News

In 2019, The Edge of Sleep, the latest offering from Mark Fischbach, known to his 37 million YouTube subscribers as Markiplier, was pitched to every major platform in Hollywood.

By then, Edge of Sleep was already a popular podcast. In fact, it quickly became the biggest genre narrative podcast of all time, with some 6 million downloads and counting. And for the television adaptation, Markiplier would be reprising his role as a night watchman who attempts to survive a mysterious global crisis where anyone who goes to sleep dies. The podcast’s creators, Jake Emanuel and Willie Block, were on board to write and run the TV version, and Longlegs producer Brian Kavanaugh Jones was attached to produce. There would be six episodes, made on a relative shoestring budget, served up to a rapt audience that Markiplier has cultivated for more than a decade with a channel primarily focused on Let’s Play videos.

Exclusive: Popular YouTuber Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier, is set to star in, and executive produce The Edge of Sleep, a TV series based on his QCode podcast of the same name created by Chozen writers Jake Emanuel and Willie Block.

In addition to Markiplier, who will reprise his role from the original podcast, Analeigh Tipton and Eve Harlow (Next) will also star.

The post-apocalyptic mystery-thriller will follow a night watchman who finishes his shift at work to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died. He and a band of survivors must stay awake and uncover the secret of the terrifying global epidemic before they too fall asleep.

The Revenant and The Beast Must Die producer New Regency will serve as the studio and independently finance the under-the-radar project. Corey Adams will direct all eps, with filming set to begin next month in Kamloops,...

1Up is a new microcinema based in Perth, Australia that is launching with a very ambitious slate of screenings this summer. So far, they’ve released their full schedule for the months of June and July that includes a film almost every night of the week, and sometimes two films.

These are movies that have played on the international festival circuit, but many have not been released yet. So this is a rare treat to still see many of them still in a theater setting, even a 20-seat microcinema like 1Up.

The summer screening series kicks off with one of the best films to come out of Australia in recent years: Stuart Simpson’s vicious throwback to ’60s B-movie madness, El Monstro Del Mar, which was reviewed on Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film last year.

Other movies that 1Up will be screening include such festival hits such as Best Worst Movie,...

The Arizona Underground Film Festival wrapped up its 3rd and biggest year ever back on Sept. 25. Over a wild eight days, the fest screened 30 feature films and 50 short films from all over the world, some of them making their world premiere or their U.S. debut. Out of those films, Auff handed out a dozen awards.

Auff gave out awards to both shorts and features in the categories of Best Narrative, Best Horror, Best Documentary. Plus, they gave out awards such as Best Exploitation, Best Experimental, Audience Award, Director’s Choice and more.

Best Experimental went to a film directed nearly 30 years ago that’s just being seen now. That film is Window on Your Present by Cinqué Lee, brother of Spike Lee.

Other big winners are Corey Adams and Alex Craig’s skateboard fantasy Machotaildrop for Best Narrative Feature; Aurelio Voltaire‘s short film Demiurge Emesis for Best Animation...

Tucson and Phoenix: Prepare to be rocked, shocked and defiled. Blasting its way into its third — and biggest — year on Sept. 18-25, the Arizona Underground Film Festival is a cacophonous concoction of angry transsexuals, bumbling hit men, slacker superheroes, living dolls, aliens, dead hookers, adventure-seeking blondes and other crazies.

This year the fest is screening 30 feature films, some of which are making their U.S. and even world debuts. The opening night film is the U.S. premiere of the German hit man comedy Snowman’s Land, directed by Tomasz Thomson,while closing the fest is the controversial and violent A Serbian Film by Srdjan Spasojevic, which you have to be over-18 to get into.

Don’t worry, there’s plenty of homebrewed films as well, such as Dead Hooker in a Trunk by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska; Nude Nuns With Big Guns by Joseph Guzman; 1,001 Ways to Enjoy the...

Lund is back yet again. Running from September 3rd to October 2nd in Lund Sweden and covers genre film from all over the world. We'll be covering the fest, so you may ask, what am I looking forward to?

Post apocalyptic zombies in Rammbock.

Simon Rumley's Red White & Blue.

More post apocalyptic zombies in Greek sequel To Kako II: Evil in the Time of Heroes.

Consciousness Transfer.

What would I recommend that I've already seen?

Ivan Engler's Swedish scifi flick Cargo.

Cyberpunk animation Technotise.

