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Who doesn’t love an R-rated cartoon? The juxtaposition of animation and ultra-violence has long been a sweet spot for me, probably because it feels slightly taboo to pair the two. After all, cartoons are primarily targeted at youngsters and typically eschew graphic content in favor of more wholesome fare. So, when films like the upcoming Predator: Killer of Killers use the medium to tell gritty, unrestrained tales of epic bloodshed, I am quick to hop on board. If you’re keen to assess whether you’ll be hopping on board alongside me, might I suggest that you start by scoping the newly released trailer and one sheet below?

Hulu is pitching the flick as an “animated action-adventure film set in the Predator universe.” That suggests to me that this will be an entry that may reference past characters and events from the franchise. Furthering that assessment, Dan Trachtenberg, the...

Exclusive: Festival regulars Joe Yanick, Hugues Barbier and Justin Timms of US specialty sales and distribution outfit Yellow Veil Pictures are in Cannes talking to international buyers about two new pickups: Australian genre titles A Grand Mockery and Salt Along The Tongue, which they will distribute in the US.

The New York- and Los Angeles-based company acquired worldwide rights, which enables the co-founders to coordinate international rollout with the US release, and share materials with their partners around the world.

“We’ve been doing more worldwide pick-ups [like this] from filmmakers so we can sell internationally and distribute ourselves in the US,...

A 15-part documentary series directed by Philip Gelatt, First Word on Horror highlights insightful conversations with authors Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Elizabeth Hand, Laird Barron, and Mariana Enriquez about the real-life influences behind their work and how they approach the craft of writing effective horror that lingers long after it's read.

With a new episode featuring Bram Stoker Award-nominated Mariana Enriquez coming to Substack on April 24th, we have an exclusive clip from the upcoming episode to share with Daily Dead readers, as well as the exclusive reveal of the episode's hauntingly mesmerizing artwork by Santiago Caruso, which depicts Mariana's short story "Adela's House."

Below, you can view Santiago's poster art and watch Marianna Enriquez discuss the horrors of dictatorship in our exclusive clip, and we also have additional details on First Word on Horror. To learn more about the documentary series, visit:

https://etchstudio.substack.com/s/first-word-on-horror...

Yellow Veil Pictures has come on board to represent international sales on the horror Dead Mail and will kick off talks at EFM in Berlin next week.

Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s film premiered at 2024 SXSW and went on to screen at Frightfest and TIFF Midnight Madness.

Set in the 1980s Midwest, Dead Mail centres on an ominous, bloody help note that finds its way to the desk of a seasoned dead letter investigator at a post office.

As he begins to piece together the letter’s origins, it leads him down a violent path where he encounters a...

Dark Sky Films has acquired all North American rights to the psychological horror Lilly Lives Alone from Yellow Veil Pictures, which will represent international sales at next week’s AFM in Las Vegas.

The feature directorial debut from Martin Melnick stars Shannon Beeby as Lilly, a traumatised woman who was the prime suspect in her young daughter’s death and has become a recluse who sinks into a world of drugs, alcohol and meaningless hook-ups.

Ten years after the death, Lilly is trapped in hallucinations when she meets Jed as the ghosts of her past strengthen their grip, leading to unspeakable horrors.

With the release of films like Mad God and The Spine of Night (not to mention a poignant reminder by Guillermo del Toro at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony), it seems like Western audiences are one step closer to catching up with the rest of the world in realizing that animation is more than capable of telling complex, adult-oriented stories.

However, this doesn’t mean that older animated films avoided mature themes and experimental narratives – it’s just that many of these movies turned out to be huge flops, with the very best of them destined to become cult classics decades after they underperformed at the box-office. And when it comes to animated flops, there are few films more remarkable than Clive A. Smith’s beautiful disaster, 1983’s Rock & Rule. An unprecedented financial failure, this oddball rock opera would go on to entertain fans of weird cinema for decades...

