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The desire to blend reality and fiction in film predates the Found Footage genre by literal decades, with classics like The Legend of Boggy Creek and even the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre dipping their toes into documentary-inspired filmmaking long before in-universe-cameras became popular.

Of course, it was only after The Blair Witch Project that creators would realize both the creative and financial potential of making movies like this – and when it comes to lucrative Pov thrills, very few could compete with Oren Peli and his DIY Paranormal Activity franchise. For over a decade, these films dominated the box-office with formulaic yet consistently entertaining scares made on a budget, with their success allowing the programmer-turned-filmmaker to invest in other spooky projects. And while I’ve already covered Peli’s over-hated Area 51 on a previous edition of The Silver Lining, today we’ll be discussing one of his most unique...

Exclusive: Zurawski v Texas, the new documentary executive produced by Jennifer Lawrence, Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, earned two awards as the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival wrapped its 33rd edition.

The film, centering on women who filed suit against the state of Texas after its extremely restrictive abortion laws almost cost them their lives, won the Jury Prize for Best Feature at Hsdff, North America’s longest-running documentary festival. Zurawski v Texas, directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, also won the Hot Springs Matt DeCample Audience Choice Award for Best Feature.

Plaintiff Amanda Zurawski in ‘Zurawski v Texas’

“This urgent film sheds light on the inhumane and devastating consequences of Texas’s restrictive abortion laws,” the jury said of Zurawski v Texas. “By following the legal battles and intimate personal stories of several women denied essential healthcare, it powerfully and movingly highlights the vital importance of protecting women’s autonomy,...

The Legend of Boggy Creek. Cannibal Holocaust. Man Bites Dog. These are the usual suspects whenever someone brings up the origins of modern-day found footage. However, it was a long road full of cinematic experiments before these films would give rise to the movie that popularized the genre – The Blair Witch Project. After all, before Myrick and Sanchez’s film, most proto-found-footage productions were more interested in emulating documentaries and news footage than recreating amateur recordings that just happened to capture something creepy.

I say “most” because there is one notable exception. An infamous film so dedicated to its DIY presentation that many viewers were originally unaware that it was meant to be a film at all. Naturally, I’m referring to Dean Alioto’s iconic UFO Abduction (also known as The McPherson Tape), a misunderstood classic that I believe started all the familiar tropes of contemporary found footage over...

Exclusive: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival will host the world premiere of American Coup: Wilmington 1898, about a forgotten chapter in American history that saw a white supremacist mob terrorize Black residents of a North Carolina city, overthrowing an elected city government.

The film directed by Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein is among the highlights of the 33rd edition of Hsdff, the oldest all-documentary film festival in North America. Directors Richen and Lichtenstein and two of the film’s main participants are expected to attend the festival, which runs October 18-26 in the Arkansas resort town. [Scroll for the full lineup]

Hsdff, presented by Oaklawn, will kick off with Space Cowboy, directed by Marah Strauch and Bryce Leavitt, fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film tells the story of Joe Jennings, a man who has pulled off some of the most amazing skydiving stunts in cinema history, some that...

Director John Asher (Diamonds) is headed out into the woods to find Bigfoot, with Deadline announcing the upcoming Sasquatch horror movie in an exclusive report this week.

The site details the STX Entertainment and Citizen Skull Productions project, “In this latest addition to the bigfoot myth, a beast terrorizes a modern housing development in a small mountain town. The attacks lead to the town’s new sheriff fighting for her daughter’s life.”

Jordan Reid wrote the screenplay for Bigfoot.

[Related] The Grandaddy of Found Footage – ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’ 50 Years Later

Interesting to note, Deadline’s report mentions that John Asher is actually the grandson of E.M. Asher, an associate producer on the classic films Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931).

“Ever since the release of Jaws, moviegoers have been terrified of the water. Once they see Bigfoot, they’ll never go into the forest again,” Asher said in a statement to Deadline.

The further you look back on history, the more you realize that the separation of fact and fiction is a relatively recent phenomenon. For the longest time, there wasn’t much of a difference between storytellers and historians (just look at how many people still think the Trojan War was a real event), and while this skewed perception of reality can have devastating consequences in the modern interconnected world, I think there’s some wisdom to be found in extracting a dose of truth from obvious hoaxes.

When it comes to media, one of the most enduring examples of this is Found Footage cinema, a whole genre that relies on our willingness to accept that what we see on-screen is real even if we don’t actually believe in ghosts, demons and witches. This decidedly modern form of filmmaking may have been popularized in the digital age, but the seeds...

