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In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, some find solace in family, while others hold fast to the past. Such is the dilemma facing the Abel clan in Carlo Ledesma’s Outside, an unsettling drama that doubles as a survival story amidst a zombie outbreak.

We meet Francis, Iris, and their sons Joshua and Lucas as they seek shelter from the undead hordes overrunning the Philippines. Travel-weary and battle-scarred and clearly harboring long-simmering tensions, the family spots a potential safehaven—an remote farm owned by Francis’ late parents. Yet within these walls lies not only sustenance and protection, but memories better left forgotten for Francis and ghosts that refuse to release their hold on him.

As Francis struggles to maintain a facade of stability, flares of his shadowed past emerge. A dark history of abuse clouds his judgment, twisting his driven acts of guardianship into something chilling. Meanwhile, wife Iris,...

When bloody zombies — creepily mouthing the words their human selves once said — gather outside your home, how far are you willing to go to protect your loved ones? Directed by Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), the zombie horror film Outside follows a family of four in the Philippines as they attempt to survive an undead outbreak that’s plaguing the country. But the longer they stay holed up in an abandoned house, the threats start coming from inside instead of out. The first-ever Filipino zombie film, starring Sid Lucero, Beauty Gonzalez, and Marco Masa, was co-written by Ledesma and Anton Santamaria (The Tunnel).

“More than anything, Outside is a story about family,” Ledesma told Netflix about the film. “It explores how a family could fall apart, and it played out my worst fears as a father.”

Stream it now.

Check it out at the top of this page.

A zombie...

“Outside,” (2024) the latest Filipino offering on Netflix, is a dense psychological drama set in the quickfire world of the zombie apocalypse. It traverses the familiar grim reality of an apocalypse with a moderate dose of zombie-related dread and wanton violence. What writer-director Carlo Ledesma explores more in his film is the horror of childhood trauma, the festering of which creates a cycle of violence that is more terrible than any of the undead’s actions. The price for such an attempt is the wrath of the fans of zombie films. “Outside” is bereft of pulsating zombie-killing actions that one is accustomed to in such films. Instead, it examines the frailties of human emotions and the ugliness of the very much alive.

The film starts with Francis’s (Sid Lucero) and Iris’ (Beauty Gonzalez) wedding video, earmarking the relationship to be the key subject in the story. Fast forward a few...

Although George A. Romero didn’t pioneer the concept of the zombie movie, he undoubtedly perfected it, especially with Dawn of the Dead. Ever since its success, this particular subgenre of horror has been hacked, slashed, killed, and resurrected from its grave for the big as well as the small screen. But how many of these attempts were truly refreshing? Shaun of the Dead is a personal favorite of mine as it used the zombie apocalypse to trigger a man’s maturity. The use of found footage filmmaking to cover a zombie outbreak never got better than Rec. Setting up a romance between a human and a zombie in Warm Bodies was pretty unique. Humans fighting zombies inside a train in Train to Busan was excellent. I can’t speak to the quality of the film, but I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies deserves a shout out because it...

“Outside” is a Netflix horror movie written and directed by Carlo Ledesma. It stars Sid Lucero, Beauty Gonzalez, Marco Masa, and James Blanco.

If you were born with an inherent fondness for apocalyptic zombie films, you’ve come to the right place. Unlike the isolated protagonists of these series and movies, you are certainly not alone; there is a legion of fans, and each year the film industry rewards their loyalty with a plethora of series, movies, animations, and books. “Outside” is yet another zombie film, this time hailing from the Philippines and brought to us by Netflix. As you may know, Netflix has made a significant investment in Philippine cinema, particularly excelling in the horror thriller genre with increasingly high-quality productions.

“Outside” is commendable in every aspect: it boasts impressive cinematography, well-developed characters, and a screenplay that skillfully leverages the strengths of its story to construct a compelling zombie thriller.

Outside, the first ever zombie film produced in the Philippines, has revealed its first full trailer.

The Netflix feature, from Filipino director Carlo Ledesma, drops on the streamer on Oct. 17 and, judging by the first proper clip, ramps up the tension and terror in the tropics.

Outside is set in a remote province of the Philippines, an area of small villages, rice paddies and sugar cane fields, and tells the story of a family trying to outrun the zombie outbreak by returning to the father’s childhood farmhouse, fortifying it to keep out “The Dead Ones.”

