, become bitter and evil. This was true of the old prospector Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) in 1999's "Toy Story 2," and it's certainly true of Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) in "Toy Story 4." Gabby is a decades-old talking doll that has wound up in a small-town antique store. No one will buy Gabby, however, because her inner voice box broke many years ago.

The American TV-movie has gained a bad rap over the years, but there was a time when folks looked forward to these flicks — and not in an ironic sense or a need to hate-watch.

That period of kinder and less cynical viewership was surely in the 1970s and ’80s when the made-for-television movie became more widespread. The “movie of the week” format took off in the former decade, with the major networks at the time devoting blocks in their schedules to these standalone, small-screen features. And one of the more revisited genres was horror. Duel, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Trilogy of Terror, Are You in the House Alone?, The Initiation of Sarah. These are just a few of the classic telefilms that scared a whole generation of viewers.

There have been great strides to archive and restore these past horror TV-movies,...

Some Star Trek: Voyager episodes had trouble with exposition, so I'm happy that one season 4 episode jumped right into the action. Despite not being the most popular of the 1990s-era Star Trek shows, Voyager is by far my favorite series in the franchise. In my opinion, Voyager's cast of characters gelled extremely well together, and by and large, the show's storylines were enjoyable and interesting. That's not to say that Voyager didn't struggle with certain things though, and while I love the show, I'll be the first to admit that it had weaker moments.

One of the things Voyager often had trouble with was the pacing of certain episodes. I can think of numerous episodes throughout the show's seven seasons that suffered from pacing issues or too much exposition. Voyager's "Trilogy of Terror" in season 3 comes to mind, but there were certainly other episodes, especially early on, that would have benefitted from a rewrite.

Do any of you hardcore horror fanatics remember Mirror Mirror from 1990? It had a theatrical release, but garnered much of its popularity on the shelves of Blockbuster Video stores nationwide and became a late-night cable staple for several years throughout the decade. And yes, it should be considered somewhat “popular” since it spawned three sequels. If you haven’t seen the original Mirror Mirror, don’t worry because Dark Force Entertainment, headed by Demon Dave, has released it in 4K Uhd. That means you Og fans of this B-movie classic can relive some sense of nostalgia from that decade, now in 4K clarity.

Let’s dive into the film’s plot. Megan Gordon and her mother Susan move to L.A. and into a new home to begin their equally new lives. The previous residents left behind a lot of their belongings that are being sold by an auctioneer named Emelin.

For the most part, TV horror movie is generally not that effective... which is what makes Trilogy of Terror such a standout entry for the genre in this medium. This 1975 film is exactly what it sounds like, an anthology made up of three separate short stories, with each of them coming from a different subgenre of horror. One tells the story of a blackmailed teacher, another of two rival sisters, and the last is the most important and influential, centered on one of the earliest on-screen killer dolls. Trilogy of Terror isn't only unique because of its structure, but also because these three segments star Karen Black in four unrelated roles, with the second story having her play dual sister parts. It might be cheesy and dated in many ways, but Trilogy does its job as a fun enough horror movie, and far exceeds the expectations of a made-for-tv horror movie.

There’s more spooky, kooky fun coming to MeTV this October. The network is presenting its second annual “Svengoolie’s Halloween BOOnanza,” and TV Insider has the exclusive details on the month-long celebration of Svengoolie and fright-filled, kooky classic TV fun for the entire family. The programming includes: ‘Svengoolie’s Halloween BOOnanza Double Feature,’ back-to-back horror movies every Saturday night with titles including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Trilogy of Terror; overnight blocks with The Twilight Zone, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and Sventoonie; and mini-marathons of spooky-themed classic TV Westerns and spooky and kooky comedy TV series. Watch the trailer above. “We put the Boo! in BOOnanza with our movie line-up of fearsome Svengoolie features on MeTV Saturday nights,” said Rich Koz, aka. Svengoolie, in a statement. “We have killer clowns, Abbott & Costello, and the much-requested original Kolchak movies, plus this year, we will...

Anthology films in horror are nothing new. Decades ago, there were examples like “Tales From the Crypt,” “Trilogy of Terror,” and of course, “Creepshow.” However, in recent years, the most recognizable horror anthology franchise is none other than “V/H/S.” And just in time for Halloween, Shudder has a new one coming, titled “V/H/S/85.”

