News

During the early 2000’s, horror was on a mission to shake things up and keep audiences on the edge of their seats—literally. Gone were the days of predictable slasher flicks; this was an era where psychological scares, supernatural thrills, and mind-bending twists took center stage. In 2002, a film called Darkness decided to challenge its viewers with just that. Perhaps your house was a little too quiet or your lights flickered just a bit too often, or maybe your house was home to a cult practicing satanic rituals? This creepy flick stars Anna Paquin, who moves into a seemingly charming countryside home with her family—except this house has more than just creaky floors and drafty windows. It’s practically the poster child for “homes you definitely shouldn’t buy,” with a dark past that’s more twisted than a haunted house ride. As the shadows grow longer and the walls seem to close in,...

Shortly after the surprise announcement of Elden Ring: Nightreign at The Game Awards 2024, statements from FromSoftware and Bandi Namco confirmed some important details about the game's upcoming release. Releasing at an unspecified date in 2025, Nightreign is a spinoff of Elden Ring, taking the form of an open-world, co-op roguelike that diverges from FromSoft's usual Soulslike offerings in several ways, including the use of preset characters instead of player-created protagonists.

As reported by PC Gamer, Elden Ring: Nightreign will not be a live service title, with the game's director, Junya Ishizaki, stating in an interview, "We wanted to have a game that felt like a complete package out of the box," additionally emphasizing that, while Nightreign will receive post-release updates, the game will be complete in terms of content on the day of release. Additionally, publisher Bandai Namco has stated that Nightreign will not be a full-priced release and will instead...

The feature film debut of writer/director Chris Stuckmann has a solid, albeit slightly familiar, premise. In 2008, four YouTubers known for a ghost hunting show called ‘Paranormal Paranoids’ go missing near the deserted town of Shelby Oaks, sparking conspiracy theories and suspicions it’s a hoax to increase the channel’s notoriety.

When the bodies of Laura (Caisey Cole), Peter (Anthony Baldasare), and David (Eric Francis Malaragni) are discovered, however, the focus shifts to the fourth member: host Riley (Sarah Durn), whose disappearance prompts nationwide speculation around the question: “Who took Riley Brennan?”

That’s the question that Riley’s older sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) can’t stop thinking about. Twelve long years after the disappearance of her supernaturally gifted sibling, Mia is being interviewed by a documentary team led by Janet (Emily Bennett). It’s something of a hail mary by Mia’s husband Robert (Brendan Sexton III), who...

Dive deeper into the style of Vanished into the Night with these thrilling movies. The Nameless, Searching, and Without a Trace provide different perspectives on Vanishing Into the Night's themes. Prisoners, Changeling, and Taken are classics that share major connections to Vanishing Into the Night.

After watching Pietro La Torre try to find his missing children in Vanished into the Night, audiences may be craving more dark stories of kidnapping and crime, and the following movies are the ideal choices. Vanished into the Night is a 2024 Italian thriller that is currently streaming on Netflix. The movie centers on Pietro, a man who is in the midst of a messy divorce when his two children go missing. Pietro embarks on a dangerous mission to find them, uncovering his ties to a dark, criminal past. Vanished into the Night's cast includes Riccardo Scamarcio and Annabelle Wallis.

Vanished into the Night is...

​​​​

Star Wars has revealed covers for new High Republic novels; focusing on the dangerous Nameless creatures. Tears of the Nameless and Beware the Nameless covers show Jedi battling the fearsome Force predators. Beware the Nameless by Zoraida Córdova will release on Aug 27, 2024, and Tears of the Nameless by George Mann on Sept 24.

Star Wars has revealed covers for two upcoming High Republic novels, and both feature the greatest danger to the Jedi during the era set hundreds of years before the beginning of the Skywalker saga. Currently in its third publishing phase, The High Republic has been dealing with the aftermath of Starlight Beacon's destruction, and the Jedi have been forced to contend with the greater threat of the Nihil marauders. However, the NIhil's command over the creatures known as the Nameless has generated some genuine fear among the Jedi.

Now, Star Wars has revealed the covers for both...