Though zombies are the key attraction, the film delves deep into issues such as generational trauma and abuse. The film stars Sid Lucero as the troubled father, Beauty Gonzalez as the strong-willed mother and Marco Masa and Aiden Patdu as their terrified sons.

Ledesma has a horror pedigree, and was the filmmaker behind the...

Two new zombie films – Kimo Stamboel’s Abadi Nan Jaya from Indonesia and Carlo Ledesma’s Outside from the Philippines – were among the new titles spotlighted at Netflix’s first showcase dedicated to Southeast Asia.

Abadi Nan Jaya is Netflix’s first Indonesian zombie title and the latest film directed by Indonesia’s horror master Kimo (Dancing Village: The Curse Begins) and produced by Edwin Nazir, marking their first collaboration with the streamer. It is currently in production near Yogyakarta in Central Java, with a global premiere due in 2025.

Abadi Nan Jaya is a working title that can be translated...

BayView Entertainment have released the ghostly horror film Sunod to Blu-ray (Region Free).

Sunod is also available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Amazon Prime Video in the USA.

Synopsis:

For the sake of her ill daughter, Olivia, a single mother, is forced to take an entry-level job at a call center. The historic building where she works has a shady past and is reputed to be haunted. One night, Olivia encounters Nerisa, a lost ten-year old girl, in the restroom. As soon as Olivia tries to help the girl, strange things begin to happen in the office. Blackouts become a regular occurrence, the voice of a girl can be heard in the customer calls, and evidence starts to point towards there being a ghost on the premises.

Sunod was Directed by Carlo Ledesma and stars Carmina Villaroel, Mylene Dizon and Krystal Brimner.

Sunod is...

BayView Entertainment will release the ghostly horror film Sunod to Blu-ray (Region Free) in the USA on 30th May 2023.

Synopsis:

For the sake of her ill daughter, Olivia, a single mother, is forced to take an entry-level job at a call center. The historic building where she works has a shady past and is reputed to be haunted. One night, Olivia encounters Nerisa, a lost ten-year old girl, in the restroom. As soon as Olivia tries to help the girl, strange things begin to happen in the office. Blackouts become a regular occurrence, the voice of a girl can be heard in the customer calls, and evidence starts to point towards there being a ghost on the premises.

Sunod was Directed by Carlo Ledesma and stars Carmina Villaroel, Mylene Dizon and Krystal Brimner.

Sunod will be released to Blu-ray (Region Free) in the USA from BayView Entertainment on 30th May...

Disney’s 20th Digital Studios has been releasing horror shorts as the Bite Size Halloween series on the Hulu streaming service for two seasons now, and a third season of the series is set to premiere on October 1st. Tomorrow! With that date so near, a trailer for Bite Size Halloween season 3 has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

Bite Size Halloween season 3 consists of twenty-one shorts that star the likes of Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law), Brendan Hines (Locke & Key), Misha Osherovich (Freaky), Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical), Lin Shaye (Insidious), David Costabile (Breaking Bad), Rebekka Johnson (Glow), and singer-songwriter Kate Nash.

The shorts that make up the season are titled Nian, Ticks, Snatched, Nzu, Bug, Incomplete, Remote, Live Bait, Foreigners Only, Mr. Crocket, Angels, Disposal, The Heritage, Fracture, Bad Rabbit, Sleep Study, Go to Bed Raymond, The Kapre, Alone with Him, Trespassers, and Ride or Die.

Despite the fact that J-horror is long since dead, for the most part, the genre was always one of the most predominant ones in S/Se Asian, and particularly in the Asean countries, where horror was always quite popular. Recently, S. Korean genre cinema also seems to have made a turn towards the category, probably instigated by the huge success of “Train to Busan“, the sequel of which is also included in the list. Lastly, the trend that started in Indonesia with Joko Anwar‘s remake of “Satan’s Slaves” continued this year, with Kimo Staboel‘s “Queen of Black Magic” while the other member of Mo Brothers, Timo Tjahjanto also presented in an effort in the genre.

Without further ado, here are the best horror films of 2020, in reverse order. Some films may have premiered in 2019, but since they mostly circulated in 2020, we decided to include them.

*By clicking on the title,...

Carlo Ledesma’s sophomore feature fiction is his first wholehearted venture into the domain of horror movies. Although his previous attempt at horror-“Tunnel” (2011) was labelled as such, it didn’t quite manage to raise as much as an eyebrow. With his majorly praised script penned for Avid Liongoren’s animated fantasy drama “Saving Sally” (2016), the curse was broken, and his talent for suspense became obvious. Three years into the film’s success pretty much owned by its writer, Ledesma returned behind the camera with “Sunod”, a dynamic, nail-biting watch with many twists and turns.