Read More: ‘V/H/S/99’ Review: The Decaying Found Footage Horror Anthology Injects Much-Needed Humor [TIFF]

As seen in the trailer for “V/H/S/85,” the film continues the found-footage gimmick of previous films but this time places the time period in the mid-‘80s.

Continue reading ‘V/H/S/85’ Trailer: Scott Derrickson, David Bruckner & More Go Back To The ’80s For The Latest Horror Anthology at The Playlist.

Clockwise from top left: Dracula (Universal Pictures), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Columbia Pictures), Dracula: Dead And Loving It (Columbia Pictures), Nosferatu The Vampyre (Anchor Bay Entertainment: Screenshot/YouTube)Graphic: AVClub

Count Dracula is one of the most adapted characters in history. In fact, more actors have taken on the...

"Child's Play" occupies a unique space in the decade-long slasher wave of the '80s. The brainchild of writer Don Mancini, the original 1988 film has developed into a highly successful franchise spanning six sequels, a remake, and an ongoing TV series. That success was never guaranteed upon its release, however.

While "Halloween" formed the blueprint for the modern slasher film upon its release in 1978 -- proving the financial potential for low-budget horror movies and leading to a big boom across the next decade -- the slasher genre had been on the wane by the time "Child's Play" hit the screens. Take the "Halloween" franchise itself for instance. Between 1981 and 1988, the first three "Halloween" sequels made more at the box office than the original 1978 film, but only if you put them all together.

Thankfully, Mancini looked to 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street," which had replaced "Halloween" as the new model for slasher films,...

The reviews for M3GAN are in and critics agree that the killer doll film is an electrifying time at the movies that introduces a brand-new icon to the horror canon. The film, which was produced by James Wan, stars Allison Williams as a young scientist who develops a lifelike artificial intelligence doll to be a companion for her orphaned niece, only to realize that the AI's directive to protect the girl has resulted in the android M3GAN becoming a bloodthirsty killing machine. In addition to being the first major wide release of the year, M3GAN arrives in theaters in the wake of a massive wave of viral interest on social media thanks to a clip of the killer doll dancing that captured the imagination of people across the globe.

Today, ahead of M3GAN's impending theatrical release, the embargo lifted on reviews of the film, allowing critics' to share their full thoughts.

Chucky, Annabelle, M3gan Photo: Brendan Meadows (Syfy) America loves its toys to death, at least if movies are any indication. Since the 1987 introduction of the murderous doll Chucky, killer toys have been a staple of the cineplex. Despite the modest returns of the Child’s Play series, Chucky continued to...

Don Mancini addresses the possibility of a crossover between Chucky and M3GAN. Chucky, the murderous doll possessed by a serial killer, first appeared in Child's Play in 1988, a film which has since spawned an entire franchise, including six sequels and a television show. Mancini was inspired by the "Talky Tina" in The Twilight Zone, as well as the killer figurine in Trilogy of Terror. Chucky has since become the iconic king of the creepy doll horror trope. However, a new killer doll is growing in popularity with the upcoming science fiction horror film M3GAN, which features a girl-like android that becomes increasingly intelligent and murderous.

Mancini now speaks out about a potential Chucky and M3GAN crossover. While talking to ComicBook.com, Mancini reveals that he's officially discussing a variety of Chucky crossover ideas with Universal. He mentions that he has always been interested in a Freddy Krueger and Chucky crossover, but...

Horror host Svengoolie has been keeping the tradition of the horror host alive for many years now, and he’s back this Saturday to kick off October with “Svengoolie Uncrypted”!

Set to air on MeTV on Saturday, October 1 at 9pm, “Svengoolie Uncrypted” is Svengoolie’s very first hour-long primetime special, an event over 40 years in the making.

Svengoolie writes on Facebook, “It’s my first ever primetime hour-long special… and it only took me 43 years to get! Don’t miss Svengoolie Uncrypted and see what happens when I leave my dungeon for an epic journey filled with celebrity encounters; long lost archives; a search for lost memorabilia and a celebration that could only take place in Berwyn (Ber-wyn?), Illinois! You especially won’t want to miss the crypt-shaking ending!”

“Svengoolie Uncrypted premieres Saturday, October 1st at 9P | 8C, after our regular show,” he also notes. “Remember, we’re starting “Trilogy of Terror...