Quick Links Before Making Mad God, Stop-Motion Master Phil Tippett Worked on Major Films Mad God Is a Horrific, Visceral Journey Through Hell There's Nothing Else Like Mad God, A Masterpiece of Craft and Creativity Shudder thrives in the streaming world by providing horror content, and Mad God is one of its best offerings. Mad God stands out as a unique masterpiece from legendary effects wizard Phil Tippett, whose career is incredibly impressive. Mad God is a horrific, visually striking journey through a hellish world of suffering, and it's made with an exceptional level of craft.

Shudder has carved out a dominant share of the streaming market in its focus on horror, and part of its success has been its original content. Since its launch in 2016, Shudder has put out dozens of shows and films, garnering a reputation as a premier destination for original horror of all kinds. While many...

Yellow Veil Pictures, the U.S.-based arthouse genre distribution company, has acquired North American rights to Belgian director Claude Schmitz’s deadpan detective thriller “The Other Laurens.”

The feature debut world premiered at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and will have its North American Premiere at Fantastic Fest which kicks off Sept. 23 in Austin, Texas. Yellow Veil Pictures plans for a theatrical release in 2024.

“The Other Laurens” follows a private detective, Gabriel, who has been asked by his niece to investigate her father’s death. Gabriel must confront the ghosts of his past and finds himself caught up in a strange investigation mixing fantasy and drug trafficking.

“‘The Other Laurens’ stands beside films like ‘The Big Lebowski’ and ‘The Long Goodbye’ in melding a level of absurdism into Neo-noir, revealing something darker beneath the surface,” said Joe Yannick at Yellow Veil Pictures.

The deal was negotiated by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms...

Horror is an incredibly versatile storytelling genre that's often given greater leeway and trust than other styles of cinema. There's something special and visceral about a feature film that can truly terrify its audience and get them to properly suspend their disbelief, and these fantastical fears can be conjured in many ways. Animation is a medium that's often associated with younger audiences, but there's been a greater push for adult animated movies, especially when it comes to horror.

It may seem as if the artifice of animation would be a deterrent when it comes to horror. However, animation's limitless nature actually makes it the perfect tool to amplify terror. There are some exceptional animated horror movies that made waves at the box office, but there are also many that are critically praised on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and can hold their own with any live-action film.

Related: 10 Most Controversial Horror...

Feature examines film as conduit for humanity’s end-of-millennium fear, anxiety, elation and obsession.

New York and LA-based genre arthouse specialists Yellow Veil Pictures have acquired worldwide rights to Amanda Kramer’s cyberspace cinema documentary So Unreal narrated by Blondie singer and pop icon Debbie Harry and will launch sales in Cannes.

So Unreal puts cyberspace cinema from 1981-2001 like The Matrix, Tron, Tetsuo and eXisTenz under the spotlight and examines film as a conduit for humanity’s fear, anxiety, elation and obsession over the emerging technology at the end of the millennium.

“What a deep honour that Debbie Harry lent her legendary,...

Yellow Veil Pictures has announced that they have acquired worldwide rights for the erotic thriller documentary We Kill For Love ahead of the world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival. The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film this May. Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, the doc goes in search of the lost and misunderstood world of the direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores. Director Anthony Penta Courtesy of Anthony Penta Michael Reed in We Kill for Love Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures Balancing film art with scholarship, We Kill For Love pulls back the curtain to reveal the heart and soul of a forgotten and often maligned film movement. Joe Yanick Co-Founder of...

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to the erotic thriller documentary “We Kill For Love” ahead of its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival.

The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes.

Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, “We Kill for Love” depicts the long-gone world of direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.

“‘We Kill For Love’ is a home run for erotic thriller fans,” said Joe Yanick, co-founder of Yellow Veil Pictures. “It’s one of the most in-depth looks at genre cinema and serves as more than just a love letter but pushes the conversation and spotlights films that have often often lost out to their more glamorous theatrical counterparts,...

Film explores iconic Child’s Play franchise through perspective of those involved.