“Sunod” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival 2020

The core story might sound familiar – a desperate single mother is trying to keep her severely ill daughter alive at all costs, and when the much awaited wonder happens, it comes with frightening consequences. One is fooled into believing that the film will follow the safe horror patterns,...

The festival will play 46 features from eight Asian countries.

Udine’s Far East Film Festival (Feff) has revealed a lineup of 46 features including four world premieres, for the online-only edition of the event that will run from June 26 until July 4.

It will open with the international premiere of Lee Hae-jun and Kim Byung-seo’s disaster action film Ashfall, available to viewers in Europe only.

The film was a blockbuster hit in South Korea over Christmas, grossing almost $60m (£47.9m) by the end of January.

The world premieres are Ning Yuanyuan’s Chinese title An Insignificant Affair; Daigo Matsui’s Japanese...

★☆☆☆☆ Australian director Carlo Ledesma's latest film The Tunnel (2011) wins the gold medal for the most misleading advertising campaign so far this year, due to its promotion as a horror - ironically, the main element that is lacking. In 2007, the New South Wales government abandoned plans to alleviate a sever drought by recycling vast quantities of water found in a series of disused train tunnels beneath Sydney. A year later, journalist Natasha (Bel Deliá) and her team venture into the tunnels to find out why - a decision they may not live to regret.

Read more »...

Whether you immediately discard the notion of a documentary-style horror film as a bandwagon leaper you can’t deny that, in the right hands, the recently-revived genre is capabale of worrying the trousers of many of us.

The key point here, among the Paranormal Activities, the Grave Encounters and the [Rec]s of recent years, is to be true to the story you’re telling and not to dash mindlessly through a scary location waving your camera around like a butterlfy net and screaming Wtf and Omg and Btaboag* in the darkness.

This preamble is not to denigrate the work done by Aussie director Carlo Ledesma and his writer/producers Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi as I’ve yet to see their film, The Tunnel, instead I wanted to intorduce this exclusive clip with a modicum of restraint on finding out the method of filmmaking.

The DVD is out on the...

If the recent glut of low quality found footage flicks has been leaving a rather sour taste in your mouth, then get ready for a bit of refreshment as director Carlo Ledesma’s Australian faux-documentary The Tunnel will be putting the frighteners on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on August 6th, courtesy of Arrow Films.

Delve in here for the dark details...

Directed by Carlo Ledesma (The Last One, Food Matters, Locked, The Haircut), and produced by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, The Tunnel is part of the 135k Project, a crowd-funding initiative that invites film fans to buy individual digital frames from films in pre-production to fund the costs of production. The aim of 135k Films is to make movies unencumbered by box office constraints.

No info as of yet regarding special features, but trust us -- this one’s creepy enough to warrant a look regardless!

Check...

“The Tunnel”, out shortly on region 2 UK DVD via Arrow Films, is an Australian horror of the found footage variety, following a journalist and her camera crew poking around in the old rail tunnels beneath Sydney. The film has an interesting history, having been part of the ‘135k Project’, a scheme which aims to fund films by getting audience members to pay money in advance to buy digital frames from the finished production – in theory allowing directors to make films without having to worry too much about potential box office returns. Directed by Carlo Ledesma (helmer of the shorts “The Last One”, “Locked” and “The Haircut”), the film won a variety of awards, including Best Australian Director at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Best Use of Social Media at the 17th Annual Aimia Awards. The film revolves around a fictional 2007 decision the by the New South...

The winning webseries in the 2011 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition, Event Zero, has now been released in its entirety.The first episode launched on May 22 as a teaser to the rest of the series, and has received over 9000 views, many of which were from you, our readers! So if you enjoyed Episode 1, check out the rest of the webseries below. About Event Zero: Created by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (producers of The Tunnel), Event Zero stars a host of Australian actors including Zoe Carides (Crownies, Out of the Blue), Valentino Del Toro (Gabriel, Underbelly: Infiltration), Harry Pavlidis (Gabriel, East West 101, All Saints) and Steve Davis (The Tunnel). As well as collaborations with several directors including Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), Andrew Traucki...

Coming off the success of The Tunnel, production partners Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey have released the first episode of their seven part web series, Event Zero.