It was only a matter of time before we got a found footage horror film about Ohio’s cryptid oddity, Loveland’s Frogman (that’s not sarcastic; I’ve seen far stranger indie horror concepts). Anthony Cousins’ search for a slimy urban legend (shot almost exclusively on Hi-8), aptly titled Frogman, is a weirdo treat for fans of V/H/S/94‘s “Storm Drain” segment featuring Raatma and other handheld shaky-specials spawned from The Blair Witch Project inspirations. Shades of Willow Creek chase a mythical creature through dense woodland territories as our view bobbles around much like found footage diehards are used to, which won’t win over any motion-sick doubters of the subgenre — even with a third act that doesn’t shy away from noteworthy Frogman effects and an unrelenting sensation of “going there.”

We follow irrelevant filmmaker Dallas Kyle (Nathan Tymoshuk), whose claim to fame is a 1999 family...

The beginning of Exists echoes those many other horror films set in the deep woods. Hapless folks encounter an unusual threat, likely after trespassing or offending the locals. And as this well-used formula commands, the characters then die in gruesome fashion. Eduardo Sánchez’s 2014 film is, admittedly, derivative of most body-count horrors with rural backdrops, yet it contains at least one novelty to set it apart: a Bigfoot. Hardly five minutes into this film and the young cast hits something on the road. As they assess the damage to their car and figure out what they struck, the characters get the sinking feeling that they are being watched from the nearby woods. Someone finally states the obvious: “That wasn’t no deer, bro.”

On average, found-footage horror films delay their strangeness in an effort to establish a semblance of normalcy. Make everything hypernormal and deliberately tedious so that the bizarre bits are more persuasive.

Welcome back to Dead Time. I hope you left a light on for me because this month, we’re on the hunt for the Michigan Dogman and other cryptids that might be lurking in the darkness. I talked to Shetan Noir, a cryptozoologist, Michigan based author, journalist, and paranormal researcher about her career, as well as her personal experience with cryptid sightings.

Shetan is the Lead Investigator for the Michigan chapter of the North American Dogman Project and she runs the paranormal investigation team for the Michigan Center for Unexplained Events and Phenomenon. Her fascination began with lake monsters at an early age when she first learned about the Loch Ness monster, then heard reports of lake monsters in her own state of Michigan. Her research has since grown to include Michigan’s own Dogman and Nain Rouge, Bigfoot and ghost hunting. Her books include The Hounds Tooth Cookbook, Bone Arfp’etit!

How far does a bit have to go before it stops being a bit? It's been conventional wisdom that the Sasquatch is not nor has never been a living creature, similar to the dozens of other fellow cryptids that have followed in its wake. Yet belief in the Sasquatch continues to this day, and while a portion of that belief can be chalked up to urban legends, mental illness, and the like, there seem to be as many or more people who perpetuate belief in Bigfoot simply because they enjoy the idea. In other words, it's a bit, but they're committed to it.

"Committed to the bit" perfectly describes the latest feature from The Zellner Brothers (David and Nathan) entitled "Sasquatch Sunset." The film is a 90-minute-long slice-of-life, documentary-style collection of footage that follows the daily trials and tribulations of an average Sasquatch family. There's no dialogue, just a collection of grunts,...

Found footage classic The Legend of Boggy Creek introduced us to the “Fouke Monster” way back in 1972 – the film celebrated its 50th anniversary just last year – and now BayView Entertainment is taking us back to Boggy Creek with the brand new “Boggy Creek: The Series.”

Retromedia Entertainment through BayView Entertainment have released Boggy Creek: The Series on DVD (Region Free) in the USA, and you can watch the trailer below.

“Head to the legendary backwoods of Boggy Creek, Arkansas in the complete First Season of Boggy Creek: The Series, from Henrique Couto and Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer, Fred Olen Ray. Join the American Yeti Project as they investigate the strange events surround the spooky swamp and its unique denizens.

“You’ll encounter the witch of Boggy Creek (Scream Queen Brinke Stevens), the Scarecrow of Boggy Creek, and the fabled Bigfoot monster itself. Narrated by Eric Roberts.”

McKenzie Phillips also stars in Boggy Creek: The Series.

In our jaded present, it’s hard to imagine that there was once a time when film audiences took the “based on a true story” claim seriously. At this point, we’re all fully aware that artists sometimes have to embellish the truth in order to prove a point – and sometimes simply to entertain. In fact, the very act of creating a faux-reality to tell a story has since evolved into an artform in and of itself. While Ruggero Deodato is often credited with having invented Found Footage with 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust, the truth is that the genre and its current off-shoots have been slowly creeping into existence since the early days of cinema.

