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There’s been an exciting influx of female transformation horror films in recent years, such as The First Omen, Smile 2, The Substance, and Titane. All these movies depict harrowing rebirths, but there are also often transferences of power that allow these characters to penetrate worlds that would otherwise be impossible for them. Animale gets to the kernel of this idea through a revelatory body horror story that puts the “bull” in bullseye. Body horror, in particular, is such a potent subgenre, especially when it has something deeper to say and is set in a unique realm, rather than purely celebrating gore and grossness. French filmmaker Emma Benestan creates a film that’s savage, raw, and such a breath of fresh air in what’s become an increasingly crowded corner of horror.

Animale, in many respects, resembles a folktale fantasy horror film that’s as much an allegory as it is a genuine nightmare.

Spoopy Season is upon us, dear readers, and any cineaste worth their weight in bone matter is likely scouring the world's many streaming services looking for the best fright flicks available. Most casual horror fans may be content to idly re-watch well-trodden classics like "Halloween," while more enterprising gorehounds will be studiously studying the carefully curated films on Shudder. The jaded, more experienced fright fans, however, will require stronger coffee to get their fear fix, and those brave souls may dive face-first into the overstuffed trough of Night Flight or Eternal Family, looking for oddities that the average soul cannot stand. Are you going to watch a gentle film like "Hocus Pocus" this October, or are you the type to try out "Bloody Muscle Bodybuilder in Hell?"

We can say for sure that actor Kevin Bacon, a great actor with impeccable taste, is an aficionado of the genre and likes...

As we’re well into October, I’m sure plenty of you have already watched more than a few horror movies (as if you need an excuse), but it’s always fun to see what other folks recommend for the spooky season. Kevin Bacon, who I believe has appeared in a few horror movies, took to Instagram to share a list of twenty of his personal favourites.

Audition Don’t Look Now One Cut of the Dead Dawn of the Dead (1978) Shaun of the Dead 28 Days Later Get Out A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night Let The Right One In X Pearl MaXXXine The Witch The Love Witch The Blair Witch Project The Descent Slither Midsommar Martyrs Hereditary Smile Stir of Echoes

A quality list, and as you can see, Bacon appears in a few of them. Bacon’s most recent horror movie was MaXXXine, which appears on the list alongside X and Pearl.

Everyone’s got horror on the mind as we inch closer to Halloween, and that list of “everyone” most definitely includes Kevin Bacon, who has damn sure made his mark on the horror genre over the years. From appearing in the original Friday the 13th to starring in this year’s MaXXXine, Bacon’s horror pedigree is strong – and he’s a genre fan through and through.

Bacon notes in one of the bonus features for MaXXXine, “I’m a huge horror film fan.” And he’s building on that statement over on Twitter today, sharing some of his personal favorites.

“I love October because it’s all about apples and leaves changing and pumpkins, but it’s also about horror movies,” he begins the video. “So here are 20 of my favorite horror movies in no particular order.” The list naturally includes some films the Bacon family has appeared in,...

As someone who (depending on how charitable you’re feeling) could be described as either a tad deferential, perhaps too meek for their own good, or downright obsequious, 2022’s Speak No Evil went very close to the bone.

You see, I’m the type of person whose default state of being is “reflexively apologetic” — often begging forgiveness for the sin of daring to exist in somebody else’s periphery — and I have a tendency to blurt out the word “sorry” like it’s a nervous tic. It doesn’t matter if I’m clearly the aggrieved party in a situation; assuming any & all blame just seems like the done thing.

I really am that conflict-averse, and will bend over backwards to placate others if I think it will minimize the risk of me being exposed to the mildest of disagreements. Which I am assured is a very attractive quality by...

If you're a horror fan, you're familiar with Blumhouse Productions (cited as Blumhouse from here out). Even if you're not a horror fan, you've probably watched a Blumhouse film without knowing it ("Whiplash?" "Jem and the Holograms?" "Tooth Fairy?"). Jason Blum's nightmare factory is synonymous with today's mainstream horror pillars, securing the rights to everything from "Halloween" to "The Exorcist" and beyond. Indeed, it's impossible to banter about our contemporary horror era without acknowledging how prevalent and prodigious Blumhouse has become — so why does it feel like it's ghosting us this year?

Blumhouse decimated last year's horror movie market. In 2023, Blum's juggernaut scared up nearly $800 million worldwide in box office totals. Emma Tammi's video game adaptation "Five Nights at Freddy's" boasted a high score of $297 million on a $20 million budget — one of nine films released by Blumhouse. Now, there's no metric for reporting for streaming titles like...