Season 2 of the Emmy-winning comedy “Hacks,” the debut of Colin Firth’s true-crime drama “The Staircase” and the streaming return of “The Matrix: Resurrections” all await HBO Max subscribers in May. If you’re looking for something new to watch or wondering what’s on HBO Max this month, not to worry, we’ve got the full rundown.

There are several must-watch new TV shows on both HBO and HBO Max this month, new and returning. Acclaimed Jean Smart comedy “Hacks” returns for Season 2 on May 12. As for the new debuts, May sees the premieres for HBO Max’s “The Staircase” on May 5, starring Colin Firth as Michael Peterson in the true-crime limited series, as well as the HBO premiere of Steven Moffat’s (”Doctor Who”) series adaptation of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” on May 15.

New films this month include the streaming return of “The Matrix: Resurrections” and streaming premieres...

With movie theaters fully back up and running, HBO Max no longer has any major film releases to point to with its list of new releases for May 2022. That’s alright though as the streamer is leaning into the HBO side of its branding to offer up some fun TV releases.

The biggest HBO Max original this month is undoubtedly the return of Hacks on May 12. The first season of this comedy starred Jean Smart as a venerated Vegas comedy and Hannah Einbinder as her new millennial assistant. The first batch of episodes was excellent and even won an Emmy or two for its troubles and now season 2 will look to keep up the good vibes.

Premiering on May 15, is The Time Traveler’s Wife. This series adaptation of the 2003 novel (which in turn became a a 2009 movie) keeps up with two star-crossed lovers who can never quite make the timing work…...

Julia Child has been a source of wonder and joy ever since she rose to fame in the 1960s, becoming the first celebrity chef with her personality-forward cooking show, 'The French Chef." Just like that, she was invited into people's homes through their screens, changing the way people cooked in their own kitchens by introducing Americans to French cuisine. Between the show and her beloved cookbooks, cooking under Julia's guidance became the norm, and naturally, it wasn't long before she also became a source for parody. The most famous example was on "Saturday Night Live," where Dan Akroyd became "The French Chef," complete...

The post Meryl Streep's Julie & Julia Character Isn't Quite Who She Seems appeared first on /Film.

A musical dramedy about life, loss, and following your dreams, “Julie and the Phantoms” (Jatp) brought something special to the small screen in 2020. The show’s emotional storylines and music captured the interest and hearts of many viewers. “Julie and the Phantoms” was also well received by critics and won several awards, including three Daytime Emmys.

Best Dog Movies On Netflix You Can’t Miss

With such a promising beginning — and a cliffhanger ending! — many fans are wondering why Netflix hasn’t released a second season of “Julie and the Phantoms.” We’ve gathered everything you need to know about the show’s current status right here.

Has “Julie and the Phantoms” Been Canceled?

Inspired by the Brazilian TV series “Julie e os Fantasmas,” Dan Cross and David Hoge created the American musical series “Julie and the Phantoms.” Kenny Ortega, famed director of Disney’s “Descendants” and “High School Musical” movies,...

Exclusive: Paloma Kwiatkowski (Riot Girls), Donal Logue (Sons Of Anarchy), David Mazouz (Gotham), Camille Sullivan (Hunter Hunter), and Golden Globe nominee Adam Beach (Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee) have been set to star in supernatural thriller The Island Between Tides.

Production is underway in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, with XYZ Films newly aboard to rep North American sales. Above is a first look image.

The feature film, based on Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie’s gothic bedtime tale Mary Rose, takes place in the coastal wilds of the Alaskan border. The plot follows Lily (Kwiatkowski), a young woman who follows a mysterious melody onto a remote tidal island. When she crosses back over at the next low tide, she emerges into a world where decades have passed.

Writer-director-producers are Andrew Holmes (Dolph) and Emmy-winning filmmaker Austin Andrews (Julie and the Phantoms).

The Island Between Tides is the first feature...