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired world sales rights to Kyra Elise Gardner’s debut documentary feature Living With Chucky, which will screen at Frightfest in the UK later this month.

The film explores the iconic Child’s Play franchise through a personal and social perspective. Gardner is the daughter of Tony Gardner, who was the chief puppeteer for the majority of the horror franchise inspired by Child’s Play in 1988.

Living With Chucky uses new and archival interview footage to explore the film’s cultural impact over the years with principal...

The Spine of Night, now streaming on Shudder, is a forward-looking retro fantasy. Shot with the rotoscope animation technique most associated with Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings and Gerald Potterton’s Heavy Metal, it captures a world in ecological danger because of the greed of powerful men. Lucy Lawless plays the shamaness Tzod, whose magical powers are rooted in the blue flowers which grow in her enchanted swamp, Bastal.

Also starring Richard E. Grant, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello, The Spine of Night is an adult cartoon with responsible themes. Barbarians and librarians vie for power while necromancers try to restore balance to a bent and broken world. Time flies by with nods to Ridley Scott’s Legend and John Boorman’s Excalibur, if fed through the meat grinder of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead.

In their first collaboration, animator Morgan Galen King, and filmmaker...

One of the great things about animation is that it can make stars young again and enable a production to pull together a dream cast across generations without having to worry about how they fit together in terms of age. For a certain type of film fan, the idea of a cast which includes Lucy Lawless, Larry Fessenden and Richard E Grant will exert an instant, magnetic appeal. The Spine Of Night isn’t altogether successful in capitalising on this, but its combination of nostalgic visual style, gory violence and elaborate fantasy narrative is likely to win it a cult following nonetheless.

At the centre of it all is a blue flower. Lucy Lawless is in her element as Tzod, a swamp witch queen who uses it to perform hallucinatory rituals for her tribe, giving them a deeper understanding of the universe and its capricious gods, but its power is coveted by.

Features the voices of: Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, Joe Manganiello, Patrick Breen, Larry Fessenden | Written and Directed by Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King

Where are all the adult animated movies? There’s even less when it comes to animated horror movies. There have been a handful of more well-known ones such as the occasional Resident Evil movie, the recent To Your Last Death and prequel to Train To Busan – Seoul Station – but there’s nowhere near enough, so I was very happy to see a new animated horror movie coming to Shudder soon.

The Spine of Night works as a kind of strange anthology movie. We have two lead characters that the story revolves around. The Guardian (voiced by Richard E. Grant) is a creepy, skeleton-like God and Tzod (voiced by Lucy Lawless) a fierce high priestess of a great jungle swamp. They’re both...

The feature stars Gérard Depardieu as a top chef in search of the ultimate dish encapsulating the taste of umami.

Paris-based sales company MPM Premium has posted a quartet of first deals on French-Japanese comedy Umami, starring Gérard Depardieu as a top chef on a culinary mission.

The film has sold to Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), Israel (New Cinema), Dutch-speaking Benelux (J&j Films) and Spain (Vercine). France is currently under discussion.

Depardieu plays a renowned chef in search of the ultimate dish encapsulating the taste of umami, the so-called fifth taste after salty, sweet, sour and bitter. The challenge...

Germany, Cis, Spain, France among territories sold.

New York and Los Angeles-based arthouse genre sales company Yellow Veil has reported a strong buyer reponse at EFM to Hellbender and The Spine Of Night starring Richard E Grant and has closed territories on both titles.

Fantasia 2021 premiere Hellbender starring Zelda Adams, Lulu Adams and Toby Poser has gone to I-On New Media for German-speaking Europe, Kinologistika for Cis and Baltics, Mi Media International for Malaysia and streaming platform Vivarto for Poland. Talks are ongoing for all of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

John Adams, Zelda Adams and Poser co-directed the story...