Mike Flanagan knows how to get under our skin. The horror auteur gravitates toward themes that deal with generational trauma and cyclical grief, entwined with supernatural manifestations of such visceral emotions. His Netflix horror hits offer a variety of scares: series like "Midnight Mass" mix religion-tinted bouts of vampirism with acute human loss, while his rendition of "The Fall of the House of Usher" maps the disintegration of a generational legacy marked with greed, betrayal, and pain. Apart from helming effective horror films like "Hush" and "Oculus," Flanagan has also adapted seminal literary works, including Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep" and "Gerald's Game," which the director has invested with inimitable depth.

As someone so well-versed with the inner machinations of the genre, is Flanagan easily spooked? Maybe not anymore, but horror movies "scared [him] too much" as a child, until he came to appreciate the terrifying ability of the written word...

Hugh Grant has been doing a lot to dismantle his dashingly disheveled ’90s rom-com image in the past 15 years or more, but Heretic might be the film to blow it all to kingdom come. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, a key part of the creative team behind the thoughtfully unnerving A Quiet Place franchise, Heretic is a genuinely different kind of horror, one that uses conventions from all across the genre — from the old dark house movie to the straight-up slasher flick — and puts them in the service of a playful script that makes some seriously subversive comments about the world today.

Sporting Jeffrey Dahmer specs and a cardigan he has described offscreen as “wanky,” Grant plays the seemingly genial Mr. Reed. But before we get to his lived-in but oddly forbidding cottage, we meet the film’s leading ladies: Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister...

Someone is emerging from early (filmmaker) retirement, and we might have Cannes topper Thierry Frémaux to thank for it. After a cool volunteer job as the head of the Un Certain Regard jury this summer, Xavier Dolan‘s creative spark was reignited. He has dusted off a project he wrote before the pandemic and is now putting the finishing touches on what will be his ninth feature film—a venture into the horror genre. It’s worth noting that Dolan had a small role in Pascal Laugier’s gore-filled Martyrs before debuting as a director with I Killed My Mother in 2009. This new energy also came ab out from a trio of projects that Dolan has climbed on as an actor.…...

Back in 1981, director Terry Gilliam and his Monty Python cohort Michael Palin brought the world the cult classic fantasy adventure film Time Bandits – and now, Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi has teamed with his frequent collaborators Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris to create an Apple TV+ series version of Time Bandits. The first two episodes of the ten-episode first season will premiere on Wednesday, July 24th… and while doing the press rounds for the show, Clement revealed that season 2 is already being written!

Produced for Apple TV+ by Paramount Television Studios, Anonymous Content’s AC Studios, and MRC, Time Bandits is an unpredictable journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin. Together, they set out on a thrilling quest to save the boy’s parents — and the world. The eccentric crew of...

Welcome back to Origins, our recurring series that gives artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, Ice-t digs into the twisted inspirations behind the latest Body Count release, “Psychopath.”

Body Count have returned with their new single, “Psychopath,” offering Ice-t the opportunity to step back into a different side of himself kept hidden while playing Sergeant Fin Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

As Ice-t tells Consequence over Zoom, he relishes in extremes when making music — particularly when it comes to the macabre. “I think humans have a blood lust,” he explains. “We’re fascinated by it… we run to the car crash.”

For the multi-hyphenate, working with his hardcore/metal project, Body Count, offers a different kind of catharsis and escapism than playing a character on TV, or playing a character in his solo music. Their new release, “Psychopath...

We all love horror movies for the genre's unique power to toy with our innermost fears and, in doing so, convey ideas in expressive and sometimes quite gory fashion that wouldn't have been as effective otherwise. Yet, few people expected the endings of the movies we're going to talk about today to be so traumatic. Here are 8 horror movies whose final scenes proved to be too much even for the most hardcore fans of the genre.

8 Horror Movies with the Most Unsettling Endings

8. The Descent

7. Eden Lake

6. The Wicker Man

5. Night of the Living Dead

4. Martyrs

3. Inside

2. The Mist

1. Don't Look Now

Sure, the endings of some of the movies listed above may seem a bit anticlimactic in some cases, but that doesn't take away from how messed up they were, leaving the audience shaking in their boots forever.

It is probably the classics that are worth starting with. For example,...

If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to have your soul put through the emotional equivalent of a meat grinder, then boy, do we have a list for you! Thanks to the collective masochism of the internet, we’ve scoured a popular Reddit thread where the biggest horror fans shared the films that left them feeling like they need a hug… or ten. From existential dread to narratives so bleak they’d make a goth smile, these movies are guaranteed to mess you up in the best way possible.

