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On September 21, 2024, two women went blow-for-blow under the blazing lights of a boxing gym in Austin, Texas. Jabs. Hooks. Uppercuts. A handwritten sign that read “Death to Mainstream Cinema.” These are the Fantastic Fest Debates.

Ahbra Perry and Annick Mahnert are programmers for Alamo Drafthouse’s infamous genre film festival. For its 19th edition, they also participated as fighters in a controversial boxing ritual that has existed almost as long as the festival itself. Competitors select a subject for debate, and after three rounds of verbal back-and-forth, they put on gloves and duke it out — physically.

Over the years, big names like Michelle Rodriguez, Elijah Wood, Keanu Reeves, and Zoë Bell have participated in the theater chain’s gonzo exhibition. The celebration of disagreement lets actors, directors, critics, Fantastic Fest organizers, and more fans put their fists where their film opinions are. As America’s largest genre festival enters its second decade,...

Indie genre director Mickey Keating, who broke out with films such as 2015’s “Darling” and 2016’s “Carnage Park,” has wrapped shooting on his latest movie, the crime drama “Crooks.”

The film stars Keith Kupferer (“Ghostlight”), Angela Trimbur (“Quiz Lady”), Chase Williamson (“John Dies At the End”) and Melora Walters (“Magnolia”).

Per the logline, “Two small-time crooks rob a mob-run poker game in Chicago. Things immediately go wrong, resulting in a high-stakes adventure through the Midwest.”

“’Crooks’ is an incredible opportunity for me to break into the crime movie genre, which I’ve been hoping to do since I started my career,” Keating said in a statement. “This film is a highly stylized celebration of aesthetics ranging from noir to heist to western. I think anyone familiar with my work will see this as a natural progression from my previous films.”

Keating shot the movie in Chicago alongside producers Eddie Linker,...

Has there been a more unlikely series of horror films than the V/H/S franchise? By the very nature of the sub-genre, anthology films don’t typically lend themselves to being series as even the segments within their own movies are almost always unrelated. Sure, TV has found a way to make it work in things like American Horror Story from Ryan Murphy or the criminally underrated Channel Zero that ran 4 seasons. Side note, if you have Shudder, please go check out Channel Zero. There are exceptions of course with The ABCs of Death or the Creepshow series but most of them are one and done. You also have nonrelated ones that use the same actors and directors like the wonderful things Amicus films was doing opposite Hammer in the 60s and 70s but again, these weren’t sequels at all. V/H/S has defied all odds and with a new film having just been released,...

Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, the latest entry into the growing roster of dark and daring horror films, is heading to the American Film Market (AFM) thanks to Great Escape. Produced by renowned filmmaker Joe Swanberg and Yale Productions, this twisted sci-fi horror marks the feature debut of Aidan Leary and promises to deliver a mind-bending ride for audiences.

In what can only be described as an unsettling combination of Late Night with the Devil and Blue’s Clues, the film revolves around James Jensen, the host of a children’s show called Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round. However, beneath the playful songs and cheerful puppets, James begins to experience horrifying flashbacks to his repressed childhood memories. As the façade of his seemingly innocent TV show crumbles, James must confront his trauma while questioning whether his puppet co-stars are hiding far more sinister secrets. What’s more, there’s...

The first project from producer Joe Swanberg’s slate of horror films with Yale Entertainment is titled Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, and Deadline shares the first image this week.

The outlet details, “Ahead of the AFM, LA-based Great Escape is launching sales on horror film Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, the first project on the Terror Town genre slate from producer Joe Swanberg and Yale Productions.”

In the film from director Aidan Leary…

“Something really bad happened to James Jensen when he was a kid. While hosting the latest episode of his children’s series ‘Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round,’ his repressed memories begin to emerge, threatening his sanity, and possibly his life. Will Monkey and the Playground Pals help James recover his lost memories, or have they been withholding something from him all along? Where is the Post Lady hiding? And who is The Freak?...

Exclusive: Ahead of the AFM, LA-based Great Escape is launching sales on horror film Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, the first project on the Terror Town genre slate from producer Joe Swanberg and Yale Productions.

Michael Gilio, whose screenwriting credits include MGM’s Dark Harvest and Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, stars in the movie.

From first-time feature director Aidan Leary, the film will get its world premiere next month at the Leeds International Film Festival in the UK.

The synopsis reads: “Something really bad happened to James Jensen when he was a kid. While hosting the latest episode of his children’s series ‘Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round,’ his repressed memories begin to emerge, threatening his sanity, and possibly his life. Will Monkey and the Playground Pals help James recover his lost memories, or have they been withholding something from him all along? Where is the Post Lady hiding?...

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If you are a fan of the horror genre fan and are also familiar with the found footage style of filmmaking. In that case, you probably know that the blend between found footage and horror is exhilarating and brilliantly horrifying. That’s why we have compiled a list of the 7 best-found footage horror films you can find on Prime Video right now.