.We wanted The Tunnel to appear real in every way., says Harvey, producer and co-creator of the hit Australian horror film, .but for Event Zero, we.re going for a hugely cinematic feel. Hopefully people will be caught off guard by what we accomplished with the money we had. We wanted to show people that we could tackle the big scenes..

Event Zero is a collection of seven stories all centered on a train derailment near Circular Quay. When the emergency services arrive at the scene, seemingly unaffected people begin to die. The story is loosely based on the 1995 Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo.

Tedeschi and Harvey received funding for Event Zero through Screen Australia and Movie Extra after their concept won the 2012 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition.

The first episode of a new web series funded by an Australian TV network and the national screen agency premiered on YouTube yesterday.

Originating from the film trailer competition Movie Extra Webfest, Event Zero is produced by the creative team behind 2011 horror film The Tunnel.

Movie Extra Webfest, an initiative of Movie Network Channels, now in its second year, has also seen Screen Australia put $50,000 behind the project, doubling the production budget to $100,000.

Producer Enzo Tedeschi said: “For an Australian web-series, the $100,000 was a fair whack of cash.”

Despite the investment Tedeschi said that web-series as a platform isn’t far off from being recognised as a competitive screen platform to film and TV: “I don’t know if web-series are being treated seriously just yet but there is something happening around the industry with well-timed, well-placed series, like the Bondi Hipsters, which actually they already proved with Beached Az.

Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 winning web-series, Event Zero, has just premiered on Movie Extra's YouTube Channel. The first episode of the seven-part series has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure. It looks fantastic. About Event Zero: Created by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (producers of The Tunnel), Event Zero stars a host of Australian actors including Zoe Carides (Crownies, Out of the Blue), Valentino Del Toro (Gabriel, Underbelly: Infiltration), Harry Pavlidis (Gabriel, East West 101, All Saints) and Steve Davis (The Tunnel). As well as collaborations with several directors including Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), Andrew Traucki (The Reef) and Shane Abbess (Gabriel).Event Zero tells seven interconnected stories of people caught up in an event much bigger than they are. A report comes in of a...

The highly anticipated web-series Event Zero, by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (The Tunnel producers and winners of the 2011 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition), will be commencing production on March 19. The suspenseful new web-series will see Tedeschi and Harvey collaborate once again with The Tunnel director, Carlo Ledesma. Set and filmed in Sydney, the seven part web-series carries an Australian $100,000 production budget. A report comes in of a train derailment near Circular Quay. Smoke billows from the wreckage and victims pour onto the streets. As the emergency workers arrive at the chaotic scene, they realise the biggest threat is only just emerging. People without a scratch are collapsing on the ground and dying - and it is spreading. Unless someone can work out...

Written and produced by Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi and directed by Carlo Ledesma, Australian horror The Tunnel was a grand experiment in alternative distribution. Funded largely by 'selling' individual frames in the film for a dollar to a rabid fan base and then distributed for free online via BitTorrent, The Tunnel has proven to be successful enough that Harvey and Tedeschi are gearing up to do it all again. Twice. In slightly different ways.First, there is the upcoming sequel The Tunnel: Dead End. Following a more traditional funding model - i.e. it is backed by Screen Australia rather than crowd funded and, thus, not bloody likely to be given away free - the story will pick up after the first, following the sister...

Wolf Creek director Greg McLean has received development support from Screen Australia for a new film set in Vietnam.

McLean’s project Black Echoes is among 13 projects to have been selected in the latest round of funding from the national screen agency.

Set in in the Vietnamese countryside, the film is about a group of tourists who go on an adventure into Viet Cong tunnels more claustrophic and scary than the famous Cu Chi tunnels.

Other projects to receive funding include The Outrageous Barry Rush, directed by Red Dog’s Kriv Stenders, written by Andy Cox and produced by Alan Harris, The Dressmaker by written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and produced by Sue Maslin and the sequel to last year’s online hit, The Tunnel, called The Tunnel: Dead End by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey.

Single-project Development: Feature Development

Addition

Genre Romantic Comedy

Producers Bruna Papandrea, Cristina Pozzan...

A sequel to last year.s successful low-budget horror film The Tunnel is currently in the works.

The sequel . titled The Tunnel: Dead End . received development funding from Screen Australia earlier this month and will pick up the story years down the track. No shoot date has been set for the horror flick.