So, let’s dive into the abyss with these soul-crushing cinematic experiences that are anything but your typical jump-scare fest, and come with the horror-fan seal of approval! Or.. warning.

Dimension Films 1. The Mist (2007)

First up, The Mist blankets its audience in a thick fog of existential terror and human fragility. Directed by Frank Darabont and based on Stephen King’s novella,...

Looking back on the horror genre throughout time, there’s always been a period where certain sub-genres have been most prominent. The 70s and 80s were all about the slasher flicks, with masked villains marauding around sleepy suburbs or high school kids having their heads chopped off, while remakes such as House of Wax and Ring dominated the early noughties. There’s another sub-genre, however, that had its roots in splatter films such as Peter Jackson’s superbly gross Bad Taste and Braindead, plus ‘video nasties’ like 1978’s I Spit on Your Grave. That’s right folk, we’re talking about ‘Torture Porn’, an exploitation horror subgenre known for its nasty, gory, and violent films. Do a quick Google search for the sub-genre, preferably with safe-search activated if you’re at work or Uni, just in case, and you’ll more than likely find several Top 10 lists of the best...

One of my moments of dread is the threat of random violence. The moment in the original Terminator when the machine shows up at people’s homes, knocks on their door and asks if they are Sarah Connor then promptly shoots them when they answer yes is still chilling. Drawing inspiration for me from the classically brutal Martyrs (2008) and the odd cheapy eye transplant film Mansion Of The Doomed (1976) is this lovely gripping Italian horror thriller The Goldsmith (aka L’orafo) (2022)

The film opens on a chase scene in broad daylight over urban dirt fields, three children who turn out to be younger versions of the people in the film are fleeing from an older man. Arianna (Valentina Carbone), Stefano (Matthias Cavallo) and Roberto (Federico Graziani). During the chase, the girl drops a gold cross. The old man catches up to them and reaches down for the cross. The male children charge to stop him.

While there’s plenty to be said and appreciated about cozy, comforting horror that offers catharsis, the genre’s ultimate aim is to terrify, shock, and even repulse. Of course, there is no shortage of ways that filmmakers accomplish this, frequently through gore, violence, and potent scare tactics, but transgressive horror is in a league of its own.

More than just gore, transgressive horror films revel in the taboo. Transgressive horror shatters cultural norms and seeks to explore beyond the boundaries of taste and social sensibilities, challenging viewers with shocking and sacrilegious imagery and themes. And yet, it’s not solely for shock value; transgressive horror has more on its mind than simply gore and depictions of depravity. There’s a purpose behind the pain. This week’s streaming picks are for the seekers of extreme cinema, unafraid to test their limits.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

Clockwise from top left: The Wicker Man (Warner Bros.), Vanilla Sky (Paramont), Oldboy (FilmDistrict), The Toy (Columbia)Image: AVClub

In Hollywood, it often seems that the sincerest form of flattery is to remake a foreign film. Domestic versions of international hits are a long-running thing in a town where familiarity assumes success,...

“I was outside digging a grave,” quips Lil’ Punkin at the start of our call. He’s running a few minutes late, perhaps a little out of breath, but slides into the conversation. Lil’ Punkin joins Norman Crates, and DeepKutz as we talk all things spooky and macabre.

The trio – known together as Lvcrft (a reference to author H.P. Lovecraft) – have built their careers on making infectiously gooey, throwback Halloween pop music. Think “Monster Mash” but with a glistening modern pop edge. They slashed onto the scene with 2019’s This is Halloween Volume 1, which introduces the pivotal character of Skeleton Sam (as seen in press photos and around town) and includes such tracks as a cover of Kim Wilde’s debut single “Kids in America.” The work is deliciously dark, often seductively playful, and always guaranteed to get your cold, dead heart beating again. Three more albums followed, including 2020’s...

The Malayalam film industry is known for producing some of the most innovative and daring films in India, and one of the upcoming films that has created a lot of buzz is Chaaver, directed by Tinu Pappachan. The film, which has been censored with a U/A certificate, is slated to release on October 5th, and the makers have recently dropped the trailer that has left the viewers intrigued and excited.

Chaaver, which means “Martyrs” in Malayalam, is an action thriller that stars Kunchacko Boban in the lead role, along with Antony Varghese and Arjun Ashokan in pivotal roles. The film’s story is written by Joy Mathew, who is also a renowned actor and director. The film’s premise is shrouded in mystery, with only hints about its plot and character dynamics.