Pioneers like Benjamin Christensen (1922’s Häxan) and surrealist Luis Buñuel (1933’s Land Without Bread) were already experimenting with the idea of combining fact and fiction in convincing pseudo-documentaries, and that’s not even mentioning Orson Welles...

A city couple relocating to a home in the forest discover a commune on the neighbouring land is home to a cult of sasquatch worshippers harbouring sinister secrets.

Directed and co-written by Jon Garcia, Summoning the Spirit is a strange beast: part meditative melodrama reflecting upon the effects of grief on a relationship, and part solemn eco-horror creature-feature with a strong message about the impact of mankind’s meddling on nature. At the outset it appears to be an intriguing blend of Midsommar meets the likes of Willow Creek, Exists, or The Legend Of Boggy Creek, but to label it as such isn’t fair. While there are parallels with Midsommar – a grieving protagonist struggles through the aftermath of unspeakable loss while being slowly drawn into the ritualistic practices of a strange cult – Garcia’s film is very much its own thing, with its own things to say. ...

If there is one perpetually underappreciated horror monster out there, it’s Bigfoot. America’s most famous and recognizable cryptid has a wealth of films and literature devoted to it – but the elusive, hairy beast has rarely found itself in the horror spotlight among its brethren such as the vampire and werewolf.

Legends and myths of Bigfoot or Bigfoot-esque creatures span centuries and continents. Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunk Ape, and more all come to fall under the Bigfoot banner. Many states and regions across the country have their own version of the ape-like figure. Entire communities and groups of people can be found dedicated to tracking down and proving Bigfoot exists. The legend also comes with a decent score of individuals looking for a bit of attention by concocting pranks, hoaxes, and staging sighting.

The ongoing fascination with Bigfoot is easy to understand. It taps into our collective obsession with the unknown and the mysterious.

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By Tim McGlynn

During the 1970s, small distribution companies such as Sunn Classic Pictures, began to carve out a niche in the film industry by concentrating on low budget family-oriented movies. With the MPAA rating system firmly in place, moms and dads needed to search for G-rated titles they knew would be suitable for younger audiences. Aside from Disney features, it was often difficult to find such films.

Documentaries with educationally sound titles such as Cougar Country, In Search of Noah’s Ark and The Outer Space Connection played matinees at theaters across the country. Usually shot in 16mm and sometimes a tad boring, these movies were a safe destination for parents looking to drop the kids off for a couple of hours.

If any of these children happened to be unloaded at a local cinema playing The Legend of Boggy Creek, they...

Stars: Anna Shields, Rachel Finninger, Grant Schumacher, Hannah McKechnie, Catharine Daddario, Dylan Grunn, Peter Stray, Thomas Brazzle, Kyrie Ellison, Rick Montgomery Jr. | Written by Anna Shields | Directed by Bruce Wemple

It’s maybe a little surprising that there isn’t actually that many horror movies centered around the legend of Bigfoot. The most well known is perhaps the 1972 cult fake documentary horror The Legend of Boggy Creek, which is much more entertaining than you might expect. The Blair Witch Project director Eduardo Sanchez created my favourite Bigfoot film with the found-footage-style movie Exists in 2014. So I am always happy to see a new movie based on the legendary ‘creature’.

In Monstrous we see a young woman, Sylvia (Anna Shields – who also wrote the movie) searching for her friend who has gone missing in an area that is known for its Bigfoot sightings. Her search though leads her to find things other than the monster.

In today's Horror Highlights: Archie Comics heads to ComiXology Unlimited, a look at the art of Becky Doyon, details on the Nightmares Film Festival, and info on the audio drama At Your Peril:

Archie Comics to Release Day-and-Date on ComiXology Unlimited: "Archie Comics, home to some of pop culture's most beloved characters, is expanding its availability on comiXology, the leading digital comics service. Starting September 23, with the publication of Sabrina: Something Wicked #3, comiXology will release new titles on comiXology Unlimited the same day they are available in print. The new initiative marks the first time a major U.S. publisher has made content available day-and-date with the subscription-based streaming service. ComiXology Unlimited users can now read the full Archie library including the critically acclaimed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Afterlife With Archie, Jughead’s Time Police, and tie-ins to the smash hit CW series, Riverdale.

Members of comiXology Unlimited can access over 25,000 comics,...