Hell House LLC (Watch Now)

Hell House LLC is a found-footage supernatural horror film written and directed by Stephen Cognetti. The 2015 film is set five years after fifteen people were killed during a haunted house tour and it follows a documentary who goes into the same haunted house to investigate what really happened. Hell House LLC stars Ryan Jennifer Jones, Danny Bellini, Gore Abrams, Jared Hacker, Adam Schneider, and Alice Bahlke.

Willow Creek (Watch Now) Credit...

Leeds International Film Festival (Liff) is set to return this November for its 38th edition, offering an exciting showcase of international cinema with a strong focus on fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and dark comedy through its Fanomenon strand. Running from 1 to 17 November 2024, the festival will take place in various venues across Leeds, including Everyman Leeds, Vue Leeds, Hyde Park Picture House, and the Howard Assembly Room.

The Fanomenon section of the festival, renowned for spotlighting films that push boundaries, will feature a variety of UK premieres, retrospectives, and thrilling movie marathons that celebrate global cinematic creativity. This year’s Fanomenon opens with Escape from the 21st Century, a UK premiere from writer-director Yang Li. This fast-paced sci-fi film blends comic-book animation with high-octane martial arts, setting the tone for the festival’s more unconventional offerings. The closing film, The Killers, hails from South Korea and brings together four inventive crime stories in a gripping,...

One of the most unique franchises to emerge in the last fifteen years, V/H/S feels like an indefinite horror franchise. After enough of the filmmakers broke through in the mainstream, other emerging voices have been eager to add their names to the franchise. Like Punk Goes Pop or And1 Mixtape for horror, the series has become a scouting ground for the next great horror filmmakers. With the arrival of V/H/S/Beyond, we’re ranking the films of the franchise. Within each, we also do a mini-ranking of the shorts, so keep an eye out for your favorite shorts.

7. V/H/S: Viral (2014)

While there are moments of Viral that stand out to this day, the overall style and stories rarely live up to the premise. Outside of this franchise, some segments would feel like a great little horror entry, but when the footage does not make sense as something that might come from a VHS,...

Stars: Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta, Ruby Vallejo, Joe Swanberg, Jim Sikora | Written and Directed by Mickey Keating

Written and directed by Mickey Keating, this low budget chiller serves up an interesting take on the home invasion sub-genre. It’s also a textbook example of the slow build, and is arguably more effective in its atmospheric first half than in its more chaotic – and more conventional – denouement.

After a suitably sobering introductory caption, noting that according to the FBI, “a break-in occurs every 30 seconds in the U.S.”, the film first shows us the titular Invader smashing up a property with whatever comes to hand. We then join Ana (Vero Maynez), a young, Spanish-speaking outsider, who arrives in the Chicago suburbs to stay with family, after being dumped off a bus at 4.30am.

After escaping an angry, creepy-looking taxi driver (Jim Sikora), Ana ends up dragging her suitcase to her destination,...

The latest set of found-footage and alien tales packs together a Bollywood witch with a terrifying birthday treat and some very sinister dog daycare

Not counting a couple of spin-offs, this is the seventh feature in the V/H/S horror franchise, which since the first edition in 2012 have packaged together short films by different directors to tell creepy tales involving found footage or aliens (or both) as well as lots and lots of gore. Usually anything this many generations into its evolution is pretty exhausted – but this is pretty good, or at least in parts. It probably helps that Brad Miska, the producer behind the original concept, is still involved. More importantly, Miska has kept things fresh by finding new directors and writers for each edition, some of whom have gone on to make films on a bigger scale or came aboard after having already become relatively successful just...

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Speak No Evil is a psychological horror thriller film written and directed by James Watkins. Based on the 2022 Danish film of the same name written by Mads and Christian Tafdrup, the James McAvoy film follows the story of an American family as their dream holiday at a British family’s idyllic country estate turns into a nightmare because of a psychotic man. Speak No Evil also stars Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy, Dan Hough, Alix West Lefler, and Motaz Malhees. So, if you loved the thrilling story, immense tension, and compelling characters in Speak No Evil here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Speak No Evil (AMC+ & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Shudder

Speak No Evil is a Danish psychological horror thriller film directed by Christian Tafdrup from a screenplay co-written by Mads and Christian Tafdrup.

Exclusive: One year ago in Toronto, with the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes still in full swing, Rivulet Films co-founders Rob Paris and Mike Witherill were in the throes of packaging a project with David Gordon Green attached to direct a WGA script. Unable to secure an interim agreement to get the go ahead, that project fell apart. But all was not lost because the next day, Green called Paris and had a non-wga script for him that he wanted to direct but they had to move fast because the director had a Q1 2024 commitment.