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, announced that The Spine of Night will be available exclusively to stream on the platform starting on Thursday, March 24, 2022. As a Shudder exclusive, the platform will be the only subscription service that will carry the film in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Here’s The Spine of Night trailer:

The Spine of Night stars an all-star cast of Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), Patton Oswalt (Young Adult), Betty Gabriel (Get Out) and Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”). The film was co-written and co-directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King.

In The Spine of Night, an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band...

New Release Wall

“House of Gucci” (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) The legendary and legendarily vicious Gucci fashion empire gets the old-fashioned big movie treatment with Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Lady Gaga. Is it kind of ridiculous? Yes, but it’s also the reboot of “Dynasty” you never knew you wanted, one that’s best watched with a living room full of your rowdiest and most opinionated friends. Everyone in the movie is doing a variation on Italian-accented English, the settings are opulent, and Gaga is giving look after look after hat after hat and you will respect the wild, criminal duh-raaamaaa of it all.

Also Available:

“American Underdog” (Lionsgate) Zachary Levi stars as NFL champ Kurt Warner, who overcame multiple challenges and setbacks on the road to football glory.

“Apex” (Rlje Films) Bruce Willis must kill or be killed in order to escape prison.

“Clifford the Big Red Dog...

The Spine Of Night stars an all-star cast of Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), Patton Oswalt (Young Adult), Betty Gabriel (Get Out) and Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”). The film was co-written and co-directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. The DVD will be available for an Srp of $27.97, the Blu-ray for an Srp of $28.96 and the 4K Uhd DVD/Blu-ray SteelBook for an Srp of $35.97.

Check out this exciting trailer:

Now you can win the 4K Uhd DVD/Blu-ray SteelBook of The Spine Of Night. We Are Movie Geeks has two to give away. Just leave a comment below telling us what your favorite animated fantsasy film is (I’d say Wizards. It’s so easy!)

1. You Must Be A US Resident. Prize Will Only Be Shipped To US Addresses. No P.O. Boxes. No Duplicate Addresses.

2. Winner Will Be Chosen From All Qualifying Entries.

This epic fantasy tale, about the history of a land that never was, begins when an ambitious young man steals forbidden knowledge from a sacred plant. He falls to its darker temptations and in so doing, unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. As his power grows over the years, it falls to people of different ilk and culture to attempt to stop him. Among those who stand against him are a daring tomb-robber, star-crossed lovers, a maniacal necromancer, winged assassins, and an undying guardian.   Today, the epic and tremendously violent animated fantasy film The Spine of Night is coming to DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Uhd DVD/Blu-ray SteelBook®. We have a whopping four (4) SteelBook® copies to give away this week so if you can...

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

This week’s horror and sci-fi home media releases are a fun bunch, as we have a lot of great new movies to look forward to, as well as a ton of killer classic titles headed home to various formats. If you missed it in theaters, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is being released alone and then alongside the first two Ghostbusters films as a three-movie collection, and for those of you who love mind-blowing animation, you’re going to definitely want to check out The Spine of Night. One of my favorite films from 2021 was Danishka Esterhazy’s Slumber Party Massacre, so if you missed seeing it then, now you can catch up with it courtesy of Scream Factory.

In terms of older titles, several of my favorite movies are headed to Blu-ray this week from the fine folks at Kino Lorber: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and both F/X...

In just a few weeks, audiences can enjoy the ultra-violent fantasy horror film "The Spine of Night" in all its gorgeously animated glory, all from the safety of their own homes. The sprawling fantasy epic is making its physical media debut on February 1, meaning you can finally get more than a quick glimpse at its unique rotoscope animation and find out what all the horrific hype is about. The film has been sparking conversation since its 2021 SXSW debut; in fact, /Film's own Danielle Ryan spoke to the writer-director duo behind "The Spine of Night," who pitched their...

The post The Spine of Night Giveaway: Win a 4K SteelBook of This Heavy-Metal Horror Fantasy Film appeared first on /Film.