A new take on a legendary creature, Momo: The Missouri Monster is coming to DVD and VOD on September 20th, and ahead of its release, we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers.

Below, you can watch hunters encounter "the smell of death" in our exclusive clip from Momo: The Missouri Monster, and we also have the official press release with additional details:

Previous Press Release: "Small Town Monsters has announced the September 20th DVD and VOD release of Seth Breedlove's docudrama Momo: The Missouri Monster. The latest title to crawl forth from the production powerhouse behind last year's best-selling documentary On the Trail of Bigfoot, Momo: The Missouri Monster seeks to tell the true and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster. The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of Star Hill, near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of...

Small Town Monsters has announced the September 20th DVD and VOD release of Seth Breedlove’s docudrama Momo: The Missouri Monster. The latest title to crawl forth from the production powerhouse behind last year’s best-selling documentary On the Trail of Bigfoot, Momo: The Missouri Monster seeks to tell the true, and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster. The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of Star Hill, near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of 1972 where it was spotted by terrified citizens for weeks. The film will be available nationwide on DVD, as well as Vimeo OnDemand, Amazon Instant Video, and Vidi Space.

The case gained national media attention during the ’70s and remains one of the largest tourist draws for the tiny town on the banks of the Mississippi River. The latest release from Small Town Monsters and director Seth Breedlove, Momo: The Missouri...

Stars: Elizabeth Saint, Cliff Barackman, Janet Jay, Sara Heddleston, James Bobo Fay, Lyle Blackburn, Adam Duggan, Mark Matzke, Ronald Breedlove, William Nance, Ken Rose, Grayden Nance, Amy Davies, Victoria Rose, Sue Matzke | Written by Seth Breedlove, Mark Matzke, Jason Utes | Directed by Seth Breedlove

At the very least Momo (and that’s what I’ll call the movie for the rest of this piece) is a unique take on a monster movie. In the Summer of 1972 Louisiana, Missouri was terrorized by a big-foot-like creature named Momo. This movie tells that story in a part documentary part fake low budget monster movie from 1975. It’s an interesting take on this style and one that works surprisingly well.

I am actually a fan of all the styles and genres shown here. I love a good documentary on some mysterious creature or monster that has never really been seen properly by anyone. I...

At the time of writing this article, Charles B. Pierce’s 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek is not yet available on Blu-ray, but that will soon change thanks to a restoration that the George Eastman Museum is currently working on. Observer-Reporter brought the news to our attention earlier this year, teasing a 4K restoration that’ll arrive in theaters and […]...

In 1946, the sleepy Texas town of Texarkana was rocked by a string of eight violent assaults, five of them resulting in murder. These crimes were later dubbed the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, named after the late-night timing of the attacks, and the unknown perpetrator become known as the “Phantom Killer.” It was truly a horrific crime and it’s no surprise that it’s one that would attract exploitation filmmakers. Filmmakers like Texarkana resident Charles B. Pierce.

Charles B. Pierce was, in every way, a product of gonzo drive-in exploitation. In the early ’70s, he rocked the grindhouse world with The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), an absurd docudrama about a killer Sasquatch tormenting a sleepy village in Arkansas. It was his first true hit, successful enough to spawn a wave of Sasquatch-ploitation (another topic for another time), and kick-start his career. He’d go on to make a few more films in the years that followed,...

Every week, we spotlight a kill that we just can’t get enough of. This is Kill of the Week. Countless horror movies about Bigfoot have been released over the years, from 1972’s The Legend of Boggy Creek to more recent films like Exists. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dark cloud hanging over the whole damn […]...

In honor of Victor Crowley’s surprise return to Honey Island Swamp, we figured we’d delve into an altogether different kind of urban legend for this week’s DC Shudder Pick of the Week! Gear up, kids! It’s time to spin the… Continue Reading →

The post DC’s Shudder Pick of the Weekend – The Legend of Boggy Creek appeared first on Dread Central.

MidWest WeirdFest has today announced its full 2017 program. The inaugural film festival – a cinematic celebration of of all things fantastic, frightening, offbeat, and just plain weird – will take place March 3-5, 2017 at the Micon Cinemas Downtown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Says festival founder and director Dean Bertram:

MidWest WeirdFest’s programmers have put together a world class program of genre and underground cinema. From some of the freshest horror and sci-fi feature films on the fest circuit today, through underground oddities to fascinating and frightening documentaries. There’s also three short film blocks, including a hilarious program curated by Uwec graduates Andrew Swant and the Found Footage Festival’s Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher.