That project was a script from Green’s friend Leland Douglas called Nutcrackers about Mike, a straight-laced workaholic who has to travel to rural Ohio to care for his four nephews after their parents die in a car accident. After weeks of farm-life mayhem, Mike realizes he won’t have to find a new home...

Grotesquerie Trailer: "In Ryan Murphy’s 10-episode drama series Grotesquerie for FX, a series of heinous crimes have unsettled a small community. “Detective Lois Tryon” feels these crimes are eerily personal, as if someone—or something—taunting her. At home, Lois grapples with a strained relationship with her daughter, a husband in long-term hospital care and her own inner demons. With no leads and unsure of where to turn, she accepts the help of “Sister Megan,” a nun and journalist with the Catholic Guardian. Sister Megan, with her own difficult past, has seen the worst of humanity, yet she still believes in its capacity for good. Lois, on the other hand, fears the world is succumbing to evil. As Lois and Sister Megan string together clues, they find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers.

The series stars Niecy Nash-Betts as “Detective Lois Tryon,...

Grieving comes in many guises. In Courtney Stephens’ Invention, speculative fiction blends with personal history to explore the ways we process death. The subject is Callie Hernandez, an actress and filmmaker whose father died of a Covid-related illness in 2021. There’s much archival footage of the man, mostly television recordings from his times as a kind of telemarketer for new-age healing methods, but Stephens and Hernandez go one further, suggesting an alternative timeline. In this ersatz world, a patent for an electromagnetic healing device is left to her in her father’s will. No categorization does the film justice: it’s about death and mourning, of course, but it’s just as interested in people’s susceptibility to conspiracy.

Invention begins with Hernandez going through the most mundane posthumous rituals. She meets with her father’s lawyer, who informs her about the patent; then later meets his associates, some of...

Ask every independent filmmaker you know to tell you how they got their latest project off the ground, and you’ll never hear the same story twice. The task of finding funding for passion projects often feels so sisyphean that there’s no “right” way to do it. It comes down to timing, hustle, and a decent amount of luck. Zach Clark was already a celebrated indie filmmaker in his own right for films like “White Reindeer” and “Little Sister.” But he’ll be the first to tell you that his latest work, the sci-fi romance “The Becomers” was the result of some pandemic-era serendipity.

“Let me take you back to a time in February 2021,” Clark said during a recent conversation with IndieWire. “I was sitting in my apartment doing truly nothing, and Joe Swanberg called me and asked if I had any ideas for $100,000 genre movies that we could shoot in 12 days in Chicago.

Ana (Vero Maynez) arrives in Chicago, having travelled there to visit her cousin Camila (Ruby Vallejo). The journey has not exactly gone according to plan and Ana finds herself in an unnervingly empty coach station at four thirty in the morning. Ana calls Camila to see if someone can come and pick her up but there’s no answer so she sets off on foot to her uncle’s, already worried about what may have happened there…

Mickey Keating’s brisk, barbed blast of true crime-inflected nastiness opens with a quote that a break-in occurs every thirty seconds in the US and then cuts to a perp in the midst of trashing the latest place he’s unlawfully made his own. A sledgehammer is taken to walls, a sofa is slashed, tinned food is liberally splattered around, all shot with a trembly, handheld, close quarters view of the unhinged mayhem.

Apartment 7A Trailer: "Paramount+ today released the official trailer for the all-new psychological thriller Apartment 7A, available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ Friday, September 27 in the U.S. and Canada, Latin America and Brazil and on September 28 in the U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Australia. Availability in additional international Paramount+ markets to come at a later date. In addition to exclusively streaming on Paramount+, the film will be available for purchase on digital beginning Friday, September 27.

Set in 1965 New York City, the film tells the story prior to the legendary horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, exploring what happened in the infamous Bramford building before Rosemary moved in.

The highly anticipated film will debut at this year’s Fantastic Fest, the world’s largest genre and horror festival based in Austin, Texas, and will be featured in Paramount+ Peak Screaming, a curated collection of fan-favorite horror movies and Halloween episodes from beloved series.

The Becomers: "Forced to flee their dying planet, two body-snatching alien lovers arrive separately on Earth. Determined to find each other, the aliens jump from body to body, but they quickly learn that it's not easy to inhabit their new, fleshy hosts, and that life in modern-day America is more complicated than they could have ever imagined."

"Writer/director Zach Clark’s acclaimed sci-fi genre-bender The Becomers kicks off its U.S. theatrical release on Friday, August, 23rd and arrives on VOD in North America on Tuesday, September 24th. The film will open in New York on August 23rd at Cinema Village, in Los Angeles on August 30th at Lumiere Music Hall, and in Chicago on September 13th at Music Box Theatre, with more cities listed below.