Chaaver Trailer

The trailer shows glimpses of Kunchacko Boban’s character, who seems to be a fugitive...

Grimmfest, Manchester UK’s International Festival of Fantastic Film, joins Méliès International Festivals Federation.

Regular attendees that look forward to catching up with the annual selection of short film premieres at Grimmfest, will be pleased to hear that this year, Grimmfest will be hosting three short film programmes across the festival period (6th-8th October 2023), in celebration of their new membership of the Méliès International Festivals Federation.

The Federation, recently held their annual general assembly at Cannes film festival, and the 26 member festivals voted for Grimmfest to join, and thus become the only English festival of fantastic film in the Federation.

Each year member festivals vote for their best ‘Fantastic’ feature film and short film, with an award for each, presented at Sitges. Previous winners have included Alex Garland’s Men, Prano Baily-Bond’s Censor, Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders Of Justice, Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, Lars Von Trier...

It’s Monday. That might leave you seeing red. So, we’re celebrating accordingly by embracing horror movies that massively deliver on the red stuff. This week’s streaming picks showcase some of horror’s goriest offerings that wield the gore in various ways. Some use excessive bloodletting to elicit a laugh, while others aim to put you through an extreme gauntlet of visceral terror. These ultra-gory horror movies are all available on streaming now.

As always, here’s where you can watch them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

City of the Living Dead – AMC+, Kanopy, Pluto TV, Shudder, Tubi, Vudu

What’s a gory horror list without the Italian Godfather of Gore, Lucio Fulci? It seems appropriate to kickstart this week with the first entry in his “Gates of Hell” trilogy. The plot sees a reporter and a psychic try to close the...

Think you’ve seen it all? I hope you’ve got a strong stomach, because there are plenty of disturbing, vile, and downright terrifying films lurking in the shadows, ready to push you to your limit. I sought out 10 movies so disturbing, that even Redditors couldn’t finish them. And that’s saying something. Get ready to be scared out of your wits!

1. Terrifier (2016)

Clowns are supposed to be funny, right? Well, not this one. Terrifier follows the deranged Art the Clown, who terrorizes a group of friends on Halloween night. The film features graphic violence and gore, including one scene that involves Art hacking off a woman’s face. Yep, you read that right. It’s no wonder that this brave viewer on Reddit couldn’t make it through this movie.

2. Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

Found footage films can be creepy, but Poughkeepsie Tapes takes it to a whole new level.

According to /Film readers, the "Alien" film series is the greatest horror franchise ever. Yes, the xenomorph-starring series certainly has some strong films. However, it's not the most consistent (more on that later), so I disagree. Throughout horror history, sequels, remakes, and reboots have spawned franchises in sub-genres ranging from slashers to the paranormal. No IP is immune to a barrage of iterations. Sometimes, they work. Other times, well ... They leave much to be desired. 

Whether we're talking heavy hitters like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Halloween" or offbeat series such as "The Living Dead," there's always a franchise to gnash your teeth on as a horror fan. Ghoulish monsters, vengeful witches, cannibal serial killers, and disturbed sleep demons decorate our favorite storytelling medium with nightmare fuel. But they're not all created equal.

I'm revisiting some of the biggest franchises and have compiled the 15 best ones, ranking them based on effective scares,...

The April additions to Pluto TV’s programming library are split between nature programs and horror flicks.

The streamer will debut the PBS Nature channel later this month, taking viewers on a global voyage and highlighting eco-causes, such as Earth Day. Docs including “Building Green” and “Earth in 1000 Years.”

Also, since April is halfway to Halloween, Pluto is doing everything it can to scare the pants off viewers early. The new channel “April Ghouls” has an array of terror, including “Scream 1-3.” The franchise’s first film, “Scream” stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette.

The franchise includes six films; the first four were directed by Wes Craven. The saga begins with murderers known as Ghostface, who stalk and kill their victims.

Relive the original “Scream” trailer:

Edgar Allan Poe fans may like “The Raven,” set in 19th-century Baltimore. The murders of a mother and daughter resemble...

April is right around the corner, marking the halfway point to the best holiday of the year: Halloween. Pluto TV is celebrating accordingly with the month-long celebration “April Ghouls.”

Don’t worry; it’s not an April Fool’s prank.

Beginning April 1, Pluto TV will be streaming all sorts of spooky programming stunts and horror film marathons across their channels. This year, the streaming service ensures everyone knows that the spooky season isn’t limited to October.

The streaming service will dedicate programming blocks around the releases of Evil Dead Rise and Renfield, howl at April’s full moon, unleash Found Footage marathons, and more.