Irish after-beating study Savage.

Neil Marshall's Centurion.

And there's plenty more. You can check out the full list after the break and buy tickets at the official website.

International Competition

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: An utterly brilliant and incredibly entertaining comic book adaptation from Edgar Wright(Shaun of The Dead)

The Loved Ones: It's the prom night from hell in this...

Azuff BannerSeveral films have been announced as participating in this year's Arizona Underground Film Festival including: Snowman's Land, Last Rites of Ransom Pride, Beyond the Grave, The Last Lovercraft: Relic of Cthulhu, Machotaildrop and the notoriously violent A Serbian Film. Each film looks interesting and from a brief look this reviewer is looking forward to the western styled Last Rites the most. The film stars Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, and Scott Speedman. Last Rites centers on a female protagonist attempting to bring her dead lover home with guns and sex appeal ablazing. Have a look at a brief synopsis for each film; then, choose your own favourite and get set to attend the festival September 18th. Tickets are available August 23rd. All the available details are below.

Snowman’s Land

Director: Tomasz Thompson.

The synopsis for Snowman's Land here:

"Hapless contract killer Walter has screwed up a hit badly, and...

The Arizona Underground Film Festival has just revealed the names of six feature films chosen to screen at its third annual edition that will run on Sept. 18 to 25 in Tucson and Tempe, Az. The selections are an exciting mix of genre-bending films from all over the world, several of which are making their North American and World Premieres.

Azuff began as a modest three-day affair back in 2008 and has now grown into a full-blown eight-day affair in 2010. The sampling of titles that have been announced are a good sampling of the overall tone of the fest. The films range from black comedy to western to horror to one of the most controversial films of the year, A Serbian Film. Countries that some of the other films come from include Germany and Brazil.

Listed below are the six titles that have been announced so far and the full lineup will be released on Sept.

If you’re a fan of genre film, it looks like the place to be this July is Montreal. Fantasia, which runs July 8th to 28th, has unleashed its complete line-up and it features quite a few titles worthy of a look.

Of particular note are Philip Ridley’s much anticipated Heartless (review), Quentin Dupieux’s great looking Rubber (trailer), Tom Six’s twisted The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (review), Jon Knautz great sounding follow up to Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer titled The Shrine (trailer), Christopher Smith’s Black Death (review) as well as the insane looking A Serbian Film (review).

Other great titles in the line-up include Blaine Thurier’s great low budget night-gone-wrong drama A Gun to the Head (review), Corey Adams & Alex Craig’s skateboarding adventure fairytale Machotaildrop (review) as well as Rob Stefaniuk’s vampire rock drama Suck (review) which still stands as one of the...

Several press releases went out today featuring some huge news coming out of Canada's Fantasia Film Festival including the first batch of films that will be populating this massive three-week long event. Pull up your chair, kids! You're gonna be here for a while!

Dig on the wealth of information below from today's releases and look for more announcements and of course full coverage soon!

Spotlight: Between Death And The Devil

Recent times and crimes have seen extraordinary levels of disillusionment with organized religion, particularly with the Catholic Church, and genre cinema has mirrored this anger with startling impact. In the face of this, we’ve put together this troubling spotlight focused on the abuse of faith, the horrors of ideology and the corruption of Godliness. Several of these films will absolutely stagger you.

Black Death (UK) Dir: Christopher Smith – North American premiere. Hosted by Director Christopher Smith

With the Black Death sweeping across England,...

You want the best of genre film from Canada, the Us and around the globe? Fantasia is the place.

Montreal, June 29, 2010 - For its fourteenth edition, the Fantasia Film Festival is proud to present over 50 titles from Asia. Once again, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China are widely represented, demonstrating the great quality and diversity of their industries. And, as always, the programming team is also dedicated to exposing several hidden gems hailing from emerging national cinemas. Through these, audiences can discover new visions and new sensibilities. Therefore, the public will be privy to works hailing from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and - a first for the festival - Indonesia. The filmic multicultural feast prepared by the 2010 Fantasia Film Festival promises to satisfy film lovers of all kinds.

Fantasia's 2010 occidental lineup of World Cinema is once again on fire with an astounding kaleidoscope of styles and sensibilities.

The 7th annual Calgary Underground Film Festival is ready to start off with a bang this year on April 12 and then continue through to April 18. Opening night will see the results of the festival’s wildly popular 48-hour Movie Making Challenge, where registered teams were given a genre, a prop and a line of dialogue; then sent out to craft perfect cinematic masterpieces in just two short days.