In the early stages of Dragon's Dogma 2's main quest, you will encounter hints about the mysterious False Sovran from a secluded village located far northeast of Vernworth. This leads to uncovering the backstory of a key antagonist impersonating you. Unraveling the mystery of this identity theft involves uncovering complex puzzles that the game subtly conceals, offering minimal guidance on how to proceed with the quest.

Locating and navigating the Nameless Village presents challenges, from unwelcoming residents to pervasive suspicious activities. This intrigue enriches the exploration experience beyond the quest's completion and unlocks numerous enhancements, especially beneficial for the Thief Vocation in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Related Where To Find Lennart In Dragons Dogma 2 To find Lennart and deliver the letter from the Oxcart Courier quest in Dragon's Dogma 2, head to Melve and search several locations within the town. How To Start 'The Nameless Village' Quest

Upon reaching Vernworth in Dragon's Dogma...

El Estudio and Morbido are launching The Latin House of Horror, a hugely ambitious feature film slate channelling the voices of a powerful new generation of genre directors – and indeed writers – emerging in Spain and, most especially, Latin America.

The slate is designed to supercharge genre production in Latin America, in ambition, profile and exports, just as Filmax’s Fantastic Factory did a generation ago in Spain, El Estudio producer Enrique López Lavigne told Variety.

Mexico’s Sula Films, headed by Mexican producer Alejandro Sugich (“Los Hermanos Salvador”), will also produce the series. Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment is handling world sales.

Announced at Cannes, the House’s first slate of six movies features established talent such as Adrián García Bogliano, a founding figure of modern Argentine scarefare, now based out of Mexico; and Isaac Ezban, who rapidly established a reputation for films wrapped in hauntingly surreal scenarios: Think “The Incident” and “The Similars.

Filmax has acquired international rights to “Amazing Elisa,” the newest title from Spanish director and fantastic festival name-stay Sadrac González-Perellón.

The Barcelona-based boutique studio will screen a promo of “Amazing Elisa” during this week’s 2021 Ventana Sur market.

The pick-up sees Filmax returning, this time as just as a sales agent, to the auteur genre fare which built it a global reputation from the turn of the century with breakout hits such as 1999’s “The Nameless” and 2007’s “[Rec].”

Spanish-language genre fare has returned to market favor after “The Platform” bowed on Netflix last-year, becoming the U.S. streaming giant’s most-watched foreign-language movie.

Returning González-Perellón to the mix of fantasy and family dynamics which won him a BiFan Grand Jury Prize for 2017 genre thriller “Black Hollow Cage,” “Amazing Elisa” follows the story of Elisa, a 12-year-old girl who, after the tragic death of her mother, must convince her father that...

Filmax series “The Red Band Society,” one of the TV fiction formats with most international adaptations in recent years, is now getting a French-language Canadian version.

Multi-award-winning Quebec producer Encore Television, the company led by François Rozon, Vincent Gagné and Louis Bolduc, will produce in collaboration with Quebecor Content. The series is due to be released on Canadian broadcaster Tva in winter, 2022.

The new remake was negotiated by the Barcelona-based mini-major Filmax’s international sales arm, headed by Iván Díaz, and French distributor Ace Entertainment.

A first Canadian season will be 10 hours long and directed by actor-director Yan England. The script, which will largely stick to the original, will be penned by “Félix, Maude et la fin du monde” writers Michel Brouillette and Stephanie Perreault.

The series also boasts a very strong cast of actors such as Noah Parker (“La déesse des mouches à feu”), Anthony Therrien (“Les faux tatouages...

Partners on “The Red Band Society,” “I Know Who You Are” and “Welcome to the Family,” Barcelona-based studio Filmax and writer-director Pau Freixas are set to re-team on “The New Thirties,” a sci-fi laced comedy set on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Formentera.

Penned by Eric Navarro and Natalia Durán, the writing duo behind recent Netflix hit romcom “Crazy for Her,” “The New Thirties” will be showrun by Navarro, supervised by Freixas.

An eight-part half hour, it will be directed by Paco Caballero, who helmed episodes of dysfunctional family saga “Welcome to the Family” on which Navarro served as head writer as Filmax seeks to bring on key members of its creative team to help Freixas lead in creative terms its energetic expansion as a drama series producer.

Billed by Filmax as a comedy about the passing of time and the fear of commitment, “The New Thirties” begins with Alberto,...