It.s a sequel creators Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey weren.t planning on. .Initially, we weren.t anticipating doing another Tunnel film but the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the original . as well as our fans clamouring for another on an almost daily basis . made us go back and give it a second thought,. Tedeschi and Harvey, of Distracted Media, said in a joint statement.

.We weren't going to go ahead unless we could find a story we were 100 per cent behind, which we now have, and are thrilled to have the support of Screen Australia.

With the 11th annual Screamfest La Film Festival having kicked off October 14th (it runs through the 22nd at Manns Chinese 6 in Hollywood, CA at Hollywood and Highland), Dread Central hit the carpet that night to bring you some eye candy and to catch a screening of director Kim J-hoon’s Korean monster flick Sector 7 in 3D.

Check out our overflowing gallery below, and then get your tickets to the venerated event by clicking here.

Those walking the black carpet and in attendance for the packed opening included (take a breath) the following: Gravedancers director Mike Mendez, Abominable director Ryan Schifrin, actresses Chelsea Rendon and Jessica Cameron, Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli, Madison County director Eric England and actors Ace Marrero and Matt Mercer, The Tunnel director Carlo Ledesma with producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey and actors Steve Davis and Bel Delia, actor-producer Tom Malloy (The Alphabet Killer), filmmaker...

Australian self-financed horror The Tunnel will have its Us premiere screening at Los Angeles’ Screamfest on Saturday October 15 at legendary Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

A Q&A with director Carlo Ledesma and Co-producers/writers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey will follow the screening. The venue, situated next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame is home to some of the world’s biggest film premieres and has also previously hosted the Oscars ceremony.

The team has also confirmed a Us DVD release through Blackrock Films on December 27, 2011.

“It is an exciting time for The Tunnel as we break into the Us market. We expect a great reaction to our little Aussie movie at Screamfest and are thrilled American horror fans will have the opportunity to own our film when it comes out on DVD in December” said Tedeschi.

The film had its world premiere at Popcorn Taxi in May with a Q&A,...

About three weeks ago, I wrote an article announcing Shadowlocked's involvement in this year's Telluride Horror Show and my role as 'Master Host'. Some of you have been wondering what films will be on tap for those in attendance, and lemme tell ya, there are some real doozies. Whether their horror tastes lie with the moody and atmospheric or with over the top fountains of gore, fright fans will find that the Horror Show has something for everyone this year.

Back by popular demand is the extremely popular horror/comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, one of last year's Horror Show crown jewels returning for a repeat performance. Also on tap is The Tunnel, an Australian horror in the 'found footage' genre. Director Carlo Ledesma and producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey will be in attendance. Making their United States debuts are shoot-o-rama The Scarlet Worm and tournament-style gorefest Monster Brawl.

The B-Movie Underground and Trash Film Festival brings their unique collection of international sleaze on Sept. 7-11 in the city of Breda in the Netherlands. Violence, gore, general grossness and perversion are, once again, near and dear to the heart of this fun fest.

From the U.S., the But Fest is screening a few modern underground classics while also celebrating a few of the old masters. Included in the lineup are Usama Alshaibi‘s mind-blowing Muslim sex worker flick Profane, Zach Clark‘s wild weekend of debauchery Vacation! and Dan Nelson & Drew Bolduc‘s over-the-top The Taint.

Plus, But is honoring Cinema of Transgression mastermind Nick Zedd with several screenings of his classic works, such as Thrust in Me, Police State and Whoregasm, as well as his recent public access TV series Electra Elf.

Other films from around world include horror hits like César Ducasse & Mathieu Peteul’s Dark Souls,...

Carlo Ledesma's movie The Tunnel, which was actually distributed online for free through torrent sites and eventually picked up by Paramount for distribution here in the States, is getting ready to hit Canadian theaters, and we've got a new one-sheet and the details for you.

The Tunnel will be having its North American theatrical debut in theaters in Vancouver, BC starting on August 5, 2011 via Blackrock Films. The flick will be running through the fall.

The award-winning film has attracted international and local interest based on its unique crowd-funding and not so traditional distribution model – the film is already reaching the largest audience ever for an independent Australian film, with a simultaneous release via the BitTorrent online network, a cinema release, 2-disc DVD set and an Australian Pay-tv broadcast.

Look for more on this one soon!