Check out the complete list of titles and April Ghouls event programming below.

New Titles in April include:

The Hole in the Ground A Haunted House An American Werewolf in London The Collection The Dark Half The Devil Inside Hostel and Hostel: Part II Martyrs...

Some audiences search out the most disgusting and depraved films that they can find. Movies have the ability to leave their mark on a psychological level or a more visceral one that seeks to leave you feeling queasy and dirty. Here’s a look at 10 movies that are sure to scar you for life.

10. ‘Grotesque’ (2009) L-r: Hiroaki Kawatsure as Kazuo Kojima and Shigeo Ôsako as The Doctor | Media Blasters

A mysterious man identified only as “the doctor” kidnaps a young couple (Hiroaki Kawatsure and Kotoha Hiroyama) and begins to perform extreme torture on them. He puts them through a game for survival designed to slowly destroy their hopes of making it out with their lives.

Kôji Shiraishi’s Grotesque falls into the “torture porn” sub-genre that James Wan’s Saw and Eli Roth’s Hostel popularized in the 2000s. However, this Japanese exploitation horror flick pushes all boundaries, introducing...

We are only a matter of weeks into 2023, but a strong contender for the title of “scariest movie” in some folks’ minds has already emerged in Skinamarink. The idea of the “scariest movie ever,” i.e. a horror film that generates word-of-mouth buzz, might seem like a modern concept but it actually goes back nearly a century. One of the first examples can be traced back to 1932 and the tastefully titled Freaks, a movie centered around a beautiful trapeze artist who schemes to steal a side-show performer’s inheritance only to be thwarted by his deformed cohorts.

Featuring real life circus performers, the movie was drastically recut by MGM after test screenings in which several terrified audience members “got up and ran out.” Today, those kinds of reports would be worth their weight in gold, but back then they led to the 90-minute running time being slashed to just 64, with...

Over 20 years ago, Irreversible was the film that turned Gaspar Noé into an auteur known worldwide. It was mainly notorious for two elements: its unconventional structure – kicking off with the end credits to tell its story backwards – and certainly its incredibly rough sequence that depicted rape. Noé was even associated with the so-called New French Extremity, though I personally think more in horror films like High Tension, Frontier(s) and Martyrs when that label is brought up. In 2019, at the Venice Film Festival, Noé first presented his new approach to Irreversible: the Straight Cut. Thanks to Altered Innocence, Irreversible: Straight Cut is finally having a theatrical release in the US. On Friday, February 10, it’ll open...

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

Although they aim to provoke contrary emotional responses, horror and comedy needn’t be mutually exclusive. Granted, they are strange bedfellows but can pair together nicely under the right circumstances.

Indeed, some of our most beloved scary movies also happen to be quite effective rib ticklers. Even if you discount those that occupy the realm of explicit parody (like Zombieland or What We Do in the Shadows), there are still plenty of genuine horror flicks out there that have a good sense of humour.

For whatever reason, this was especially common in 2022, with almost every major release containing some light-hearted relief. Perhaps this levity is just what the doctor ordered after everything we’ve had to endure lately.

With all the depressing news, unrelenting chaos, maddening politics and unprecedented hardships of the past few years, it’s hardly a stretch to say that we were in need of laughter. And,...

Czech Republic’s ‘Repulse’ sinks the audience into an extended exercise in trauma that turns to brevity and non-linear storytelling to amplify its pain.

“You can do whatever you want.”

“What do I want?”

Screams of anguish are the only forms of dialogue that are present in the first ten minutes of Repulse, Emil Krizka’s ode to anger and revenge from the Czech Republic. Repulse is intentionally sparse with its dialogue so that the raw weight of every gesture and groan speak for themselves. It’s an isolating tactic, but one that immediately establishes that the world is a harsh, angry, confusing place. It’s a grim mission statement, but one that reverberates through every single frame of Emil Krizka’s Repulse.

Repulse is one big Russian nesting doll of pain, torture, and humility that only grows more toxic as the film digs deeper and casts a wider net.

I own a frankly absurd amount of movies (roughly 5000), and I’m subscribed to several streaming services. In short, I have a lot of films that I haven’t got around to watching immediately to hand. For the past decade plus I’ve been too busy in October to indulge in the Shocktober horror marathons that a lot of my friends do, but as I’m not doing the London Film Festival as press this year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to delve into the back catalogue of horror I’ve had waiting to be watched.

From September 15th until October 30th, I’ll be watching at least one new to me horror film every day, and providing collections of capsule reviews week by week. On Halloween itself, as ever, I’m planning an all day marathon of some of my favourite horror films.