The latest film from the celebrated American indie filmmaker, the visually striking and outrageously plotted film reverberates with the pulse of politics...

Bloody Disgusting has teamed up with Lionsgate to release seven modern horror favorites on Blu-ray + Digital in limited edition SteelBook packaging, available exclusively at Walmart today.

The line includes Wolf Creek, Hannibal Rising, I Spit on Your Grave, You’re Next, Sinister, Texas Chainsaw, and Leatherface.

Priced at $22.96, each title features brand new artwork by Bond.

Wolf Creek is written and directed by Greg McLean. John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, and Kestie Morassi star.

In the 2005 film, a trio of stranded backpackers in remote Australia fall prey to a psychopathic local, who takes them captive and tortures them.

Wolf Creek special features:

Unrated Cut of the Film Audio Commentary by Director Greg McLean, Executive Producer Matt Hearn, and Actors Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi The Making Of Wolf Creek Deleted Scene Theatrical Trailer

Hannibal Rising is directed by Peter Webber and written by Thomas Harris, based on his own novel.

Exclusive: Factory 25 has acquired world rights to Rotterdam competition title The Heirloom from debut filmmaker Ben Petrie.

The company will hand the pic a theatrical release in the U.S. this fall followed by a worldwide digital release in Q1 2025.

Starring Petrie and his frequent collaborator Grace Glowicki (Strawberry Mansion), who also co-produced and shares a story credit, the features an appearance from Matt Johnson (Blackberry), Andrew Chown (Her Friend Adam), and Leah Doz (Adult Adoption). The film follows a neurotic couple whose relationship is brought to the edge by the arrival of a traumatized rescue dog.

Shot in Toronto, Canada, the film debuted at the 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and most recently screened at Raindance in London and Filmfest München in Munich.

The Heirloom is produced by Petrie, Glowicki, and Justin Elchakieh. Production companies are Cheekdance Spectacular and Cedar Films. Kelly Jeffrey lensed the film. His credits include...

This article is part of IndieWire’s 2000s Week celebration. Click here for a whole lot more.

Let’s get it out of the way: it’s a stupid name. A tossed-off joke made at a bar during the 2005 edition of SXSW. Sound editor and former indie rocker Eric Masunaga technically coined the term, while filmmaker Andrew Bujalski was the first to use it publicly — and also the quickest to try to disabuse people that it applied to anything real. Nevertheless, both the term “Mumblecore” and the loose sub-genre it’s been used to describe have endured longer than any of its practitioners could have likely predicted. In 2007, two years after the Texan premieres of Joe Swanberg and the Duplass Brothers’ debut films, New York’s IFC Center ran a ten-film series entitled “The New Talkies: Generation D.I.Y.” that attempted to capture a moment in American independent film.

When it comes to meta experiments that blur those good ole lines between fiction and the filmmakers’ own non-fiction life stories, there’s a risk that the resulting feature can border on being impenetrable if audiences aren’t fed a load of exposition in advance. That’s far less of an issue for classically-told narratives from mega-famous artists delving into (semi)autobiography (like Steven Spielberg with “The Fabelmans”), but definitely so for smaller scale projects from independent filmmakers whose output is more peculiar. What can be a compelling behind-the-scenes story as described in a press kit may not necessarily translate into the finished feature as something engaging, or even coherent, to anyone coming to the work without the luxury of reading production notes before the screening.

This is thankfully not the case with “Invention,” a compact, compelling and warm fiction and documentary hybrid, credited as “A film by Callie Hernandez...

Body-snatching aliens attempt to navigate love in the modern world in genre-bending comedy The Becomers, and exclusive new images reveal just how goopy and gross the body hopping can be.

Dark Star Pictures releases The Becomers in theaters on August 23, 2024.

In The Becomers: “Dropped to Earth and escaping their dying planet, the two extraterrestrials (played by a sequence of actors) seek each other out —jumping from body to body— on our planet while becoming increasingly drawn into the madness of modern-day America.

Written, directed, and edited by Zach Clark (Little Sister), the film was shot in Chicago and stars Molly Plunk (Little Sister, Profane), Mike Lopez (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, Crimes Against Humanity), Frank V. Ross (Drinking Buddies), Isabel Alamin, and Keith Kelly, and features the voice Russell Mael, lead singer of the explosive pop-rock band Sparks. The Becomers is produced by Joe Swanberg (Depraved, The Rental), and Edwin Linker (Saint Frances,...

Indie filmmaker Zach Clark is returning to the big screen with the alien sci-fi dramedy “The Becomers.”

Written and directed by “White Reindeer” filmmaker Clark, “The Becomers” centers on two aliens who realize just how messed up America is after landing on Earth.