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The story around viral Aussie horror gem The Tunnel just keeps getting better and better. First it was made with the help of crowd funding (I am the proud owner of 25 frames!) and released into the wild via Bit Torrent. Then it stitched up legit deals with the likes of Paramount and Showtime Australia. Now it's added another giant string to its bow: Apple. Yep, the little film that could has partnered with MoPix to launch an official iPad Application available through the App Store. They've even put out a little video with director Carlo Ledesma exploring the app like a kid in a candy store. Check it out below. And just in case you haven't downloaded the film for free, bought the special edition DVD, watched it...

The first annual Bloodfest Fantastique genre film festival — which recently wrapped in Melbourne, Australia and was organized by the good folks of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival — has given out a slew of awards to films, filmmakers and actors. The big winner of the fest? The Sydney-based horror flick The Tunnel, directed by Carlo Ledesma.

The Tunnel took home three awards, including Best Film. Becoming a festival favorite is an especially interesting feat for a film that has eschewed the traditional distribution route and is already available for free online for anybody to view who wants to BitTorrent it through a deal with Paramount Pictures. The film also won Best Cinematography for the work of co-d.P.s Shing Fung Cheung and Steve Davis; while Davis also shared the Best Supporting Actor award with Michael Rooker, who appeared in Penance.

Amother big winner was Bloodfest’s Opening Night film Come and Get Me.

A while ago we let you know about Carlo Ledesma's movie The Tunnel, which was actually distributed online for free through torrent sites and eventually picked up by Paramount for distribution. Now, however, you can take the terror of The Tunnel with you wherever you go thanks to MoPix.

From the Press Release

In another first for the horror flick of 2011, “The Tunnel” has become the only Australian film to be available for download on the iPad platform.

Working in partnership with the film distribution platform MoPix, “The Tunnel’s” innovative iPad application download contains the entire movie, “Meet the Cast” behind-the-scenes extras, exclusive behind-the-scenes photo gallery offering never-before-seen images and social media integration.

It is available now via the iPad App Store for $9.99.

“It is an interesting time for 'The Tunnel' – as well as simultaneous releases via traditional platforms on May 18, 2011, we are now utilising a...

The Melbourne Underground Film Festival has extended its final deadline for one week. Filmmakers now have until June 22 to get their films in for Muff’s 12th annual edition.

Dates for the fest still haven’t been set yet, but it should run sometime around the end of August. Details on what types of films Muff is looking for can be found at the original Call for Entries post on Bad Lit.

Final Deadline

June 22

$45 Aus

To submit, please visit Muff’s official website.

P.S. Muff’s genre film festival spin-off, Bloodfest Fantastique, is still going strong this week and will end on Saturday night with a screening of the innovative Sydney-based horror flick The Tunnel, directed by Carlo Ledesma.

The lineup for Bloodfest Fantastique can be found here.

Read More:2011 Bloodfest Fantastique: Official LineupWolstencroft’s Diversion Notice Upheld!2011 Calls For Entry: Melbourne Underground, Spooky MovieAustralian Court Offers Wolstencroft...

It's near-impossible to discuss The Tunnel without addressing the inherent gimmickry. It's a singularly unusual film, not just because of its content, but also because of the history behind its creation. Funded directly through fan contributions via what became known as The 135K Project ($135,00 being the estimated budget), The Tunnel was created through voluntary contributions. Then, to make things even more unusual, it was released entirely for free, via Bittorent. It's an impressive undertaking and an intriguing set of ideas, one that makes for worthwhile conversation before we even begin talking about the film itself. It's been garnering minor attention over the course of its development from several movie sites (we showed a couple of their trailers as well), and on May 19th, it was finally released. DVD copies are available for purchase, though viewers can still legally and freely obtain the film through torrent downloading.

All of that finally...

The sick and twisted minds behind the Melbourne Underground Film Festival have launched a brand new horror and sci-fi themed fest: Bloodfest Fantastique! Australia gets a lot more blood-soaked on June 10-18, nine nights of some of the most gruesome, terrifying and far-out films, past and present, from around the world.

While Muff has never been shy about screening genre films, Richard Wolstencroft — founder and director of both fests — is planning for his newest endeavor to simply be a celebration of his two favorite genres of filmmaking, without all the politicking hooha-ery that surrounds Muff.

So, there’s still a very underground-esque flavor to Bloodfest. The newer flicks in the festival have a scrappy, inventive, degenerate quality, from slice and dice em’s like Chris Sun’s Come and Get Me, Chad Ferrin’s Someone’s Knocking at the Door and Geoff Klein Bikini Girls on Ice; to monster flicks...