Some of the festival’s highlights include:

Friday FrightNight: Three terrifying horror feature films. Starting with the festival’s spectacular opening night film, the high-octane and high body count Happy Hunting. Followed by the blood drenched Tonight She Comes.

Jim Knipfel Oct 17, 2018

After all these years, Al Adamson’s cult classic Dracula vs. Frankenstein still doesn’t make a damn lick of sense!

Growing up in Wisconsin in the early '70s, I would get home from school, drop my bag, park myself in front of the TV and tune in The Early Show. Every weekday between three and five-thirty, a local station aired sometimes shockingly uncut films, and it was there my cinematic education began. I don’t know who was programming The Early Show, but I would like to shake his hand. The focus was decidedly on genre films,especially horror and recent drive-in hits. Along with scattered Westerns, war movies and mysteries, there were regular week-long Toho and Hammer fests, without a single stupid musical or romantic comedy tossed in to muck things up.

It was through The Early Show that I was introduced to Roger Corman,...

Jim Knipfel Oct 17, 2018

After all these years, Al Adamson’s cult classic Dracula vs. Frankenstein still doesn’t make a damn lick of sense!

Growing up in Wisconsin in the early '70s, I would get home from school, drop my bag, park myself in front of the TV and tune in The Early Show. Every weekday between three and five-thirty, a local station aired sometimes shockingly uncut films, and it was there my cinematic education began. I don’t know who was programming The Early Show, but I would like to shake his hand. The focus was decidedly on genre films,especially horror and recent drive-in hits. Along with scattered Westerns, war movies and mysteries, there were regular week-long Toho and Hammer fests, without a single stupid musical or romantic comedy tossed in to muck things up.

It was through The Early Show that I was introduced to Roger Corman,...

One week a month, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: In honor of the new sequel to the modern classic The Blair Witch Project, we look back at some of our favorite found-footage horror films.

The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1972)

Though not precisely found-footage, the fact-or-fiction classic The Legend Of Boggy Creek is indisputably one of the granddaddies of the form. (Daniel Myrick, co-creator of The Blair Witch Project, cited it as a major influence.) Directed and independently financed by former ad man Charles B. Pierce, the movie plays as a more-or-less straight documentary, and to an extent it is one: Pierce got residents of Fouke, Arkansas, to recreate their own actual encounters with the so-called “Fouke Monster,” a Sasquatch-like creature said to lurk in the vast swamplands outside of town. Roughly half the cast play themselves, whereas the ...

Boggy Creek Bigfoot Documentary Begins Production

The first documentary feature film to tackle the true story behind the classic horror film, The Legend of Boggy Creek, is about to begin production in southern Arkansas. The film is titled Boggy Creek Monster and will focus on the history of Bigfoot sightings in and around the community of Fouke. Delving into both the …

Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...

West Wing Studios

When Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin claimed to have shot footage of the creature known as Bigfoot in 1967, they unwittingly inspired a clutch of dirt-cheap docudramas where the line between fact and fiction was kept deliberately blurry. One of the most popular was Charles B Pierce’s The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1972), which purported to be an investigation into monster sightings in Arkansas swamp country.

Years later, filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, searching for a story they could film cheaply and quickly, took inspiration from those movies to create The Blair Witch Project. They may also have been familiar with the Mondo Cane school of exploitation documentaries – where events were staged or manipulated – a technique that also inspired Cannibal Holocaust (1980).

Then there was Man Bites Dog (1992), where a film crew follows a killer around Brussels as he randomly murders people. The film ends with a shot...

The new horror film Valley of the Sasquatch is gearing up for its film festival run and soon to be announced world premiere. To celebrate this occasion, the filmmakers are unveiling the official poster for the creature feature. The poster comes from award-winning artist Paul Shipper (Bad Milo) and evokes the beautiful yet mysterious feel of classic Bigfoot posters such as The Legend of Boggy Creek andCreature from Black Lake.

Valley of the … Continue reading →

Horrornews.net...

[Continued from Part 2]

Take three of why I wanted to write about Bigfoot: Bigfoot is an avatar of extra-human nature.

That is to say in the last two parts, I fibbed a bit for simplicity’s sake. Claiming Bigfoot has no cultural baggage is both true and false; he has no mythology and no permanent being, yet he does stand in for something in a thematic sense. He is unknowable, yes, malleable as well, but also an idea made somewhat more concrete- giving legs to a concept in order to express the abstract through a story. Bigfoot, in all his hairy glory, continually and perpetually represents an idea of “nature” (a term I take issue with, but for simplicity’s sake will use to mean all existence outside of that which is explicitly “human” or anthropocentric). He is, much like Swamp Thing, an avatar of the earth and of life. There is no...