The official synopsis reads: “Forced to flee their dying planet, two body-snatching alien lovers arrive separately on Earth. Determined to find each other, the aliens jump from body to body, but they quickly learn that it’s not easy to inhabit their new, fleshy hosts, and that life in modern-day America is more complicated than they could have ever imagined.”

Molly Plunk, Mike Lopez, Keith Kelly, Isabel Alamin, and Frank V. Ross star. Sparks lead Russel Mael narrates.

The film is being released by Dark Star Pictures and includes satirical references to Covid, QAnon, and other divisive issues in American politics. The film debuted at the 2023 Fantasia...

Filmmaker Joe Swanberg was a major figure in the mumblecore film movement, and as the years have gone by he has also earned several credits in the horror genre, whether by taking acting roles in films like A Horrible Way to Die, You’re Next, The Sacrament, and Blackout, or by directing the werewolf movie Silver Bullets and contributing a segment to the anthology film V/H/S. Now Swanberg has increased his number of horror credits by five, as Deadline reports that he has teamed with Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman of Yale Entertainment to produce a slate of five horror films – all of which have already wrapped filming! Four of the titles are Helldorado, Kenneled, Yellow Eyes, and Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round. The fifth movie is currently simply known as the Untitled Jae Matthews Project.

Written and directed by Kansas Bowling (Cuddly Toys and the Troma release B.

Joe Swanberg (V/H/S, Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) and Yale Entertainment have wrapped production on five upcoming horror movies, Deadline reports this week.

Deadline details, “Swanberg’s slate of horror films with Yale Entertainment was inspired by the producing exploits of Roger Corman.” The lineup includes the following projects:

Helldorado Kenneled Yellow Eyes Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round Untitled Jae Matthews Project

Swanberg said in a statement, “I was very lucky to team with Yale Entertainment, who understood the model and were excited to try the most ambitious version of producing five features back-to-back. Using my resources from 20 years in Chicago, combined with support from the great team at Yale and my co-producer Ben Gojer, we have brought five incredible projects to life, each led by exciting early career filmmakers with huge futures.”

Here’s everything you need to know about each of the five movies…

“Written and...

Exclusive: Producer Joe Swanberg has partnered with Yale Entertainment’s Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman to produce a slate of five new horror films, each of which has now wrapped production.

Titles produced under the pact included Helldorado, Kenneled, Yellow Eyes, Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, and Untitled Jae Matthews Project.

Jesse Korman’s Yellow Eyes

Written and directed by Kansas Bowling (Cuddly Toys), Helldorado watches as Queho, a Native American serial killer with a checkered past, takes out the people of a struggling mining town in the stark deserts of Nevada one by one, with the town Deputy right on his tail.

Written by H.K. Moore and directed by Jay Burleson (The Nobodies), Kenneled follows a destitute dog walker who finds a wealthy client who saves him from financial ruin. But this is no ordinary dog…

Written by Mickey Solis and directed by Jesse Korman, Yellow Eyes...

Mubi has unveiled next month’s streaming lineup, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s five-part series Penance, Kit Zauhar’s new release This Closeness along with her debut feature Actual People, a pair of films by Paul Schrader, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Luke Lorentzen’s stellar documentary A Still Small Voice, Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth, and more.

In his review of This Closeness earlier this month, Ethan Vestby said, “The film is made with a great deal of formal control, and even though the low stakes and small scale will have it be compared to mumblecore films, this is far sleeker than the average Joe Swanberg joint of yesteryear: long takes, a fixed camera, strategic employment of close-ups, and a rich soundscape (the audio emanating from outside the window of traffic and birdsong is instantly identifiable to anyone living in a city).”

Check out the lineup below, and get 30 days free here.

Dive into the chilling depths of cult horror with Ti West’s 2013 masterpiece, The Sacrament. Known for his unsettling and atmospheric films like X, Pearl, The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, and the upcoming MaXXXine, Ti West delivers yet another spine-tingling experience with The Sacrament.

Now, thanks to Second Sight Films, you can add this cult favorite to your collection with the new Limited Edition and Standard Edition Blu-ray releases. Want a chance to win? Keep reading!

The Sacrament giveaway

The new collector’s edition out now is presented in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Chris Malbon along with a 70-page booklet with new essays and a raft of fantastic special features, including new interviews, a newly edited making of documentary and more.

The Sacrament follows a small news team—played by Aj Bowen, Joe Swanberg, and Amy Seimetz—as they accompany a desperate man on a...

‘A masterclass in unsettling chills from Ti West, lit up by another strong Seimetz turn’

★★★★

Empire Magazine

‘As with all of West’s work this is a good-looking, well-acted film shot through with moments of real power’

Time Out

‘Deserves top marks for being one creepy thriller. The cast do a remarkable job and Jones is absolutely perfect’

Bloody Disgusting

‘Performances are excellent, the atmosphere tense’

Total Film

One of the most prominent horror filmmakers of his generation, Ti West has directed a slew of successful films, including X, Pearl, The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers and the upcoming MaXXXine. Now The Sacrament, the director’s 2013 cult favourite, is the latest horror to get the Second Sight Films Limited Edition Blu-ray treatment, which is set for release this June alongside a Standard Edition Blu-ray.