Today’s the day the world finds out if The Tunnel is a clever fundraising/distribution idea, or a clever fundraising/distribution idea with an accomplished film attached to it. Oscar winning producer, Ted Hope (21 Grams, Adventureland) thinks the latter.

The film, written and produced by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey and directed by Carlo Ledesma, had its world premiere at Popcorn Taxi last night, followed by Q&A with the afformentioned creators as well as executive producer Andrew Denton.

The world premiere was hotly followed by an airing on Showtime Premiere last night (10.30pm), while going live to download for free on BitTorrent. It is released today on DVD by Transmission Films (with short films as extras).

Ted Hope has got behind the film by inviting ScreenLaunch’s Ross Howden (The Tunnel Cannes film representative) to write a guest post on his blog on Indiewire, answering the question, ‘How...

The forthcoming horror film has embraced filesharing to build word-of-mouth for its DVD release – but is crowd-sourced funding its truly revolutionary move?

Twelve months have passed since they launched their online funding campaign. And although writer-producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey are still far short of breaking even, they have a major studio on board – and horror fans salivating – for their debut feature film. The Tunnel is a guerrilla-style film blending real-life politics – a local government plan to recycle underground water – with a fictitious cover-up. It follows an ambitious news crew deep inside a labyrinth of disused train tunnels beneath central Sydney. What they find isn't pretty.

This low-budget experiment – a first for Tedeschi and Harvey and their like-minded director, Carlo Ledesma – sidestepped traditional film-funding models. The portion of the modest budget ($AU435,000) that would otherwise have had to come from government-funding bodies ($AU135,000) was raised online via social-networking donations.

For all of the piracy prevention studios go through now days to prevent illegally downloading of a said film, Paramount is being the first studio to release a film simultaneously on DVD (May 19th)- And – BitTorrent (same day as the DVD). The DVD will include extras like alternative endings and other extras that one cannot download on BitTorrent.

Interesting move. The film in question is The Tunnel, directed by Carlo Ledesma and follows an investigation into a government cover-up leads to a network of abandoned train tunnels deep beneath the heart of Sydney. As a journalist and her crew hunt for the story it quickly becomes clear the story is hunting them. “From day one we’ve maintained that The Tunnel is not supporting or condoning piracy, but instead trying to incorporate a legitimate use of peer-to-peer in our distribution strategy internationally,” producer Enzo Tedeschi told TorrentFreak.

The film...

Well, well, score one for the little guys and a truly alternative system of funding and distribution.We've been keeping a close eye on Carlo Ledesma's The Tunnel in these pages for a number of reasons. First, because the film has been crowd financed with the producers selling individual frames of the film for a dollar each to raise finance, which is rather an interesting idea. Second, with the finance raised in such a fashion and no investors needing to recoup a large chunk of change, they proudly announced that they were going to release the film on Bit Torrent. Hell, everything ends up there anyway, so why not give something back to the supporters that way, right? And, third, the film has held our...

A while ago we let you know about Carlo Ledesma's movie The Tunnel, which he plans to upload to torrent sites to make it free to viewers. Well, the guy has done something right because he's actually landed distribution for the movie in the process of his unique scheme.

The news comes in from website Torrent Freak, which is reporting that in a little over two months' time The Tunnel will receive its world premiere.

Rather than a traditional theatrical release, the movie – which is set in abandoned real-life tunnels under Sydney, Australia – will make its debut online for free with BitTorrent. Simultaneously it will be released on physical DVD to be distributed by Hollywood giant Paramount Pictures.

Now that's pretty damned amazing if we do say so ourselves! Look for more on this one soon! For more information dig on the official The Tunnel website.

Synopsis

In 2007 the...

The crowd-funded thriller The Tunnel will be released on DVD by Transmission Films / Paramount Home Entertainment, at the same time as its free online release.

“We are thrilled to have these two forward-thinking distributors supporting The Tunnel in Australia. From the outset our intention was to make the film available to as many people as possible – their willingness to find a way to work alongside our online release will be a massive boost to that,” said writer/producer Enzo Tedeschi.

The Tunnel was directed by Carlo Ledesma. It was announced as a crowd-funded film that would be made available for free on online torrents.

“Our plan from the outset was to keep the online release exactly as we promised it. Essentially, the online release will work as a global word-of-mouth to build our audience and drive DVD sales,” Tedeschi told Encore. “From our point of view, the large amount of...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? The Tunnel Trailer Yes, it's like Rec. Get past that. What I like about this trailer is that it doesn't presuppose that "Gee, another movie where it's about 'found footage.