I hope you’ll...

Troian Bellisario is an American actress. She is best known for her role in the television show Pretty Little Liars and such films as Feed, Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Doula.

Troian Bellisario Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Troian Bellisario was born in Los Angeles on October 28, 1985 (Troian Bellisario: age 36). Her parents are producers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt. Her father created such series as Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap and NCIS.

Bellisario attended Campbell Hall School from kindergarten through twelfth grade, where she graduated as the valedictorian of her class. She went on to pursue her education at the University of Southern California, where she graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts.

When asked by uInterview how she first got interested in acting, Bellisario replied surprisingly that she actually was not that interested in it.

“The funny thing about this is that my very first acting experience,...

Stars: Denise Gough, Sienna Sayer, Kiera Thompson | Written and Directed by Ruth Platt

Several years ago I took a gamble at Frightfest and booked a ticket for a movie in a small screen at maybe ten or eleven in the morning (the first film of the day). It was a low budget British horror that showed a teacher’s revenge on the pupils that caused him stress and pain in his job. It was a gritty, sometimes brutal but brilliant first feature film – The Lesson – from Ruth Platt. So when I saw her name as director on Martyrs Lane, I knew I had to see it.

Not many movies scare me now. Not really, occasionally I get caught up in the very best horror movies and the tension is there and it happens but not all to often. Even the so called cheap jump scares rarely work (but I love it when they do!

Stars: Maïmouna Badjie, Charles De Meester, Tristan Feyten, Stefaan Degand, Sven De Ridder, Margaux Vandecasteele | Written by Thomas Vanbrabant | Directed by Thomas Vanbrabant, Jordi Ostir

Johannes Duyster was the city of Antwerp’s executioner from 1606 to 1613. On February 5th, 2020 three college students were given a video production assignment, they chose him as their subject. None of them have been seen since February 27th of that year.

The text crawl at the start of the Belgian found footage film Duyster fills us in on the basics.Then we join the trio, Nora Danso (Maïmouna Badjie), Milan Avonds (Charles De Meester; Memento Mori) and Bas Lauwer (Tristan Feyten) at a museum in front of a mediaval illustration of Duyster and his crew at work. Much of the film’s first half consists of scenes like this, shots of locations associated with Duyster or interviews with historians and folklorists that fill in the...

Ten-year-old Leah (Kiera Thompson) is caught watching her family like an outsider looking in. Her much older sister (Hannah Rae’s Bex) is about to leave for college and the milestone has seemingly thrown a wrench into their otherwise simple lives. While their father Thomas (Steven Cree) treats it like a celebration, thanks to his faith as the pastor of their local church, their mother Sarah (Denise Gough) appears distracted and perhaps even angry. She begins having nightmares, retreats from others, and becomes lost in a past Leah knows nothing about. Whether coincidence or fate drives the young girl to unearth the answer from within the locket Sarah wears around her neck is up to you to decide. Once it’s out, however, there’s no putting it back.

How it arrives is in the form of a girl (Sienna Sayer) just about Leah’s age. She has no recollection...

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, genre fare will mark its continued rise in main stage prominence as Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” (pictured above) launches in competition with distribution secured in over 11 international territories, while the Marché du Film and Fantasia reteam for the third Frontières Platform event.

Running July 10 – 11, the joint program will spotlight 13 selected projects for proof of concept presentations, buyers showcases and select screenings. The path that led to such auspicious berths is one paved by growing self-determination within the genre demimonde, as festival organizers have moved into sales and production as they’ve looked to remake the playing field.

Two among them are Todd Brown, head of international acquisitions at the production and sales outfit XYZ Films, and Annick Mahnert, executive director ot Frontières. Having both worked as programmers (which Mahnert still does for Fantastic Fest and Sitges), the two witnessed genre fare’s push...

It was while I was researching The Book of Horror, an illustrated guide to the scariest movies ever made, that I first started seeing things.

Not the full Haley Joel Osment, you understand, but what we’ll call a seventh sense. I’d catch glimpses of something out of the corner of my eye, and my mind would fill in the blanks with spooky imagery because I was consuming so much of it.

It didn’t help that my son had just been born. Lack of sleep combined with horror movie overload is a condition I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Night becomes dawn becomes day – the full George A Romero – and reality becomes harder and harder to rely upon.

Driving past the local garage one evening, I saw a Creepshow skeleton caked with remnants of clinging skin staring out at me from the front seat of a car. Watching The Great British Bake Off,...

Hulu is out with its list of everything new coming and everything leaving the streaming service in the month of October.