The new collector’s edition will be released on 24th June 2024 and is presented in...

It’s true that This Closeness, by rising writer-director-star Kit Zauhar, may be too small in scale for some. But a recent trip to New York where this writer stayed alone in a West Village studio apartment oddly went about helping understand the particulars of the film a little bit better, even if it may be technically set in Philadelphia. Compressed urban living is universal, one supposes.

It charts the relationship between Tessa (the aforementioned Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais), who are in town for the latter’s high school reunion. They find themselves taking up residence in a walk-up Airbnb apartment (which the film won’t leave throughout its 88-minute runtime) instead of his family home. They’re not alone, though. There’s still the resident Adam (Ian Edlund), a socially awkward sports-video editor whose instantly hilarious demeanor (almost recalling the vampire Nosferatu’s gait at points) is a...

The Strangers film series is back with the first film of a new standalone trilogy, and while it may not be as good as the previous two films it is certainly making bank at the box office. Directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, the 2024 film titled The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a horror film that follows the story of a young couple as their car breaks down in a small town and they are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. But things get even worse when three masked strangers try to kill them. So, if you have loved all the previous The Strangers films and you are okay with the latest one here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Becky (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Yale Production and BoulderLight Pictures

Becky is an action thriller film directed...

Oh, Canada debuting this week on the Croisette is high time to see lesser-seen Schrader on the Criterion Channel, who’ll debut an 11-title series including the likes of Touch, The Canyons, and Patty Hearst, while Old Boyfriends (written with his brother Leonard) and his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” are also programmed. Five films by Jean Grémillon, a rather underappreciated figure of French cinema, will be showing

Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.

Exclusive: Billy Rosenberg is exiting his post as Senior Vice President of Comedy, Hulu Originals.

Rosenberg joined Hulu in 2016. Throughout his time at the streamer, he helped to shape the comedy brand and oversaw the development and production of Hulu Originals series such as Pen15, Ramy, Only Murders In The Building, Pam & Tommy, This Fool and Solar Opposites.

Previously, Rosenberg ran The Lonely Island’s company Party Over Here. In his two years there, Rosenberg produced a number of pilot presentations under the company’s deal when it was with Fbc, including I’m Sorry that was ordered to series at TruTV, and the Freeform pilot Alone Together starring Esther Povitsky and Benji Aflalo.

Related: 2024 TV Series Cancellations & Renewals

Rosenberg also produced the feature Brigsby Bear and collaborated with writer-director Joe Swanberg and was a co-producer on the Netflix series Easy.

Prior to Lonely Island, Rosenberg was with...

Hulu comedy head Billy Rosenberg is exiting the streamer after more than seven years. Rosenberg, who most recently served as senior VP of comedy for Hulu Originals, has not yet been replaced.

Rosenberg’s tenure at Hulu came with the elevation of the streamer’s comedy brand, as he developed hits including “Pen15,” “Ramy,” “Only Murders In The Building,” “Pam & Tommy,” “This Fool” and “Solar Opposites.”

He initially joined as director of comedy at Hulu Originals. Prior to being tapped by Hulu, Rosenberg ran The Lonely Island’s comedy Party Over Here, as head of development and production. Working closely with Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone for two years, the television and film producer executive produced a number of pilot presentations under their Fox deal. He also produced the feature film “Brigsby Bear” with then-“Saturday Night Live” cast member Kyle Mooney, and collaborated with Joe Swanberg on his Netflix series “Easy.

Like Google, Netflix has evolved from a Silicon Valley venture to a legitimate verb in the cultural lexicon. Over a decade after expanding from DVD-by-mail to streaming service, and seven since debuting its first original series with House of Cards, Netflix still dominates the online TV landscape. While competitors like Warner Bros., Disney, and Apple certainly vie for our time with their own in-house programs, the sheer inundation of Netflix originals requires its very own examination.

The powerfully gripping Baby Reindeer, the stylishly alluring Ripley, and the gut-busting Beef are merely a few of the latest storytelling pleasures available to anyone with a WiFi connection and a (potentially borrowed) Netflix login. These 25 Netflix original shows, old and new, prove the marathon-watching juggernaut’s equal concern for both quantity and quality. Nathan Frontiero

Editor’s Note: This entry was originally published on February 20, 2019.

25. Squid Game

Netflix’s Squid Game has a...

Exclusive: Brooklyn-based indie film distribution and production company Factory 25 has acquired North American theatrical rights on writer-director Kit Zauhar’s sophomore feature This Closeness, which debuted at SXSW 2023.