ViacomCBS International Studios (Vis) has boarded Amazon Prime Video and Rtve’s resurrection of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s legendary Spanish horror series “Historias Para No Dormir,” (“Stories to Stay Awake”), which started filming this week in Madrid.

Set as a four-part anthology miniseries, “Historias Para No Dormir” boasts a superstar cast and crew on either side of the camera, with episodes to be directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“Mother”), Spanish Academy Goya-winner Rodrigo Cortés (“Buried”), “[Rec]” writer-director Paco Plaza, and Paula Ortiz, director of “The Bride.” Local outfit Prointel e Isla Audiovisual has been tasked with producing the reboot.

Episode 1, “La Broma” (The Joke) is currently filming in the Spanish capital, written and directed by Rodrigo Cortés. An interpretation of the 1966 original, the episode is the story of a love triangle including three Goya-winning actors in “While at War” co-stars Eduard Fernandez (“30 Coins”) and Nathalie Poza (“Julieta”), and Raúl Arévalo (“Marshland”).

50 years ago,...

The project, based on the Spanish helmer’s feature debut, is currently at the writing stage and will be produced by Arca Audiovisual, Filmax’s TV arm. If there is one thing that hasn’t been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus pandemic, then it’s the preparation of films and TV series: this is exactly what Pau Freixas and Jaume Balagueró (who has the heist thriller Way Down ready for release – see the news) are fully engrossed in at the moment, during these times of self-isolation. They are preparing a small-screen adaptation of The Nameless, the 1999 horror film with which Balagueró – who would go on to helm the box-office smash [Rec] together with Paco Plaza – made his debut. Production duties are being handled by Filmax, the same company that staged the feature-length version. The Nameless, starring Emma Vilarasau, Karra Elejalde and Tristán Ulloa, based on the novel by...

Madrid — Cecilia Roth starrer “Alice,” Ana Piterbarg’s “La Habitación Blanca,” Brazil’s sure-to-be controversial “Princesa,” and Mexico’s “Intersex” look like potential standouts in the just-announced movie project pitching platform Maff Online by Filmarket Hub, part of the biggest push by far into a virtual marketplace made by any festival in the Spanish-speaking world.

Launched by Spain’s Malaga Festival and Filmarket Hub, a Spain-based year-round online market, Maff (the Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event) will run April 27 to May 10.

Already, however, Málaga is staging a virtual version of Malaga Wip, which last year brought onto the market the Spanish horror allegory “El Hoyo” (The Platform”), a recent No. 1 movie on Netflix in the U.S. despite its Spanish language.

Showcasing movies in post-production, Málaga Wip runs March 23 to April 10. Parallel to this, a series of masterclasses given by experts in Spain and Latin America, aimed at honing the skills of Maff producers,...

MipTV Online Plus ends on April 2. Series Mania’s Digital Forum on April 7. As virtual marketplace presentations foreseeably wind down, here area few first takes on the world’s first, and one hopes last, totally online business. More will be added shortly.

Series Mania, MipTV Newsflow Weakens in a Virtual Market

Yes, deals were announced during the Series Mania/Mip-TV virtual marketplace, which may now be beginning to wind down. Federation unveiled strong pre-sales on “The Bureau” S5 and “Bad Banks” S2, Beta Film deals on “Cryptid” (Germany’s Joyn), “La Unidad” (HBO Latin America) and “The Turncoat” (all Nordic state TVs); Fremantle announced Dr’s purchase of “Five Guys a Week,” and Globo sales on telenovelas in Latin America. Cineflix Rights tub-thumped a Spring/Summer slate, adding ITN docs; Brazil’s Encripta bought five dramas from Russia’s Ntv. Filmax announced a drama reversion of horror movie classic...

Madrid — One of Europe’s best-known genre auteurs, Jaume Balagueró is teaming with fellow Spaniard Pau Freixas, writer-director of “The Red Band Society,” and creator of Mediaset España’s “I Know Who You Are,” on a small-screen version of “Los sin nombre” (“The Nameless”).

Created by Balagueró and Freixas and currently in development, the series is set up at Arca Audiovisual, Filmax’ TV division.

Based on a novel by British horror scribe Ramsey Campbell, “The Nameless” was Balagueró’s 1999 feature debut and established him as a leading light of Spain’s auteur genre movement.