Highlights include seasons four and seven of “90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days,” Season 8 of “My 600-lb Life” featuring the late star Coliesa McMillian, and a bunch of cooking shows including seasons nine and 10 of “Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern,” Season 13 of “Cutthroat Kitchen” and Season 18 of “Hell’s Kitchen.” All of those come out Oct. 1.

For Halloween, catch the Hulu Original series “Monsterland” out Oct. 2.

On Oct. 14, catch the season premiere of “The Bachelorette” just one day after it airs on ABC.

Leaving Hulu on Oct. 31 are all five of the “Twilight” movies, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Footloose.”

See the full list below.

Oct. 1

90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days: Complete Season 4 (TLC)

90 Day Fiancé: Complete Season 7 (TLC)

All-Star Halloween Spectacular: Special (Food Network)

Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern:...

It’s almost spooky season, and the various streaming services are making sure that subscribers have got plenty of great horror content for all ages available to watch this Halloween. Given the current state of the world, this All Hallow’s Eve will see more folks staying in than ever before, so we’ll need as much choice when it comes to finding a perfect movie or TV show to dive into as possible. Thankfully, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have got us covered.

Of course, there’s much more beyond just horror content arriving across the streaming world this October, with the first day of the month launching hundreds of new titles on all the various sites. There are also a few key highlights scattered throughout the month. Arguably the biggest is Aaron Sorkin’s much-anticipated all-star drama based on real events, The Trial of the Chicago 7,...

October is officially spooky season and it’s nice to know that some streaming services (*cough*Disney+*cough*) are taking that responsibility very seriously.

For its new releases in October 2020, Hulu is premiering the Marvel TV universe’s first-ever outright horror series. Helstrom debuts on Oct. 16 and follows Marvel Comics character Daimon Helstrom as he struggles against all manner of demonic forces. Another spooky treat arriving this month is Monsterland on Oct. 2. This anthology will feature scary stories from around the country.

On the movie side of things, Hulu is bringing out Clive Barker adaptation Books of Blood on Oct. 7 and Bad Hair on Oct. 23. Thank you, Hulu, for your spooky service.

There are a lot of non-Hulu TV shows of note arriving in October as well. The final season of Homeland will be available to stream on Oct. 26. The premiere of Saturday Night Live‘s 46th season will arrive on Oct.

We’re now just over halfway through September, so let’s turn our attention to what’s coming to Hulu next month. Every October, the streaming service celebrates “Huluween” by adding a bunch of new Halloween-themed content. And this year is no different, with countless classic movies going up on the site that you’ll want to check out to get you in the spooky mood as well as a few notable originals.

These include anthology series Monsterland (October 2nd) and horror comedy film Bad Hair (October 23rd), starring Lena Waithe, Vanessa Williams and Laverne Cox, from Dear White People director Justin Simien. Superhero fans will also want to catch supernatural-themed Marvel series Helstrom (October 16th). The final production from Marvel Television, it’s sadly already doomed to just the one season.

See below for the full list of everything that’s coming to Hulu in October:

Released October 1

90 Day...

Having just left prison for setting her ex-boyfriend, serial killer James (Cole Vigue), on fire Mary (Vanessa Grasse) gets a job in an all night gas station. Still haunted by hallucinations, on her first night she begins seeing James around many corners, but there are more dangers in Mary’s first shift than her imagination.

The concept of Padraig Reynolds’ screenplay suggests something more morally complex than your standard issue slasher. He sets up a final girl who isn’t as easy to root for as the genre’s usual heroine, not only did she set someone on fire, but we discover that she has been shunned by the community for simply standing by and watching while her ex murdered several women. This could throw open a lot of ideas; allowing the film to engage with coercive and abusive relationships and the trauma that results from them, the immense pressure...

Troian Bellisario has been cast in one of the lead roles of the CBS drama pilot “Ways and Means.”

It was previously announced that Patrick Dempsey would star in the series, with Amanda Warren also being part of the cast. The show centers on a powerful congressional leader (Dempsey) who has lost faith in politics who finds himself working secretly with idealistic young congresswoman Claire (Bellisario) from the opposing party to subvert the hopelessly gridlocked system he helped create. Together, they’ll attempt to save American politics, if they don’t get caught.

Claire is a newly elected, progressive, idealistic freshman Democratic Congresswoman who leads with her intelligence and straightforwardness. She’s going to have to figure out how to merge her idealism with her ambition. She will either change Congress, or Congress will change her.

Bellisario is best known for her starring role in the hit Freeform series “Pretty Little Liars,...

If I’m being totally honest, the only reasons that I was excited about having a new Grudge film was because of the involvement of director Nicolas Pesce and the stellar group of actors involved with his latest cinematic endeavor. The Grudge films, both the Japanese originals and their Us counterparts, are movies that I do have a great deal of respect for, but ultimately, they’re not really films I have strong feelings about one way or another. So, I have to admit that I was rather surprised by not only how much I enjoyed The Grudge (2020), but how much it affected me on a personal level. That was something I was not expecting, and I give Pesce and his wonderful cast all the credit for coming together to create a film that provides fans with a stellar start to a new year of horror.

Chances are, if you’re reading this,...

Released in 2000 and celebrated by international-horror nerds via videotapes passed around like viruses, Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-on helped usher in a wave of modern Japanese creepfests that slowly made their way west. The title translated as something like “The Curse”; it would eventually be better known as The Grudge. Along with 1998’s The Ring, the film (and the numerous related series, sequels, quasi-remakes, and brand-name bastardizations) was the most recognizable ambassador for a genre folks dubbed J-Horror. By the time Sam Raimi and producer Roy Lee enlisted Shimizu and noted...

Lupita Nyong’o has a new appreciation for those characters in costume at amusement parks. Mainly because a few days before this interview, she was playing one of them at Universal Studios. It’s not what you’d expect for an Oscar-winner, but such is Nyong’o’s up-for-it attitude, she told Universal staff she’d be happy to throw on a boiler suit and reprise her Us character, Red, for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.

Nyong’o’s publicist shows me a video of her in character at the park. Onscreen, a passing girl looks carefully at the actress’s face before realizing who she is, then literally bending double in shock, her hands to her mouth. But mostly, the park-goers shuffle through the spooky exhibit unnoticing, passing by Nyong’o and her creepy paper cut-out Us prop.

“I realized in that moment, when I was doing it, I was like,...

One of my personal favorite movies of 2018 was also one of the year’s most controversial: Incident in a Ghostland, written and directed by Pascal Laugier (Martyrs). It’s just as brutal and grueling as you’d expect from one of the pioneers of New French Extremity, but it’s also a beautiful meditation on literature’s ability to […] The post Shudder’s August 2019 Us Highlights Include Elm Street Franchise and Controversial Incident In A Ghostland appeared first on Dread Central.

Lille, France — Leading French independent production-finance-distribution sales company Federation Entertainment has secured international sales rights on upcoming French psychological thriller “Torn.”

The series was created and written by director Lionel Bailliu (“Innocente”)and Yann Le Gal and world premieres in the official French competition on March 25 at France’s Series Mania TV festival. Attending the series’ premiere will be French actress – producer Julie Gayet, Bailliu, Le Gal, as well as Elephant producers Gaëlle Cholet and Guillaume Renouil.

Elephant Story and At-Production co-produced with participation from France Télévisions. France 3, Belgian public broadcaster Rtbf and TV5 Monde are already set to broadcast.

In the series, a school teacher named Victoire moves to a small village in rural France with her young family. There, she runs into Florent, her first love from a lifetime ago, and their long-dormant feelings for one another reignite. Unable to suppress their desires for one another, the...

Happy Valentine’s Day, horror lovers! It’s everyone’s favorite time of year, where we all exchange sentimental poems and candy boxes filled with actual human hearts. That’s right—there is no better way to celebrate February 14th than to sit down with a slasher classic. Ten years ago, the remake of the 1981 Canadian horror film My Bloody Valentine premiered in theaters, ushering in a moment of both slasher goodness and 3D madness that would be a bright spot for gorehounds everywhere.

Leading up to this film’s release, horror had seen a dearth of slasher films. Though the prior year was certainly not a bad year for the genre, slashers weren’t exactly all the rage. The Saw franchise was at the front and center of horror offerings for the time period and though definitely gory, it didn’t quite have the same feel of the classic slasher film.

In his latest interview/podcast, host Stuart Wright talks to A Dark Song writer/director Liam Gavin about one of the best British horror films of the last decade.

Sophia (Walker) is grief-stricken and overwhelmed with sadness since the untimely death of her son. In a desperate attempt to achieve some form of closure, she reaches out to Solomon (Oram), an occultist with experience in an ancient invocation ritual that Sophia believes will allow her to make contact with her deceased child. Locked away in a remote country house, the pair undergo a long and arduous ritual, risking both their mental and physical safety as they attempt to access a world beyond their understanding. But when Solomon finds out that Sophia has not been truthful about her wish, a greater danger threatens them. In the dark, they find that they are no longer alone in the house. They are now...