The film will begin its theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City on June 7, with further engagements and a worldwide digital release on Mubi on July 3.

The film stars Zane Pais (Margot At The Wedding) and Ian Edlund with Zauhar also starring as she did on her first feature Actual People, which debuted at Locarno in 2021. Factory 25 also released that film. Actress and singer Jessie Pinnick (Princess Cyd) and multimedia artist Kate Williams round out the cast.

Following SXSW, This Closeness screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention for best ensemble cast in the New American Cinema Competition.

This Closeness is produced...

Larry Fessenden is back with new werewolf horror movie Blackout, which is Now Available on Digital/VOD at home courtesy of Dark Sky Films.

Blackout is the third film in Fessenden’s monster trilogy, following Habit (vampires) and Depraved (Frankenstein). Watch a clip below for a sneak peek at his latest monster!

The film follows small town artist Charley (Alex Hurt), a tortured man whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might likely be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.

Fessenden tells us, “I am interested in finding new truths in the classic monster tropes of my youth. The essence of each creature dictates the milieu of the film, and of course, the werewolf is both out of control and regretful so that duality shaped my story.

Plot: Infected by the bite of a werewolf, a man sets out to bring down a shady businessman before arranging the end of his own life.

Review: Larry Fessenden has over 100 acting credits to his name, and if you’ve been following the horror genre over the last few decades there’s a good chance you’ve seen him show up in something, whether it be a Ti West movie, Stake Land, Late Phases, You’re Next, or the movie I first noticed him in, Session 9. He’s also a prolific producer, and has directing credits stretching back to the 1980s – most of those credits being on horror movies. Over the course of his career, he has told stories of vampires, the Wendigo, a man-eating fish, and even came up with his own take on Frankenstein’s Monster with his 2019 film Depraved. Continuing down the path of putting his stamp on the concept of classic monsters,...

It’s always a big week for the genre when a horror icon slashes back into our lives, and this week marks the return of killer doll “Chucky” to the small screen. But he’s not coming alone…

Here’s all the new horror releasing April 8, 2024 – April 14, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

Director Lawrence Fowler has been carving out his own little space on the indie horror scene with the Jack in the Box franchise, which began with 2019’s The Jack in the Box and continued with 2022’s The Jack in the Box: Awakening. Up next? The Jack in the Box Rises.

The brand new sequel comes to VOD and DVD Today from 4 Digital Media.

In this third installment, “When Raven is sent to an all-girls boarding school, she unleashes a demon from a mysterious vintage Jack-in-the-box hidden on the school grounds.

Thanksgiving is a horror slasher film directed by Eli Roth, from a screenplay by Jeff Rendell. The film is based on Roth’s mock trailer of the same name from the 2007’s Grindhouse, after many years of discussions and nearly going into production, the much-awaited Thanksgiving film is finally here and it is set during the Black Friday 2022 in Plymouth, Massachusetts as many people are crushed to death during the riot, despite the intervention of police and town sheriff Eric Newlon. Thanksgiving stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Gina Gerson, Rick Hoffman, Nell Verlaque, Tim Dillon, Jenna Warren, and Milo Manheim. So, if you loved Thanksgiving here are some similar movies you could watch next.

You’re Next (Prime Video Add-On) Credit – Lionsgate

You’re Next is nothing if not a brilliant slasher horror for the genre fans. Directed by Adam Wingard, the 2013 film follows the story of the Davison family,...

Universal’s monster movie Abigail helmed by Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett has been set to world premiere as the closing night film of horror fest The Overlook Film Festival, which is taking place this year at the Prytania Theatres in New Orleans from April 4 – 7.

Slated for release on April 19, Abigail watches as a group of criminals retreats to an isolated mansion after kidnapping the ballerina daughter (Alisha Weir) of a powerful underworld figure, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. Written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, the film’s cast also includes Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, and the late Angus Cloud.

This year’s Overlook lineup includes 45 films — 22 features and 23 shorts — from 11 countries, as well as four live presentations and five immersive experiences. Set to open the fet, on the heels of its Berlin launch,...

Dark Sky Films will be giving Blackout, the latest genre film from writer/director Larry Fessenden, a one week theatrical release at the IFC Center in New York City beginning on March 13th, and that theatrical engagement will feature special cast appearances and a Q&a. The film will then be receiving a nationwide release on digital platforms and VOD as of April 12th. In anticipation of those release dates, a trailer for Blackout has been unveiled, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Blackout has the following synopsis: Painter Charley wakes up in an upstate motel where he appears to have been living for some time. After he packs and leaves he encounters various people in the small town where everybody knows your name. Charley is saying goodbye to the estranged love of his life, Sharon, and settling his affairs with a manic urgency that culminates...