In most Oscar categories, it’s clear what “best” means. Not so the annual animated feature race, in which the ballot presents perhaps the greatest range of any category every year — certainly, in terms of budget, subject matter, artistic style and formal innovation. Where else can you see a pair of superhero movies competing against an ultra-personal Japanese anime and stop-motion Wes Anderson movie, to use 2018 as an example?

Consider this year’s crop: Among the 26 films that qualified, you’ll find everything from a splashy studio hit (“Sing 2”) to a cult-interest Sundance indie (Dash Shaw’s hand-drawn “Cryptozoo”), from a Sony-animated pop-culture phenom (“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”) to a highly targeted, “Heavy Metal”-esque midnight movie (“The Spine of Night”).

Many of the more eccentric submissions will be eliminated in the next phase — including perhaps anime entry “The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim,...

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

Animation, documentary submissions also tallied.

The Academy has confirmed it has received 93 country submissions for the international feature film category in the run-up to the 94th Oscars on March 27, 2022.

The Academy said on Monday (December 6) it had also received 26 animated feature and 138 documentary feature submissions.

The entire list of international feature film submissions can be viewed here and includes a first submission from Somalia. The Academy said some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfil that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s The Spine of Night is an impassioned tribute to adult animation, dark fantasy, and truly ambitious genre epics of the type all too rarely seen on the silver screen.

“One thing is certain about The Spine of Night: this is a labor of bone-shattered, triptacular love, “I said in my review. “The new rotoscope-animated feature—a clearly adoring homage to Ralph Bakshi, Heavy Metal, and 1980s dark fantasy—was created over a span of seven years by a minuscule team of animators digitally painting frame-by-frame with the oversight of directors Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. It’s a deathly earnest film––like George Lucas-caliber earnest––guts-filled with capital-l lore, grim violence, artful nudity, and portentous monologues––not-always-convincingly delivered by a vocal cast that includes Lucy Lawless and Patton Oswalt––that never dare consciously wink at the intrinsic camp of its culty-retro throwback venue.

Joe Manganiello proved that he could change shapes as the werewolf Alcide on HBO’s “True Blood,” and since the hit series wrapped in 2014, he’s starred in films like “Magic Mike Xxl” and “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.”

He’s also managed to live a childhood dream by becoming a consultant and designer for some of his favorite fantasy properties, working with Hasbro and Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, he’s been a lifelong fan of D&d — the tabletop roleplaying game that originated in the ’70s, and continues to be a phenomenon, with its own movie, TV series, video games, action figures and clothing line. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Manganiello hosted a weekly competition in the cellar of his home in Los Angeles, with friends such as Vince Vaughn and Tom Morello. And since then, Manganiello has found a way to continue playing with his crew — virtually.

His interest in all...

There are a handful of rotoscoped fantasy classics that every nerd knew in the 1970s and '80s. Whether it was the rollicking rock and roll fantasy of "Heavy Metal" or the extended epics of the Rankin and Bass "Hobbit" or "Lord of the Rings" movies, the unique animation style implanted itself in our collective subconscious. Now there's a new rotoscoped fantasy epic destined to join the ranks, "The Spine of Night." "The Spine of Night" is a sprawling fantasy epic that ties together multiple stories using the frame narrative of two ancient beings sharing memories. One of those beings is the swamp witch Tzod, voiced...

The post The Spine of Night Creators Spill on their Gorgeous, Gory Rotoscoped Epic [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

One thing is certain about The Spine of Night: this is a labor of bone-shattered, triptacular love. The new rotoscope-animated feature—a clearly adoring homage to Ralph Bakshi, Heavy Metal, and 1980s dark fantasy—was created over a span of seven years by a minuscule team of animators digitally painting frame-by-frame with the oversight of directors Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. It’s a deathly earnest film––like George Lucas-caliber earnest––guts-filled with capital-l lore, grim violence, artful nudity, and portentous monologues––not-always-convincingly delivered by a vocal cast that includes Lucy Lawless and Patton Oswalt––that never dare consciously wink at the intrinsic camp of its culty-retro throwback venue. (The dead-serious opening scene of Lawless’s bare-naked shamaness trudging through an alpine blizzard acts as a solid indicator of tone.)