Chicago – The legend of Bigfoot, the half ape and half human that had its heyday in the 1970s, is kept alive gratefully in the new film “Willow Creek,” directed by comedian and filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait. The stand-up comic icon was in Chicago last week to present his film at the 2014 Chicago Critics Film Festival.

“Willow Creek” is done in the style of “found video footage,” and involves a couple (Bryce Johnson and Alexis Gilmore) who are seeking the remote area in California where the famous film of Bigfoot was shot in 1967 by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. As events surrounding their journey get stranger and stranger, the pair find that they bit off more than they can chew.

Bobcat Goldthwait Mugs it Up at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, May 14th, 2014

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The horror comedy theme is par for the filmmaking course of Bobcat Goldthwait.

Considering they're the best-known cryptids in history, the humanoids known variously as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman and so forth don't get much respect in modern cinema. While thousands of hours of film and video have been dedicated to these elusive man-beasts, there's something about the big dude that makes it nearly impossible for filmmakers to take him seriously, or even tell a semi-competent story about him. It's certainly not for a lack of trying; there have been nearly a hundred Bigfoot and Yeti movies released since the '50s. Old-fashioned giant monster romps, found-footage and slasher entries, feel-good family dramas, romantic comedies... even porno flicks. So why are nearly all of them so damn goofy? Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy these insane interpretations; in fact, the crazier they get, the more I dig 'em. So to honor this dubious cinematic legacy, here are two dozen of...

It claimed its cult-like status before it was released in theaters, and was the talk of the fest much like Reservoir Dogs and Clerks were before them. Found footage The Blair Witch Project not only redefined the genre, but it quickly became part of cinematic and festival history. And speaking of legends, Eduardo Sanchez decided to follow a mythic one for his latest endeavor. Following the trails of sasquatch (and influenced by 1972′s The Legend of Boggy Creek), this has zero to do with the touring monster truck of the same name. The filmmaker was recently back at the fest for his contribution to S-vhs (V/H/S 2) and recent promo art from the Afm means the shot in April Exists looks ready to go.

Gist: Scripted by Jamie Nash, this is about a group of friends who venture into the remote Texas woods for a party weekend find themselves stalked by Bigfoot.

Countless television shows have proven that the supernatural sells, but so does the unknown. For three seasons now, Cliff Barackman, Ranae Holland, and their team have been looking for evidence of Bigfoot a.k.a. Sasquatch. In Finding Bigfoot, the team investigates tips it is given by embarking on adventures to try and prove that this species does indeed exist. But trying to prove something many believe to be the world’s most elaborate hoax isn’t an easy gig.

“Unfortunately when people think of Bigfoot, sometimes there’s a kneejerk response to the National Enquirer and that pop culture...

Chicago – At its core, “The Burning” is quite clearly an attempt to cash in on the already-waning slasher trend inspired by “Friday the 13th” but it’s a much better film than most of the creatively barren genre. It joins “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” as the latest entries in the increasingly spectacular Scream Factory line of Blu-rays. Both are worth a look.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

“The Burning” plays off the “Cropsey” legend (so brilliantly detailed in the documentary of the same name) of a burned figure in the woods coming back to enact revenge on the kids stupid enough to linger in them. It’s essentially a standard slasher flick (lots of P.O.V. with creepy music, T&A, future stars like Jason Alexander and Fisher Stevens) but there’s a darker tone here, punctuated by the intense violence and makeup effects from the great Tom Savini. It’s before...

Home Invasion is a weekly post every Tuesday which shows you what is being released on Blu-Ray & DVD today! We scoured through Amazon to bring you everything you might be interested in. Our Picks of the Week are releases that we are looking forward to checking out, have reviewed and/or were are Picks of the Week on the Dtb Podcast. All descriptions are courtesy of Amazon.com unless noted otherwise. If you are thinking about purchasing any of these items, by clicking via the links provided, you are supporting Dtb. Thank you!

This Tuesday is packed! Warner Brothers has issued some re-releases in steelbook form today as well as some other quality releases today from Severin Films, Impulse Films, Vinegar Syndrome and more.

Price:

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Scream Factory will be releasing Blu-ray versions of The Burning and The Town That Dreaded Sundown next week, and have provided us with four clips from each film.