Part two of Hogg’s semi-autobiographical drama, in which a young film-maker finds her creative path after a doomed love affair, is the director’s most accessible work to date

What is “The Souvenir”? In Joanna Hogg’s autobiographically inspired 2019 drama, that title appeared to refer specifically to an 18th-century Fragonard painting depicting a young woman carving the name of her lover into a tree trunk. In that film, set in the 1980s, Julie Harte (played by Hogg’s goddaughter Honor Swinton Byrne) is introduced to the painting by an enigmatic man with whom she is falling in love. Like Hogg, Julie is perplexed by what the painting means and by her own increasingly tumultuous feelings for her mysterious companion.

In this flipside second instalment of Hogg’s most personal and surprisingly most accessible work, the word “souvenir” takes on a rather more metatextual meaning. This time the film itself...

Hello, everyone! Now that September is nearly upon us (which means we’re getting closer and closer to our favorite season), we have one last round of home entertainment releases ahead of us before we can finally bid August a fond farewell - and there are a lot of different titles making their way home tomorrow. Arrow Video is keeping busy this week with their 4K release of Dune as well as the special edition release of The Brotherhood of Satan, and Kino Lorber is resurrecting several classics on Blu-ray this Tuesday, including The Raven, The Last Man on Earth, and The Comedy of Terrors.

If you have younger genre fans at home, you’ll definitely want to pick up the new editions of Coraline and The Boxtrolls from Scream Factory, and for you cult film fans, Vinegar Syndrome has you covered with their new Blu-rays for Killer’s Delight, The Lamp...

Screen legend Vincent Price gives a masterful performance in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi chiller, the first and most faithful adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel I Am Legend.

The new collector's Edition from Kl studios and you can find more details here.

A plague envelops the earth, decimating the population and leaving one man still alive: scientist Robert Morgan (Price), who exhibits a strange immunity to...

The Raven/The Comedy of Terrors

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1963-64

Starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff

Cinematography by Floyd Crosby

Directed by Roger Corman, Jacques Tourneur

Roger Corman helped Vincent Price create his reputation as a horror movie star and in 1962 he helped him to dismantle it—already tiring of the gothic grind, the 37 year old director allowed rare humor to creep into his Poe series in the otherwise morbid Tales of Terror, a trilogy of economical horror stories written by Richard Matheson. The usual shocks were laced with laughs in the film’s second segment, The Black Cat, featuring a flamboyant Price as a two-timing wine taster. Corman and his cast enjoyed the distraction from the usual sturm und drang so the following year they returned to the well with a medieval burlesque called The Raven. Matheson was back too, contributing a simple story about Erasmus Craven...

One of the best films at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is a Norwegian romantic drama about a young woman on the verge of turning 30. It's a refreshingly intellectual and mesmerizing look at romance and love in our modern world, and all the remarkably empowering and frustrating challenges that come with it. The film is titled (in English) The Worst Person in the World, and the original Norwegian title is Verdens Verste Menneske, though the French title is Julie (en 12 Chapitres) or simply Julie (in 12 Chapters) - which is somewhat better than the English version. But none of these titles really do it justice, nor do they really fit with this film overall, nor capture how beautiful and excruciating and understanding and exhilarating it really is. But aside from that, there's so much to adore about this film and the depths of romance it explores, diving in so deep it may...

His second film in the Palme d’Or comp, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World (aka Verdens verste menneske or in French as Julie (en 12 chapitres)), his first work in 2006’s Reprise won plenty of praise which helped him land a spot in Cannes for 2011’s Un Certain Regard selected Oslo, August 31st. He first time in contention was with Louder than Bombs. Here he reunites with Anders Danielsen Lie who plays Aksel, but this is the story of the dynamic flip-flopping Renate Reinsve – an actress who had a bit role in Oslo, August 31st.…...

Paul Verhoeven, Oliver Stone, Sean Baker, Asghar Farhadi, Tom McCarthy and Sean Penn are among the directors who will be represented in the official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from July 6-17 in the south of France.

Verhoeven, Baker and Farhadi will be represented in the main competition with “Benedetta,” “Red Rocket” and “A Hero,” respectively. “Spotlight” director McCarthy will screen his Matt Damon film “Stillwater” out of competition, while Stone will present the first two hours of his four-hour documentary about the John F. Kennedy assassination, “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.”

As previously announced, the festival will open with Leos Carax’s musical “Annette,” with music by the band Sparks, and will also include Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which was originally scheduled to premiere in Cannes last year.

After the Cannes press release had been sent out and general delegate Thierry...

