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Writer/director Stevan Mena made his feature debut with the 2003 film Malevolence. After making Brutal Massacre: A Comedy in 2007, Mena gave us a Malevolence prequel called Bereavement in 2010. In 2016, the third chapter in the series, Malevolence 3: Killer, had to be cancelled in the midst of production due to the death of lead actor Scott Decker. Over the next two years, Mena has found a way to complete the film, and it made its way out into the world in 2018. Now, our friends at Bloody Disgusting report that Mena’s fifth feature film, The Ruse, will be available for rental and purchase on VOD beginning Tuesday, August 14. You can watch the trailer in the embed above.

Described as a chilling whodunnit that keeps audiences on edge until the final frame, The Ruse follows Dale, a home health care worker sent to a remote seaside home after her predecessor mysteriously vanishes.

Some people make marriage look easy, but it takes strong communication and compromise to keep things on track. It’s a bit cliche, but if the foundation of your union isn’t teamwork, understanding, and loyalty, you could be doomed to fail before you begin. In Neon and Topic Studios’ Splitsville trailer, two couples discover the pitfalls of polyamory and how one night (or several) of release can invite chaos into an already complicated situation.

Here’s the official synopsis for Splitsville, courtesy of Neon and Topic Studios:

After Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce, good-natured Carey (Kyle Marvin) runs to his friends, Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (Michael Angelo Corvino), for support. He’s shocked to discover that the secret to their happiness is an open marriage, that is, until Carey crosses the line and throws all of their relationships into chaos.

Michael Angelo Covino directs Splitsville from...

Exclusive: Ahead of the Cannes launch of the anticipated Oliver Hermanus film The History of Sound, on which they’re co-producers, Tatiana Bears and Bruno Vernaschi-Berman have announced the launch of Good Bath, a New York-based independent production company focused on championing distinct voices and bold storytelling across the global indie film landscape.

“We started Good Bath to create the kind of space we always wished existed—one where filmmakers feel truly supported from the ground up,” the duo said. “We’re excited to build something bold, flexible, and deeply collaborative, and to keep championing the kinds of stories that surprise us.”

Bears and Vernaschi-Berman have extensive experience in the production of acclaimed indies and bring a collaborative, filmmaker-first ethos to Good Bath. In addition to the WWI-set History of Sound — which stars Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal — the duo’s collective credits include Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You...

Indie distributors are fretting about the current marketplace, specifically a glut of films vying for precious theater space and hard-to-snare audiences who, with exceptions of course, still seems mostly willing to come out for big ticket films.

While there are fewer wide studio releases than pre-Covid, theaters are giving them more space, up to 60%-70% of their real estate, a few indies execs said.

Meanwhile, it’s become cheaper to distribute films, which may be why new firms keep popping up to test the waters and in some cases open their movies on hundreds of screens, perhaps without a commensurate marketing effort.

“There is a lot of stuff being released, but nothing is performing,” says one indie distribution executive. Films like Deadpool or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice work, “but everything else is a crapshoot.

“Whether consumers are going to movies other than the big ones has been the question, and still is.

There is no more prized possession in New York City on a sweltering summer day than a working air conditioning unit. Simon Hacker’s father-daughter comedy “Notice to Quit” understands this well, which is why the real estate broker it follows on this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day keeps coming back to the bounteous promises an AC unit can offer. Taking place in all five boroughs of the city, Hacker’s frenzied film mirrors his mentors, the Safdie brothers, but ultimately falters by doing the very thing that AC unit would help ease: It lets us see it sweat.

Andy Singer (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor Michael Zegen) is at his wits’ end. His dreams of being an actor have resulted in nothing more than a toothpaste ad campaign that gets him sort of recognized by folks all over the city. His job as a real estate broker...

New York is a city constantly in survival mode — it’s a harried concrete haven for people who need a measure of desperation (financial or otherwise) just to get out of bed in the morning. There are so many things to hate about this place, but you have to love it because leaving is the only option less viable than sticking around. And to do that, you have to love the fact that everyone around you is in the same boat (which is why so many of us have adopted complaining as a love language unto its own). Solitude is hard to come by in the center of the world, but it can be all too easy to feel like you’re alone. The trick is to appreciate that you’re not.

The frayed and frequently despicable hero of Simon Hacker’s (frayed but frequently likable) “Notice to Quit” will...

New York City can swallow you whole. It can be an uncaring place with busied people walking down frustrated avenues. It’s not that the city is mean or that the people in the city are mean––rather that life is hard and it’s made harder with less space and more bodies and smells and noises surrounding you. Andy (Michael Zegen), a fledgling real-estate broker who needs rent money today or he is evicted, has been swallowed by the city before Notice to Quit even starts. He’s showing slum-house listings to aggravated clients, stealing appliances from those listings to make ends meet.

Written and directed by Simon Hacker, the film takes place over the course of one hot, horrible day. The only bright spot is his daughter Anna (Kasey Bella Suarez), who has demanded she join him on his quest to make a sale and earn the commission that will save his apartment.

Dakota Johnson and “Hit Man” breakout Adria Arjona will star in a new comedy about navigating an open marriage called “Splitsville” for both Neon and Topic Studios.

“Splitsville” is being directed and written by Michael Covino and also stars both Covino and his writing partner Kyle Marvin, who are reuniting after working together on “The Climb” from 2019.

The film stars Marvin as Carey, who is asked for a divorce by his wife Ashley (Arjona). When Carey seeks advice from his friends Julie (Johnson) and Paul (Covino), he discovers the secret to their happiness is an open marriage. But when Carey tries it for himself with Ashley and winds up crossing the line, it throws all of their relationships into chaos.

Neon will be distributing “Splitsville” in the U.S. with a release in 2025 and production kicking off this fall. But the distributor through its sales arm is also launching international...

"I am so glad you showed up this morning!" Whiskey Creek has debuted the trailer for Notice to Quit, an indie dramedy marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Simon Hacker. This film is being given a big nationwide release in theaters in late September. A failing father attempts to salvage some semblance of paternal standing while being fully exposed for the fraud that he is. Michael Zegen (from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) stars as Andy Singer, a struggling New York City realtor caught in the cycle of renting rundown apartments, who finds his world crashing down around him when his estranged 10-year-old daughter, Anna, shows up unannounced on his doorstep while he's being evicted. Shot on 35mm around the city, the film unfolds as a poignant comedy of misadventures amidst the oppressive heat of a single summer day. Kasey Bella Suarez, Isabel Arraiza, Eric Berryman, & Michael Angelo Covino also...

Over a year since Prime Video's Emmy-winning dramedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel took its final bow, one of its stars is returning to the screen for the first time. Michael Zegen, who played Midge Maisel's ex-husband, Joel, is now set to play a down-on-his-luck single father in the heartfelt comedy-drama Notice to Quit. The film marks the feature debut of How to With John Wilson producer Simon Hacker and follows Zegen's Andy as he tries desperately to reconnect with his estranged daughter and save his home before he's kicked to the curb. Collider is excited to share the first trailer, which shows that fixing everything won't come easy to him.