The Burning Collector’s Edition Blu-ray™ + DVD Combo Pack: “Gather around the campfire to die! A group of summer camp pranksters get the scare of their lives when they target the camp’s creepy caretaker…and he takes bloody revenge! “Gruesome” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “stomach-churning” (Boxoffice), this terrifying tale is “a brilliant slasher flick [and] gory as hell” (slasherpool.com)!

After a cruel joke goes awry, severely burning him and subjecting him to five years of intensive, unsuccessful skin graft treatments, Cropsy (Lou David) is back at camp…and ready to wreak havoc on those who scarred him! With his hedge clippers in hand, he terrorizes the camp and systematically mutilates each victim. Can a few courageous campers save themselves and destroy...

 

"Based on actual events" is a phrase you'll hear in a lot of movie trailers and see emblazoned across endless horror movie posters, but the truth about the "truth" is this: it's bullshit. For example, both Psycho's Norman Bates and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface claim to be "loosely based" on the notorious monster known as Ed Gein. So while it's probably true that the writers of both stories used their knowledge of Ed Gein to create a creepy villain, it's not like either film is a re-telling of the actual Ed Gein story. (For that you'll want to check out 1974's Deranged.)

  And most "based on actual events" horror movies lack even the tangential connection that Psycho and Chainsaw do: someone once heard about a terrible exorcism gone wrong in South America, and voila: instant "fact-based" horror movie. That's not to say the statement is outright marketing b.

The headline pretty much says it all. Wanna know what's in store for you when you pick up the long awaited releases of The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Burning? Then read on!

From the Press Release

Disfigured and hooded mad killers are on the loose this spring as Scream Factory™ invites loyal fans and collectors to embark on a nostalgic trip filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and terror! On May 21, 2013, the gory summer camp slasher The Burning created and produced by Harvey Weinstein and featuring Fisher Stevens (The Cove), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Holly Hunter (The Piano) in their early film roles and Charles B. Pierce’s long sought-after The Town That Dreaded Sundown starring Oscar®-winner Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells ("Gilligan's Island") arrive on home entertainment shelves everywhere from Shout! Factory.

Both movies debut for the first time on Blu-ray™. The Burning will be presented as a...

Scream Factory will release a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of The Town That Dreaded Sundown on May 21st. The official list of bonus features have just been released and it has been confirmed that a copy of Charles B. Pierce’s The Evictors will be included.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown Blu-ray™ + DVD Combo Pack: “Don’t get caught in this town after sundown! When two young lovers are savagely beaten and tortured on a back country road in Texarkana, local police are baffled. Three weeks later, two more people are slain in a similar setting and Deputy Norman Ramsey fears a pattern might be developing. Texas Ranger J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson, The Wild Bunch) is brought in to help. The two officers must find “the Phantom Killer” before he can kill again. Also starring Andrew Prine (Grizzly) and Dawn Wells (Gilligan’s Island), directed by Charles B. Pierce...

Oh, Scream Factory. You appeal to us like a Succubus would to the world's horniest man. Get set for your first look at the upcoming releases of The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Burning.

Then wipe the drool off of your keyboard.

From the Press Release

Disfigured and hooded mad killers are on the loose this spring as Scream Factory™ invites loyal fans and collectors to embark on a nostalgic trip filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and terror! On May 21, 2013, the gory summer camp slasher The Burning created and produced by Harvey Weinstein and featuring Fisher Stevens (The Cove), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Holly Hunter (The Piano) in their early film roles and Charles B. Pierce’s long sought-after The Town That Dreaded Sundown starring Oscar®-winner Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells ("Gilligan's Island") arrive on home entertainment shelves everywhere from Shout! Factory.

Both movies debut for the first time...

Scream Factory has officially announced the Blu-ray/DVD Collector’s Editions of The Burning and The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Continue reading for the official cover art, a preliminary list of bonus features, and additional release details:

“Disfigured and hooded mad killers are on the loose this spring as Scream Factory™ invites loyal fans and collectors to embark on a nostalgic trip filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and terror! On May 21, 2013, the gory summer camp slasher The Burning created and produced by Harvey Weinstein and features Fisher Stevens (The Cove), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Holly Hunter (The Piano) in their early film roles and Charles B. Pierce’s long sought-after The Town That Dreaded Sundown starring Oscar®-winner Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells (Gilligan’s Island) , arrive on home entertainment shelves everywhere from Shout! Factory.

Both movies debut for the first time on Blu-ray™. The Burning will be presented as a...