Here is an interesting film, The Tunnel is an Australian horror film which is ‘crowd funded’ meaning that through the Official Website the director Carlo Ledesma and film making team reached out to fans to help get this made. The film is the first project under the ’135K Project’. Not only that but the film is set to premiere to it’s audience in 2011 via torrent sites. Check the synopsis, one and trailer below.

Official Synopsis: In 2007 the New South Wales government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilise the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney’s St James Train Station. In 2008, chasing rumours of a government coverup and urban legends surrounding the sudden backflip, investigative journalist Natasha Warner led a crew of four into the underground labyrinth. They went down into the tunnels looking for a story – until the story found them. This is the film of their harrowing ordeal.

A new teaser trailer and a bit of artwork for The Tunnel have slid online, and if you don't recall what it is, gaze in awe as one filmmaker has decided to combat video piracy by giving his film away via torrent sites. Curious?

The Tunnel was directed by Carlo Ledesma. For more information dig on the official Tunnel website.

Synopsis

In 2007 the Nsw government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilise the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney’s St James Train Station.

In 2008, chasing rumours of a government coverup and urban legends surrounding the sudden backflip, investigative journalist Natasha Warner led a crew of four into the underground labyrinth.

They went down into the tunnels looking for a story – until the story found them.

This is the film of their harrowing ordeal. With unprecedented access to the recently declassified tapes they shot in the claustrophobic subway tunnels,...

Back in June, we alerted you to Carlo Ledesma's horror film The Tunnel . It's a "crowd funded" film, meaning Ledesma reached out - and continues to reach out - through an official site and asked interested viewers to "buy a frame" of the film, thus funding the project. Seems to be working as Ledesma has a new teaser trailer to show off. The Tunnel is debuting on torrent sites sometime next year. Explore the site. Check out the teaser...

Well, as far as gimmick films go, this is one of the more interesting. Below are the trailer and poster for the Australian film The Tunnel, about a news crew that travels underneath Sydney to investigate water resources. As you can imagine, shit goes wrong, although exactly what sort of shit that may be (zombies? ghosts? demons? vampires? midget albino cannibals?) is not revealed.

What makes the film interesting is that it's got a strong online viral campaign going, and it's completely fan-funded. Which on the surface is sometimes annoying -- a lot of people thought the pleas for money for the Nazi mooonbase movie Iron Sky smacked of opportunism, but with The Tunnel, they're going one step further -- they're releasing the film for free, via bittorrent.

This is actually a pretty awesome idea. If the movie sucks, who cares, you saw it for free. If it's anything more than that -- sweet!

The Sydney filmmaking team behind upcoming viral horror film The Tunnel are doing a very good job of keeping audiences excited for its free Bit Torrent release in early 2011, this week unveiling a new teaser poster, trailer and what seems to be the first clues in a wider online game related to the world of the film.

Eagle-eyed viewers should be able to spot an 'easter egg' hidden in the new trailer (which I won't spoil), and my own initial searches have revealed the rabbit hole goes deeper than you might think, in terms of setting up one of the film's characters. 

It's a basic start but already there are some cool surprises awaiting people who want to dig down into the world of The Tunnel.

You can check out the new teaser trailer below and also the new poster (left), which features the names of first 1000 people who bought frames in the crowd-funded project.

Click for Larger

A second, longer teaser trailer is available for Carlo Ledesma's The Tunnel. This film is currently being shot in Australia under an abandoned train station. In the trailer, several characters descend into the station and not only find a controversial story involving water storage, but a terror awaiting beneath.

This film made waves for using a unique form of distribution - bit torrents. Also, the film was financed through the sale of each individual frame for a dollar. Click on the poster left and see the first 1000 financial contributors listed in tiny lettering. Also, check out the second teaser for this independent horror production below.

The full synopsis for The Tunnel here:

"In 2007 the New South Wales government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilize the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney's St James Train Station.

In 2008, chasing rumours of a government coverup and...

The team behind the crowd-funded thriller The Tunnel held a screening in Sydney for the film’s new trailer and some behind the scenes footage.

Writer / Producer team Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, director, Carlo Ledesma, Zapruder’s Other Films’ Peter Thompson (executive producer) and Dlshs’ Ahmed Salama (producer / director of online and viral) discussed how the project has challenged release models by choosing torrents as the platform for its release, in an effort to reach out to the increasing online audience.

The film will be released online next year.