In its turn, “Nameless’” established production house Filmax, headed by Julio and Carlos Fernández, as a prime mover of horror movies in Spain for much of the next decade.

Film went on to launch the Fantastic Factory with Brian Yuzna and to produce Balagueró’s “Darkness” (2002), which grossed $22.2 million in the U.S., Calista Flockhart-starrer “Fragile” (2003) and above all,...

Yesterday I finally caught up with Jaume Balagueró's La séptima víctima (2002), a completely nerve-jangling horror picture that I first saw in 2004 during its U.S. theatrical run. Released in a severely shortened version as Darkness, I remember being distinctly underwhelmed when I saw it on opening night with a sparse crowd. It was alright, and I quite liked Anna Paquin in the lead role, but it did nothing to interest me in the director's other work. Which was a mistake, since the other day I also caught up with Los sin nombre (1999). It wasn't quite as thoroughly satisfying as La séptima víctima, but it was still quite good, Personally, I'm finally making a dedicated effort to watch a horror movie a day, in...

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

Jaume Balagueró is turning to an English-language Muse. That's the title of the next supernatural thriller from the director of the exquisitely good Sleep Tight (Mientras duermes) and the recently-arrived [Rec] 4: Apocalypse. Before the success of the first [Rec] installment, however, Balagueró made a name for himself with The Nameless (Los sin nombre) and then tried his hand at an English-language thriller with Darkness, released in the U.S. at the tail end of 2004. My memory of that picture, starring a very young Anna Paquin, is that it was a slow-burn, atmospheric and haunted piece, much like The Nameless. He co-wrote Muse with Fernando Navarro. Per the announcement in Variety, the synopsis goes like this: Muse turns on Salomon, who has been off work since the tragic death...

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

Fans of legendary authors H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Robert E. Howard are no doubt familiar with the classic genre magazine Weird Tales, which launched the writing careers of those and countless other literary legends. Founded in 1923, the magazine became an icon of the genre and inspired many of its readers to take up writing themselves – including a young Stephen King, whose first exposure to Weird Tales came from issues once owned by his father. The original publication closed up shop back in 1954, and despite many attempts to revive it, Weird Tales remained mostly dormant until 1988, when it resurfaced in a different format and style than the original. Ownership has changed hands recently to Publisher John Harlacher and Editor-in-Chief Marvin Kaye, who vowed to take the magazine back to its roots. The newly-relaunched Weird Tales began appropriately enough with a Lovecraft theme focusing on Hpl's “Old Ones,” with original stories...

Director Jaume Balagueró has been making quality, dread filled horror films for some time now. Most known for co-directing both [Rec] and [Rec 2], Balagueró is an exceptionally well honed director. His films offer a focus on character and narrative development rather than conventional assisting elements like jump scares and overdone effects, a welcome trait to the horror genre.

In 1999, The Nameless introduced Balagueró’s talents to horror fans and he has continued to deliver. With Sleep Tight, a taut and inventive homage to Psycho and Peeping Tom in some regards, Balagueró solidifies himself as a genre force to be reckoned with.

It starts on a Monday with Cesar (Luis Tosar), a swanky apartment complex concierge in Barcelona. Cesar is suffering from depression, in a state of hopelessness severe enough that he contemplates suicide. However, the one thing keeping him somewhat stable, if you can call it that, is his adoringly depraved fascination...

Many film websites published “decade’s best horror films” lists in late 2009/early 2010. While these lists collectively provided a rough snapshot of the genre’s ups and downs during that time, with more time to reflect, it becomes increasingly clear what an important period the 2000’s were for the horror genre on a global scale.

Not only did this decade easily and obviously eclipse the comparatively arid 1990’s in both volume of production and overall quality, the 2000’s can also be looked at as a crucial one for horror cinema despite the justified outrage about the American film industry’s widespread strip-mining of classics and foreign films for remakes/re-boots and its saturation of the market with teen-friendly PG-13 rated horror films.

While by no means as groundbreaking as the 1970’s or as sentimentally regarded as the 1980’s, the 2000’s will be recalled as the decade that, despite well-founded criticisms...