Remy: Hey man, I found this old unmarked VHS under my grandad’s TV last week and was wondering if you wanted to watch it? Who knows what it could be!

Nato: Sure Remy, what’s the worst that can happen!

*20 minutes later*

Nato: Did we just watch a sex tape of your grandparents doing it?

Remy: Jesus Christ, that may be the most terrifying found footage I have ever seen, I am so sorry…

Nato: What the hell made you pick that random video of all things to show me!?

Remy: Well, it seems to be “working” for horror movies, and you wanted to talk about the found footage horror movement this week, so I thought this could make a cheesy introduction displaying the proverbial gamble that is found footage horror?

Nato: Well, now that you put it like that…wait…why didn’t we ever turn it off?...

In a 1978 profile in Mediascene magazine it was said that the artist Ralph McQuarrie’s life “can be clearly divided into two distinct sections: before Star Wars, he was an industrious, skilled, virtually unknown technical illustrator; after Star Wars, he became the most sought after Production Illustrator ever to work in films.”

McQuarrie, who died last March at the age of 82, was beloved as the man who created the look of Star Wars. His New York Times obituary called him the artist who “helped bring Star Wars to life.” A Montana farm boy, who became a Korean War veteran (he survived a bullet in the head), then became a technical illustrator for Boeing and an animator for CBS’s coverage of the Apollo space program in the 1960s, McQuarrie was also, in the early 70s, a movie poster artist. His poster work seems to have been done mostly, if not exclusively,...

By David Savage

One of the most idiosyncratic and inventive voices of genre filmmaking to emerge in the 1970s was Jeff Lieberman (born 1947), whose three best known films, Squirm (1976) Blue Sunshine (1978) and Just Before Dawn (1981) have become classics of horror and sci-fi. Cited as an influence on such directors as Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino (the latter lists Squirm as an essential viewing if he’s to take you seriously), Lieberman’s filmmaking captures the low-budget resourcefulness of Roger Corman and combines it with a singular point of view -- one that seems both quirky and at times, deliriously demented.

Here at Cinema Retro, these are exactly the types of directors we enjoy tipping our hat to. So I’m excited to announce that I’ve organized a tribute to Lieberman built around these three films with the generous participation and hosting of Anthology Film Archives in New York City,...

Fans of the horror genre and its subgenres seem to be pretty familiar with independent cinema. From companies like Troma to homegrown efforts like Wicked Pixel Cinema, they will tell you that getting a film made is tough but finding distribution can be even worse.

An interesting story came over in my news feed about an ex-Groupon executive starting a Groupon-esque online distribution site called, Prescreen. Prescreen basically puts a movie up for a day and offers you to buy the film for a 60 day rental for a low price. Today’s film just happens to be Boggy Creek, the film based on the 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek. Boggy Creek saw a DVD & Blu-Ray Release last month, but as it stands, I don’t believe it is available via Netflix or Amazon to stream. $4 isn’t a bad price to make less mainstream films available. This is in...

Blair Witch co-director Eduardo Sanchez is to direct a three part project about the man, the myth and, indeed, the legend that is Bigfoot.

The first in the trilogy will be called ‘Exists’ and follows a group of pretty twentysomethings on trip to a cabin deep in the wooded wildernes (have they never seen Cabin Fever?!). The gang are then hunted by the mythological creature…and that’s about as much as we know!

Interestingly Weta Workshop are working on the film to create the monster, with Brian Steele of Hellboy, Predators and Underworld trilogy fame; so there’s some hope that it won’t be a CGI’d affair for once. Sanchez has said: “We all remember the terror of watching such classics as ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek,’ and I look forward to making Bigfoot scary again.” Us too Mr Sanchez, us too.

Harry and the Henderson’s anyone?...

A new film is on the way from one half of the directing team that brought us the still terrifying little flick The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sanchez, and we can't wait to get lost in the woods again!

According to Variety, Haxan Films and Amber Entertainment are looking for Bigfoot, setting an October start date for lensing Exists with The Blair Witch Project director Eduardo Sanchez to helm.

Exists, written by Jamie Nash and Sanchez, follows a group of twentysomethings who take a trip to a cabin deep in the wooded wilderness and are methodically hunted by a Bigfoot-like beast.

"The film is the first in a trilogy exploring and reinventing the Bigfoot myth," Sanchez said. "We all remember the terror of watching such classics as 'The Legend of Boggy Creek,' and I look forward to making Bigfoot scary again."

Robin Cowie, Gregg Hale and Andy Jenkins...