Maybe it’s a little too stuffed. In a slender 93 minutes Spine attempts to relay an epic...

Lucy Lawless is no stranger to heroism. The actress, who rose to stardom on the television series "Xena: Warrior Princess," has played all kinds of characters who save the world. In her latest, "The Spine of Night," she voices Tzod, an ancient swamp witch who must fight with all she has to save the planet from the forces of evil. In real life, Lawless has been busy fighting for justice herself, traveling to the Amazonian rainforest and actively fighting on social media to free human rights lawyer Stephen Donziger. 

I had a chance to chat over the phone with Lawless about voice acting,...

The post The Spine of Night Star Lucy Lawless Talks Voice Acting, Animation, and Pumpkins [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Opening tomorrow in theaters and on digital via Shudder and Rlje Films is the animated adult fantasy film "The Spine of Night," written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King. Now Dread Central has unveiled a new clip from the movie featuring the voices of comedian Patton Oswalt ("Young Adult," "Marvel's M.O.D.O.K.") and the legendary Lucy Lawless ("Xena: Warrior Princess," "Ash vs Evil Dead").

Only in an animated movie would Oswalt have the upper hand on Lawless, but what makes this pairing extra ironic is on his 1997 "HBO Comedy Half-Hour" special Oswalt told a particularly filthy joke about "Xena":

"My favorite show on TV is...

The post The Spine of Night Clip Features Patton Oswalt and Lucy Lawless Squaring Off appeared first on /Film.

The animated fantasy-horror movie The Spine of Night is coming to theaters, Digital, and On-Demand on October 29, 2021, just in time for Halloween. Written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, the animated film stars Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello. Abby Savage, Larry Fessenden, and Rob McClure also star. “The Spine of Night is an ultra-violent, hand-rotoscoped epic fantasy […]...

, Morgan Galen King and Philip Gelatt’s “The Spine of Night” is nothing less than an orgiastic ode to Ralph Bakshi, Gerald Potterton, and the other god-kings of rotoscope animation whose adult cartoons glistened from behind the beaded doorways of America’s video stores like forbidden relics that would melt the faces of anyone who dared to gaze upon their taboo wonders. It’s nothing more than that, either, but there’s only so much you can ask of a movie in which Lucy Lawless voices a naked swamp witch who wears a human skull as a headdress and shouts things like “tremble before the immensity of the night!”

Even if “The Spine of Night” struggles to align its overarching story with the anthology-like shape that it takes, it’s still rare and rewarding to watch a film that makes so few bones about what it wants to be — all...

The neo-psychedelic, pink and blue poster for The Spine of Night hits kind of a Twilight Zone on Acid vibe, with a hint of Krull.  Morgan Galen King and Philip Gelat's rotoscoped ultra-violent fantasy film is coming to the end of its festival run, where it recently screened at the Sitges International Film Festival, and about to head to Shudder, where it will likely find the perfect audience for its particular brand of bombast and mayhem. This new key art for the film, follows a trend of weird genre films embracing a neon colour palette. Here fading from space purple to tropical aquamarine. While the poster does not hint at the copious amounts of blood and gore in the film, it still gives of a...

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

When it comes to painting outside the box, so to speak, this year has been a promising one for animation. While the Pixars and Dreamworks of the world often get the biggest budgets both on the production and marketing side, we are thankful to get such delightfully inventive works like Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, Dash Shaw’s Cryptozoo, Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, and Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle. Premiering at SXSW earlier this year, Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s The Spine of the Night deserves to be part of the conversation.

With a voice cast of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello, the film is described as an “ultra-violent fantasy epic” in which “ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must...