Blackout: "Writer-director Larry Fessenden has created some of the most original and memorable independent horror films of the last 25 years, from Habit and Wendigo to The Last Winter, Skin and Bones, Beneath and Depraved. His latest, Blackout, ranks among his most chilling and thought-provoking works with a cast that includes: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Ella Rae Peck, Rigo Garay, John Speredakos, Michael Buscemi, Jeremy Holm, Joe Swanberg, James Le Gros, Kevin Corrigan, Marshall Bell and Barbara Crampton.

Earning rave reviews on the festival circuit, Blackout marks the long-awaited reunion of Dark Sky Films and Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix, two iconic horror companies that brought us contemporary classics such as Ti West's The House of The Devil and The Innkeepers, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land and Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Late Phases.

Blackout will open for a one week exclusive NYC theatrical engagement...

Chicago – The controversial phrase “Good Guy with a Gun” is now a title for the latest feature film from John Mossman, who wrote and directed the story of a mother and son trying to rebuild their lives after losing their husband/father to gun violence. The twist is they’re rebuilding in a small town with an entrenched gun culture. The film is available for digital download beginning February 20th, 2024. Click Good Guy for providers and details.

Tessa (Tiffany Bedwell) and her teenage son Will (Beck Nolan) have escaped from their native Chicago after the street killing of family patriarch Tom (Joe Swanberg). Tessa’s father has also passed, and the pair are preparing his home for sale in a small rural town, while at the same time trying to decompress from their tragedy. When Will connects with a neighbor his age named Jonah (Jack Cain), he is put in...

"Everyone needs to go home - there's something out there on the loose and dangerous." Dark Sky Pictures has revealed an official trailer for an indie horror thriller titled Blackout, the latest genre creation from horror regular actor / filmmaker Larry Fessenden. This premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival last year, with additional festival appearances at Sitges, Woodstock, and the Brooklyn Horror Festival. In a small town in upstate New York, Charley, a werewolf who's been infected with the curse and is responsible for a series of brutal murders, confronts the most corrupt person in the area – a real estate tycoon named Hammond. At the same time, he will try to win back his ex-girlfriend Sharon, the tycoon's daughter. Described as a "new twist on the lycanthrope myth." Starring Alex Hurt as Charley, with Addison Timlin, James LeGros, Kevin Corrigan, Barbara Crampton, and indie regular Joe Swanberg. This actually looks pretty...

Alamo Drafthouse has revealed a creepy teaser trailer for a brand new indie horror film titled Invader, the latest from director Mickey Keating. Not much is known about this one yet, and we can't find much online or anything about any festivals premieres or otherwise. It's set to open at Drafthouse Cinemas in March next month. From director Mickey Keating (Offseason) & producer Joe Swanberg comes Invader, a lean, mean, and shocking jolt of true crime horror. Invader follows a young woman who arrives in the Chicago suburbs and begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her missing cousin, but soon realizes that her greatest fears don't even begin to scratch the surface. Starring Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta, and Ruby Vallejo. There's only a few glimpses of houses and scary shots in here - stay tuned for more footage soon... // Continue Reading ›...

Larry Fessenden (Habit, Depraved) is back with new werewolf horror movie Blackout, and the official trailer has been unleashed today along with release information.

Dark Sky Films will first bring the modern day werewolf movie to theaters in NYC on March 13, followed by a wider release on Digital/VOD at home on April 12, 2024.

The film’s one week exclusive NYC theatrical engagement will take place at the IFC Center beginning March 13th, and it will feature special cast appearances and a Q&a.

Blackout marks the second pairing of Glass Eye Pix, the New York production shingle headed by Fessenden, and Yellow Veil Pictures, having previously collaborated successfully on world sales for Fessenden’s 2019 Depraved, which was released by IFC Midnight in the US.

The film follows small town artist Charley (Alex Hurt), a tortured man whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might likely be a werewolf.

Indie filmmaker Mickey Keating (Darling, Ritual, Carnage Park, Pod, Offseason) is back here in 2024 with new home invasion horror movie Invader, and Bloody Disgusting has been exclusively provided with the teaser trailer, poster and release information this morning.

Keating partners with producer/star Joe Swanberg for Invader, and we’ve learned that it’s headed to Alamo Drafthouse cinemas.

Invader will open in the following four Alamo locations on March 15, 2024:

Alamo Drafthouse Downtown LA (Los Angeles) Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan (New York) Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville (Chicago) Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar (Austin)

Alamo Drafthouse will have the film exclusively for one week.

In the horror movie from writer/director Keating, “A young woman arrives in the Chicago suburbs and begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her missing cousin, but soon realizes that her greatest fears don’t even begin to scratch the surface.”

Vero Maynez, Colin Huerta,...