In our Q&a series Last Call, we get down to the bottom of every last thing with some of our favorite celebs - from the last time they were starstruck to the last song they listened to. This week, Ann Skelly takes our call.

Ann Skelly has made a name for herself with dramatic roles on Red Rock, Vikings, Kissing Candice, and Rose Plays Julie. Now with The Nevers, the 24-year-old Irish actor is getting to test her comedic chops as inventor Penance Adair. Set in Victorian London, the HBO series follows a group of women three years after a mysterious event gave them all unique abilities. Now known as "the touched," the group have to deal with their newfound powers as they ward off enemies all the while trying to fit into society. Just when things start to look up, their world is shaken to its core by an unexpected betrayal and murder.

Dakota Johnson has landed the starring role in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of the Jane Austen novel “Persuasion,” the feature directorial debut of acclaimed theater director Carrie Cracknell. The director most recently worked on Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge’s Tony-nominated performances in the play “Sea Wall/A Life.” The film adaptation is written by “Rain Man” Oscar winner Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow.

The film promises to take a fresh approach to the beloved story. Here’s Netflix’s logline: “Living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy, Anne Elliot is an unconforming woman with modern sensibilities. When Frederick Wentworth—the dashing one she once sent away—crashes back into her life, Anne must choose between putting the past behind her or listening to her heart when it comes to second chances.”

Dakota Johnson recently starred in the cancer drama “Our Friend,” released by Gravitas earlier this year.

Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Thalissa Teixeira will star alongside Lucy Hale in the AMC-Alibi series “Ragdoll,” Variety has learned.

The six-episode show, which was ordered to series back in February, is set to begin production on April 19 in London. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Cole. Variety exclusively reported Hale’s casting in March.

Assigned to a shocking new case, nicknamed The Ragdoll, are DS Rose (Lloyd-Hughes), Di Baxter (Teixeira) and DC Edmunds (Hale). The “Ragdoll Killer” taunts the police by sending them a list of his next victims, with Rose’s name at the very end. And with those victims to protect, our heroes soon come under intense public scrutiny.

“We’re thrilled to have Lucy, Thalissa and Henry on board as three ideal leads to bring Ragdoll to life,” said Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and co-head of AMC Studios.

Oscar nominated screenwriter of One Night in Miami… and the writer/co-director of Pixar’s Soul, Kemp Powers discusses some of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Innerspace (1987)

The Goonies (1985)

Animal House (1978)

Soul (2020)

One Night In Miami… (2020)

Munich (2005)

12 Angry Men (1957)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)

Gremlins (1984)

About Schmidt (2002)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Little Women (2019)

Cornbread, Earl And Me (1975)

The Education Of Sonny Carson (1974)

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)

Point Break (1991)

Point Break (2015)

Ghost (1990)

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

Road House (1989)

Dirty Dancing (1987)

The Outsiders (1983)

Die Hard (1988)

Up (2009)

Monsters Inc. (2001)

Inside Out (2015)

Wall-e (2008)

Ratatouille (2007)

Van Nuys Blvd. (1979)

Mad Max (1979)

The Road Warrior (1981)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Happy Feet (2006)

Babe (1995)

Lorenzo’s Oil (1992)

Unforgiven (1992)

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Tombstone (1993)

Invictus (2009)

Jersey Boys (2014)

Gran Torino...

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“A Biography Of A Film”

By Raymond Benson

Lately there has been a new trend in film books that are more like biographies than simply non-fiction treatises on the making of a movie. A “biography of a film,” as critic Molly Haskell calls it, treats a particular motion picture in the same way a researcher would examine a person’s life—from the inception to its lasting influence and impact today, meticulously illustrating each step and examining the personnel involved along the way. The recent Space Odyssey by Michael Benson (a “biography” of 2001: A Space Odyssey) is a fine example.

Glenn Frankel’s Shooting Midnight Cowboy—Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic is one such biography of a film, and it is a magnificent tome. Besides dissecting the all-important sociological milieu that was in the background while Cowboy was being made,...

Corman/Poe By Chris Alexander Coming in 2022 from Headpress Books: "Toronto, Canada, March 19, 2021 - Filmmaker, magazine editor and writer Chris Alexander announced today that he is in production on a new book centering on a classic film series that stands among the most fascinating and enduring of all time.

Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964 will be published by Britain's Headpress Books and released in early 2022.

"No other film series means as much to me as those iconic eight pictures collectively referred to as Roger Corman's 'Poe Cycle'," says Alexander.

"I've spent decades thinking about them, obsessing over them, re-watching them and writing about them. Corman/Poe is my passion project; a collection of my thoughts and observations mixed with extensive, in-depth interviews that I've conducted with Roger over the years. I'm thrilled that Headpress has taken a chance on this book.

Kaley Cuoco, the Golden Globe-nominated star of HBO Max sleeper hit series “The Flight Attendant,” is set to play Doris Day in an upcoming limited series over at Warner Bros. Television. The show will be based on A.E. Hotchner’s 1976 biography of the Academy Award-nominated “Pillow Talk” actress’ life, which she historically kept private, from her days as a big band singer to her death at 97 in 2019. She was also one of the last classic legends of Hollywood, as well as a dedicated animal-rights activist. Her other film credits include “Calamity Jane,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Move Over, Darling,” and “The Thrill of It All.”

Cuoco’s Yes, Norman Productions and Warner Bros. Television are teaming with Berlanti Production again after the success on their “Flight Attendant” series, though no network has been confirmed for the project. Warner Bros. is the studio that Doris Day first signed to,...

Liv Ullmann has been an international star since 1966’s Ingmar Bergman’s arthouse hit “Persona”; indeed, she is best-known for her collaborations with Bergman, acting in 10 of his films, and directing two of his screenplays; he was also the father of her daughter, author Lin Ullmann. But there’s more to her than that: She’s written two books, “Changing” (1976) and “Choices” (1979), and, more important, her activism.

Ullmann talked to Variety about acting in Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” in Norway early in her career. In a war-torn area, her character discovers an abandoned baby. The director gave her advice valuable both in acting and in life: See things from both sides, and don’t turn away. Her life was changed with another production, the musical “I Remember Mama,” when Broadway shows raised funds for Cambodian refugees in 1979. The lesson then was similar: Don’t turn away.

‘This...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: Hour Glass (1971)Film scholar Clyde Taylor coined the name "L.A. Rebellion” for a retrospective of the Black cinema made at UCLA between the 1960s and 80s that was held at the Whitney Museum in 1986. The name conflates the filmmakers’ radical aesthetics with the Watts Rebellion and Black Power and Civil Rights Movements. It does not account for the Asian, Latinx, Native American and white film students who also sought styles outside the Hollywood formula, and remains a point of contention for some of those Black filmmakers it gathers under one denomination. “Rebellion” suggests a collective response to the status quo, rather than a series of independent expressions with diverse influences and motivations. But the slogan stuck, and, for better or worse, remains the most common calling card for a...

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

Netflix has continued releasing original content during the pandemic, keeping its many subscribers entertained. One of the most recent Netflix Originals is the teen musical fantasy series, Julie and The Phantoms. Created by Kenny Ortega, who also directed High School Musical, Hocus Pocus, and Descendants, the series follows a Latina girl as she rediscovers her passion for music following her mom's death.

Related: 10 Teen Dramas To Watch If You Enjoyed Julie And The Phantoms

Luke, Reggie, and Alex were members of an up-and-coming band before they died just hours before their big break. They help Julie get back into music and form a band: Julie and the Phantoms. Julie also has support from her best friend, Flynn, and her family. But the band faces threats from Carrie, daughter of Trevor Wilson, who betrayed the phantoms and took credit for their work, and Caleb Covington, a powerful ghost who tries to manipulate the boys.

Kitted out with a killer cast of unknowns and a unique(ish) shooting gimmick, Let’s Scare Julie does an awful lot with very little. It’s about as straight-forward as hauntings get: five teenage girls, one house, and a particularly eerie score, with a few extra cast members thrown in for the occasional bump or jump. And with a roving camera that seemingly never cuts, there’s something fascinatingly tense and cinematic about just how bare-bones the whole thing is.

Especially when you realise that the Julie in question isn’t actually one of our leads at all, but a mysterious neighbour who’s about to get pranked. It’s a prank that we never actually see, but get the feeling didn’t go down as well as the girls might’ve been expecting. Instead we stay with outsider Emma (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) as the fallout turns to terror,...