Fresh from its SXSW premiere, the animated fantasy-horror movie The Spine of Night was acquired for U.S. release by Rlje Films and Shudder, and it’s headed home for Halloween. Via Rlje Films, The Spine of Night is coming to theaters, Digital, and On Demand on October 29, 2021, with a release through Shudder to follow likely sometime next year. Watch the brand new […]...

The Spine Of Night will be In Theaters, On Demand and Digital – October 29, 2021

Here’s the trailer:

In The Spine Of Night, an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.

The Spine Of Night features the voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel and Joe Manganiello

The post Here’s the Trailer For the Animated Fantasy/Horror Film The Spine Of Night Featuring the Voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, and Patton Oswalt appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

People like Ralph Bakshi and Frank Franzetta left a very specific visual imprint in the realm of fantasy art and storytelling, and now a new project has come along which takes the baton from those veterans and carries it a few steps further in the race. I'm not confident that rotoscoped projects have a vibrant future ahead of them (they are extremely work-intensive), but the style isn't fully dead yet, and "The Spine of Night" is going to make damn sure everyone knows it by leaning hard into hyper-violence and psychedelic imagery. Check out the full red-band trailer for the movie below.

Man,...

The post The Spine of Night Trailer: An Animated Movie That Looks Like Your Greatest '80s Nightmares appeared first on /Film.

In The Spine Of Night, an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.   Rotoscoped fantasy/horror The Spine of Night is coming to theaters, On Demand and Digital on October 29th, from Rlje Films. Written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, this ultra violent animated film stars Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel and Joe Manganiello.   The official trailer for The Sping of Night was released a short while ago. If watching the red band version of the trailer doesn't convince you that you need to see it...

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

"The sacred bloom traveled – and my dreams traveled with it." Rlje has revealed an official bloody-as-hell red band trailer for the epic fantasy animated action-horror film titled The Spine of Night, one of the most psychedelic, exhilarating, gloriously vibrant creations of the year. This premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, where I first saw it and raved about it (here's my full review). In The Spine of Night, an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic (known as "the bloom") falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs. This was filmed with real actors and then rotoscoped to create the final look and feel. With the voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello. I wrote in my review...

What's up Colorado? Still looking for ways to celebrate the horror-days? Waiting with baited breath to hear what the folks at the Telluride Horror Show have whipped up for this year's program? Fear no more for the program was just announced an it is a good one.    Scott Cooper's Antlers will close out this year's festivities but before that there are festival faves like Hellbender, Let the Wrong One in, Mad God, Sweetie You Won't Believe it, The Feast, The Sadness, The Spine of Night and Woodlands Darks and Days Bewitched. Plus many more, including some bang up blocks of short films as well.    Oh yeah, and rep screenings of You're Next and Starship Troopers too. Keen! Passes are selling out fast so...

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Knoxville Horror Film Fest 2021: "The Knoxville Horror Film Fest will present its lucky 13th annual weekend of cinematic scares Thursday, October 21 through Sunday, October 24, with events split between Maryville, Tennessee’s Parkway Drive-In and the festival’s home base at Central Cinema in Knoxville.

It was Covid-era necessity that drove last year’s premier programming to the Parkway, but it’s pure pleasure that brings it back for a second year. Thursday night’s lineup will kick off the festival with a triple feature of John Carpenter’s ghostly 1980 classic The Fog, Rialto Pictures’ new 40th anniversary 4K restoration of Joe Dante’s The Howling (1981), and heavy metal horror cult item Trick Or Treat (1986). Friday night will continue the fun with the trailers of the 2021 Khff Grindhouse Grind-out, followed by another triple feature of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), An American Werewolf In London (1981) and SFX genius Phil Tippett’s years-in-the-making Mad God.

Halloween season is here and your local film festivals are a great place to find something to get you into the festive spirit. Our friends at Mayhem are ready to announce the lineup for their weekend celebration of genre cinema coming this October. The opening night film were previously announced, the endearing documentary Alien on Stage and the French horror flick The Deep House. Joining them is a rep screening of British horror flick Queen of Spades from 1949, Alan Moore's The Show, Night Drive, South Korena thriller Midnight, The Spine of Night, Knocking, and another Korean sci-fi flick, Spiritwalker. Brian De Palma’s 1974 cult classic Phantom of the Paradise will be the festival's midnight screening on the Saturday that weekend. And the...