Then, the rest of the fest is dedicated to some of the wildest films made in both the fest’s home country of Canada and from around the world, including Indonesia, Serbia, the UK and the U.S.

If you’re attending the festival, there’s one incredibly fun documentary you need to see: Michael Petersen’s Eddies: The Documentary, about the craziest beer commercial-making competition in the world — that happens to take place right in Calgary every year! Petersen profiled several...

What the f**k is this?! I hate to use profanity, but this trailer deserves it! My friend Don at Quiet Earth told me to check out the trailer for an indie called Machotaildrop and it's the trippiest, craziest, weirdest thing I've ever seen. I don't really know what's going on, but basically it's about a skateboarder named Walter Rhum who realizes his dream of turning pro and riding for the world's greatest skateboard company called Machotaildrop. I'm surprised Spike Jonze isn't producing this. Anyway, if you want to totally have your mind blown, or melted, then check out this trailer. And don't say I didn't warn you that it would be weird! Watch the trippy trailer for Machotaildrop: Machotaildrop is co-written and co-directed by first-time filmmakers Corey Adams and Alex Craig. It was shot up in Vancouver, Canada in 2008, but that's all we can seem to find on it,...

What the…? I always knew that something was strange (in a totally positive way) with those skaters, but this trailer for Corey Adams’ and Alex Craig’s Machotailtrop just raised the bar for ball-beared madness…

Synopsis via IMDb:

Machotaildrop is a highly visual and fantastical journey about an amateur skateboarder, Walter Rhum, who realizes his dream of turning pro and riding for the world’s greatest skateboard company… Machotaildrop. Set in an anachronistic time and place, Machotaildrop is the greatest skateboard company of its day and the regal and grand sport of skateboarding has been thriving for many generations. Walter’s journey serves as a window through which we discover the dark underbelly of what appears at first to be a benign skateboard company.

[via Quiet Earth]...

Year: 2009

Directors: Corey Adams and Alex Craig

Writers: Corey Adams and Alex Craig

IMDb: link

Review by: Marina Antunes

Rating: 8 out of 10

It was only a matter of time before someone came along to tell a fairy tale about skateboarding and we’re not talking Disney happily-ever-after fairy tale, but more of a Brother’s Grimm take on things. Enter Machotaildrop a unique tale from writer directors Corey Adams and Alex Craig.

Somewhere between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Lords of Dogtown it’s the story of the biggest skateboard company on the planet and the young man who took it down from the inside. Walter Rhum is a talented kid with aspirations to be the next face of Machotaildrop, the biggest and coolest skateboard company on the planet run by a man who calls himself The Baron. After sending them a VHS tape of his talents, he...

• Following my top ten Tiff list of titles available piece that I published a couples of hours back, Tiff released the lengthy list of titles that are looking for deals. Among those that I didn't mention in my top ten but could have easily have been there is the omission of Micmacs à tire-larigot (I wasn't sure if Warner Bros. only had domestic rights for France and not world rights), and titles such as Neil Jordan's Ondine, Atom Egoyan's Chloe, Oliver Parker's Dorian Gray, Aaron Schneider's Get Low, Derrick Borte's The Joneses and Michael J. Bassett's Solomon Kane should be generating key interest from the buyers as well. Without further ado, here is the list. L’Affaire Farewell Christian Carion, France Ahead of Time Bob Richman, USA The Angel Margreth Olin, Norway/Sweden/Finland The Art of the Steal Don Argott, USA Baaria Giuseppe Tornatore,

...

More for Vanguard, Real to Reel, Special Presentations, Galas, Short cuts, and Contemporary World Cinema which includes the World premier of Reginald Harkema's latest, Leslie, My Name is Evil. That link has the 2nd promo trailer (we used to have two) but we were asked by Reggie to remove the first. We also have Sook-Yin Lee's Year of the Carnivore which I've been keeping an eye on for some time. Also playing is The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

Check out the full list of added films after the break!

Canada First!

Year of the Carnivore Sook-Yin Lee, BC

World Premiere

Year of the Carnivore is a romantic-comedy-drama about a girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who thinks she's bad in bed, so she goes out to get more 'experience.'

All Fall Down Philip Hoffman, On

North American Premiere

Local legend Philip Hoffman's formally adventurous...