We are, it seems, no closer to normalcy in terms of being able to go to our local movie theater carefree. But the spooky season is upon us and that means plenty of horror movies in honor of Halloween coming our way. But that's not all as this week brings plenty of options for those looking for something to stream this weekend.

A few horror flicks are coming our way this weekend, including the latest from Darren Lynn Bousman and a vampire movie on Netflix. We also have a new Ryan Murphy-produced adaptation of a Broadway classic, a new sci-flick starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and a biopic about Gloria Steinem. Here are this week's streaming selections.

The Glorias - Amazon Prime Video

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The Glorias is a new biopic on the iconic Gloria Steinem. She is known for her world-shaping activism and guidance of the women's movement,...

Writer/director Jud Cremata makes his grippingly tense and ambitiously inventive feature debut with Let's Scare Julie, a haunted horror-thriller about a teenage prank gone wrong shot in one, continuous take. Though the creative approach of shooting an 82-minute film without cuts or interruption spurs genuineness from its performances and creates sincere claustrophobia for the viewer, it amounts to little more than a dark evocation of anxiety. Let's Scare Julie is no doubt a new and thrilling ride with refreshingly real characters to invest in, but the payoff for those sitting on edge awaiting true terror never quite arrives. Fortunately it boasts an amazingly authentic look at teens and their late-night hijinks, and Cremata's direction doesn't fail to ignite nerves in an innovative way.

One night, Emma who recently moved in with her cousin Taylor (Isabel May) after her father's death, is awoken from a sound sleep when Taylor and...

If you were going on a date with a ghost, where would you want to go? That's the question TV Guide posited to the cast of Julie and the Phantoms, Netflix's highly-addictive YA series about a young girl who joins a band with a trio of super-cute ghost boys. While none of the couples or ships in the

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Other Links From TVGuide.com Julie and the PhantomsJulie and the PhantomsCharlie GillespieJeremy ShadaCheyenne JacksonBooBoo StewartKenny Ortega...

Genre festival to open with ‘Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula’.

South Korean zombie thriller Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula will open UK genre festival FrightFest on October 22 ahead of its UK release by Studiocanal on November 6.

The festival will host 34 features in central London from October 22-25 and has secured seven world premieres and two European premieres.

It will close with the world premiere of US horror Held, directed by Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff, the filmmaking duo behind The Gallows franchise.

Further world premieres include Will Jewell’s Concrete Plans; Leroy Kincaide’s The Last Rite; and Dune Drifter from Marc Price,...

We're calling it now: Julie and the Phantoms is about to become the next big musical phenomenon. After directing iconic Disney Channel franchises, like High School Musical and Descendants, Kenny Ortega is making musical magic yet again with his latest Netflix project. The series, which is based on the Brazilian series of the same name, follows a young girl named Julie (Madison Reyes) with a passion for singing who ends up befriending a musical group of ghosts. What results is a crazy journey, filled with heartwarming storylines and flashy performances.

While the new series stays true to the original in "spirit and in basic concept," Ortega notes he was given a lot of freedom to make it his own. "The producers of the original Julie e os Fantasmas said, 'Take liberty and have your experience with this title,'" he told Popsugar. "So, we were given a no boundaries kind...

This review of Julie and the Phantoms contains no spoilers.

Probably the only thing you need to know about Julie and the Phantoms before going in is that its executive producer is Kenny Ortega. If that doesn’t instantly ring a bell – well, he’s the guy who directed the High School Musical movies, the Descendants movies, and, of course, the evergreen Halloween classic Hocus Pocus. This nine-part supernatural teen drama is the first of his projects for Netflix, and it’s just as charming, warm, and finger-snappingly musical as you’d expect.

Julie (newcomer Madison Reyes) is a 15-year-old singer-songwriter who recently lost her mother. Her grief has put a damper on her creativity, and as a result she’s close to getting kicked out of her school’s prestigious music program. Then she meets cute up-and-coming indie rock band Sunset Curve and rediscovers her voice. Her teachers are impressed,...

Netflix has released the first trailer for Julie and the Phantoms. This new musical series comes from Kenny Ortega, best known as the man behind the High School Musical franchise. In this case, he is heading back to his song and dance roots, this time with a little bit of a genre spin. The show is "about embracing life's ups and downs, following your dreams, and discovering the power of your own voice." But it also involves ghosts.

The trailer opens up with our title character getting ready to give a performance, though she is clearly a bit hesitant to do so. We quickly come to find she has suffered a great personal loss with her mom passing away. Things get supernatural in a hurry as several ghosts pay Julie a visit. Ultimately, they end up helping Julie through her musical journey. It very much has the vibe of a Disney Channel musical,...

Judging by Gold Derby’s combined odds, Alex Borstein seems destined to make a triple play this year, thanks to her performance as Susie Myerson, the scathingly uncensored and tomboyish sidekick and manager of Rachel Brosnahan‘s stand-up comic Midge on Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” If the actress — who also has a Emmy for voicing Lois Griffin on the animated series “Family Guy” — goes 3-for-3, she will be the fifth supporting funny lady to do so. The members of this club are sitcom legends Valerie Harper (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”) and Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”). Not bad company at all.

Right now, Borstein is way ahead of her closest competition, Annie Murphy of “Schitt’s Creek,” among users of Gold Derby’s prediction site. She boasts 1146 backers and 9/2 odds while Murphy has 423 total votes and 5/1 odds.

On Season 3 of “Mrs. Maisel,...

The 1970s were a pivotal period in both American and global pop culture. It was the decade that witnessed the birth of the “American New Wave,” with helmers including Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola establishing a new filmmaking vernacular and making their indelible marks on cinematic history.

In India, Bollywood was producing such wildly popular films as “Sholay.” It was the year “Jaws” put great white sharks on the big screen while also unleashing the era of the summer blockbuster. The iconic, surrealistic comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” graced theaters, directed by first-time feature helmers Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. The “soft sounds” of 1975 were evident in the string of mellow and groovy Yacht Rock chart-toppers, from the Captain & Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together,” which earned the Grammy for record of the year, to Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain.” Other easy listening tunes...

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that one of the hardest things to pull off in genre storytelling is an anthology film that remains consistently entertaining, where the quality of all the stories can all hit the same high notes, just in different ways. We’ve had our fair share of great ones over the years, as well as some that just don’t quite hit their mark, and for me, while I appreciate the ingenuity and passion on display here, The Pandemic Anthology falls somewhere squarely in the middle. There are some shorts that have stuck with me over the last few days, but there were several segments that just did absolutely nothing for me, making this newest anthology fall squarely in the “it’s fine” territory.

For The Pandemic Anthology, 14 different filmmakers from all over the world created their own short films that are reflective...

"What would happen in a horror movie now?" Paper Street Pictures has debuted the first official trailer for an indie horror anthology film titled Scare Package. This premiered at the Sitges Film Festival last year, and also played at the Telluride Horror Show and FrightFest London. This new horror-comedy anthology with seven different stories "brings together some of the brightest rising stars in horror filmmaking today. This splatter-packed, deviously clever throwback pays homage to horror classics with seven hilarious, meta tales of terror, each exploring—and subverting—different genre tropes. All wrapped around every horror fan's beloved stomping grounds: an old school video store." Starring Noah Segan, Baron Vaughn, Chase Williamson, Jocelyn DeBoer, Jeremy King, Dustin Rhodes, Zoe Graham, Hawn Tran, Chelsey Grant, Jon Michael Simpson, Josephine McAdam, and more. Looks like some crazy good fun! Enjoy. Here's the official trailer (+ rad poster) for Paper Street Pictures' Scare Package, direct from YouTube: Seven directors.

Bob Cobert, the Grammy- and Emmy-nominated composer of television’s “Dark Shadows” and “The Winds of War,” died of pneumonia Feb. 19, in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 95.

Cobert’s themes for the 1960s Gothic horror soap “Dark Shadows” – “great spook music,” he once called it – were his most popular compositions, and “Quentin’s Theme” (for the character played by David Selby) became a top 10 hit in 1969 as recorded by the Charles Randolph Grean Sound, earning a Grammy nomination as Best Instrumental Theme.

The “Dark Shadows” score, the first daytime soap to generate a best-selling soundtrack album, cemented Cobert’s partnership with the series’ creator-producer Dan Curtis, who continued to employ Cobert on nearly all of his television and film projects for the next four decades.

They did four features and more than two dozen television films together. Their largest-scale project was “The Winds of War,” the 18-hour 1983 miniseries based on...