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It’s hard to believe that the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival is set to kick off once again later this week already, but here we are. From August 5th through August 25th, Fantasia will feature more than 100 different features and shorts from around the globe to entertain genre fans throughout the month. And while it was hard to whittle down our list to just 11 films, this writer highly encourages everyone who will be attending Fantasia (whether in person or virtually) to check out the festival’s incredibly diverse lineup Here, because there’s an amazing assortment of projects that are being celebrated by the fest this year.

It’s also worth noting that some of the Fantasia 2021 selections have appeared at previous festivals, so it didn’t seem fair to include them here since we’ve already covered them. Those titles include Broadcast Signal Intrusion, Coming Home in the Dark, The Feast,...

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival got an early 25th birthday present in the form of James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad,” which will receive a special screening on Aug. 4, the day before Fantasia officially kicks off with the world premiere of Julien Knafo’s zombie thriller “Brain Freeze.” Gunn is a long-time friend of the fest, having first attended in 1997 before later returning for the Canadian premiere of his Marvel blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Fantasia also unveiled its second wave of features participating at this year’s festival, joining a raft of titles announced in May, and will announce the rest of its slate in late July along with details on several virtual events and this year’s juries.

New world premieres, joining the a six-pack announced last month, include Ruth Platt’s “Martyrs Lane,” Anna Zaytseva’s feature debut “#Blue_Whale,” Jonathan Rhys Meyers-starrer “Yakuza Princes” from filmmaker Vicente Amorim,...

Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, John Adams directed.

New York and LA-based arthouse genre sales agency Yellow Veil Pictures has added worldwide sales rights to upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival selection Hellbender heading into the virtual Cannes market.

Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and John Adams directed the film about 16-year-old Izzy, who leads an isolated life on a lonely mountaintop due to a rare sickness.

Questioning her illness and starving for company, Izzy sneaks down the mountain where she befriends a brazen older girl (Lulu Adams) and takes part in a drinking game involving a live worm.

When the drink awakes an insatiable hunger within,...

From Luz to George A. Romero's The Amusement Park, Yellow Veil Pictures has been involved in getting some excellent films in front of horror fans, and they're taking the next logical step: launching a North American distribution arm. The first title as part of their new venture will be, Frida Kempff's Knocking, which recently screened at Sundance:

"June 16, 2021 // - Ahead of the Pre-Cannes Screenings, which run in advance of the 2021 Marché du Film, worldwide sales arthouse genre outfit Yellow Veil Pictures announces the launch of a new North American distribution arm. The company will continue to focus on boundary-pushing genre cinema and will inaugurate the new venture with Frida Kempff’s Sundance hit Knocking with a planned theatrical and digital release this fall.

Knocking marks the feature debut for Kempff who, in 2010, saw her short Bathing Mickey take home the Prix du Jury at Cannes. The film stars Cecilia Milocco (Involuntary) as Molly,...

Yellow Veil Pictures is launching a new North American distribution arm and has secured its first release in Frida Kempff’s “Knocking.”

The announcement comes in advance of the Cannes market this month and marks an important step forward in the evolution of the sales outfit, which has carved out a niche for itself in the arthouse genre sector.

“Knocking,” which screened in Sundance, will have a theatrical and digital release this fall. It marks the feature debut for Kempff who, in 2010, saw her short “Bathing Mickey” take home the Prix du Jury at Cannes. The film stars Cecilia Milocco as Molly, who after suffering a traumatic incident moves into a new apartment to begin her path to recovery. It’s not long after her arrival that a series of persistent knocks and screams begin to wake her up at night. Molly’s new life begins to unravel as the...