The July 19th start of Montreal's 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is drawing closer (it runs through August 7th), and the powers-that-be have announced the second wave of films along with a few selections from the new Axis section of the event.

Fantasia Announces The Satoshi Kon Award For Achievement In Animation + A New Section Dedicated To International Animation Cinema + Second Wave Title Announcements

The art of animation in its many forms and disciplines has always had a strong place at Fantasia. This year, the festival has decided to give the form its own permanent section: Axis. From social realism to mind-bending fantasy, all styles and sensibilities will be showcased, now on a greater scale than ever. Further, the festival is proud to be rechristening its animation jury prize as The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation, named after the dear, departed visionary whose feature debut, Perfect Blue,...

The North American rights to Catalan director Jaume Balagueró Sleep Tight have been acquired by Mpi at the Cannes Film Festival this week, according to Deadline Hollywood. The film, released in Spain last year, is a psychological thriller about a rather grumpy and somewhat unhinged apartment building concierge, Cesar. While presenting a seemingly happy and professional manner to the tenants, he secretly begrudges them, enjoying their moments of misery, and stalking the apartment of one of the more attractive residents, Clara.Balagueró is one of the best directors out of Spain in recent years; his films such as Los Sin Nombre, Darkness, and of course [Rec] and [Rec]2 (co-directed with Paco Plaza) have shown versatility with the fantastic genres, and his films are always taut, tense,...

Jaume Balaguero is always an interesting filmmaker to follow. In 1994, Balagueró directed the short film Alicia which won the prize for Best Short film at the Sitges Film Festival. Later Balagueró returned with the short Days without Light (1995), which achieved similar success on the festival circuit. His feature-length film debut was The Nameless, based on the novel by Ramsey Campbell, which won several awards including Best Film at the Fant-Asia Film Festival. It was there that I discovered the director and ever since I’ve followed his career closely. He’s probably best known for co-directing the increasingly popular [Rec] franchise, but in between each instalment he works on a separate projects. His next feature to be released is Sleep Tight, a new thriller which centres on an eternally depressed Barcelona doorman whose only interest is sharing his unhappiness with others. We’ve already posted a few teasers for the film...

Any news is good news when it comes to a new Juame Balaguero film. So here is the latest poster for the frightmaster's latest opus, Mientras Duermes akaSleep Tight. Mr. Balaguero, probably most well known for co-directing the first 2 [Rec] films, has a horror pedigree worthy of the masters of the genre, with Los Sin Nombre (aka The Nameless) and the underrated Darkness in his filmography as well.Sleep Tight is sure keep what I see as a pretty perfect streak of genre offerings intact. The plot synopsis is as follows -Cesar works as a doorman in a Barcelona apartment building. Happiness eludes him and he feels the need to reaffirm his reasons for living on a daily basis. He goes about his day...

Every year the European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals gives a pair of awards - the Golden Melies - to the best European Fantastic Films of the year with one prize going to a feature and the other to a short. And it has just been announced that this year's prizes are going to Rodrigo Cortes' Buried and Chema Garcia Ibarra's The Attack of the Robots From Nebulon Five. Here's the official announcement:

Buried wins the 2010 Méliès d'Or Award - Best European Fantastic Film

The 2010 Méliès d'Or Award - for Best European fantastic film went to Buried a Spanish thriller starring Ryan Reynolds. The award was handed out at the Méliès d'Or award ceremony during the 43rd Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain on the evening of October 14th 2010, with director Rodrigo Cortés in attendance.

Buried:

Paul Conroy is not ready to die. But when he wakes up...

MADRID -- Jaume Balaguero's thriller Darkness has displaced Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her as the Spanish film with the highest-grossing opening weekend in its home territory so far this year, raking in about €1.16 million ($1.14 million) in its first three days of release, on 276 prints. Much anticipated because of its $12 million budget and a rare presale to Miramax, Darkness is Balaguero's second feature after 1999's multiple award-winning Los Sin Nombre (The Nameless) and his first English-language film. Talk to Her grossed $971,187 in its first weekend. The opening of Darkness, however, trailed Alejandro Amenabar's ghost story The Others -- also presold to Miramax -- which opened last year with more than $3 million. Darkness, starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glen and Fele Martinez, had its world premiere Oct. 3 at the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia.