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Stars: Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Debra Wilson, Diya Rao, Taia Sophia, Zeke Donovan Jones, Jeff Fahey, Mena Suvari, Peter Wong | Written by Joseph Kahn, Dan Koontz, Samuel Laskey | Directed by Joseph Kahn

Former Superman Brandon Routh stars in this smalltown horror flick from director Joseph Kahn that fondly recalls genre classics such as The Blob (1958) and The Stuff (1985). Directed by Joseph Kahn (Detention), who co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Koontz and Samuel Laskey, Ick is an enjoyably gloopy, blackly comic alien invasion thriller, anchored by a likeable lead performance from Routh.

Set in the small town of Eastbrook, Ick begins in the year 2000, where high school football star Hank Wallace (Routh) has his promising career cut short when he trips over a black plant-like substance on the field, injuring his leg. To make matters worse, his girlfriend Staci (Mena Suvari) breaks up with him soon afterwards and takes...

While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.

Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)

1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing...

For many viewers, Netflix’s Nobody Wants This will be enjoyable simply as the very conventional, frequently likable rom-com that it is.

Sure, it’s extremely sitcom-y at every turn, but stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody have an easy, instantly combustible chemistry that says, “In 2004 we were every smart TV fan’s favorite pair of snarky high schoolers and now, 20 years later, we’re ready to be treated like grown-ups and for everybody to remark upon how well we’ve aged.” Bell and Brody are accompanied by a supporting cast of veteran scene stealers, and creator Erin Foster has additionally given their tale a specificity that sets it apart from your average meet-cute about mismatched lovers.

Specificity, however, brings its own set of responsibilities. It isn’t that I want to get caught up in “but is it good for the Jews?” internal monologuing, but if you’re me (and most of you,...

John Carpenter'S Tales For A Halloweenight: "John Carpenter's Tales For A Halloweenight, Volume 10, brings together true comics legends — 13 writers and 20 artists — for 12 new stories in this tenth anniversary collection. John Carpenter's own "Sos" leads the pack of tales.

John Carpenter's Tales For A Halloweenight, Volume 10 is available today (September 25) at comic shops and at www.StormKingComics.com, and October 8 from book retailers."

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24Th Annual Screamfest® Horror Film Festival Announces Opening And Closing Nights And Additional Features For The 2024 Lineup: "Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, is excited to announce its opening and closing night events as well as additional features. Taking place from October 8 to 17, 2024, at the Tcl Chinese Theater, Screamfest® will kick off the festival with award-winning filmmaker Joseph Kahn's (Bodied), sci-fi/horror satire Ick, which will have its West Coast premiere with a red-carpet gala screening on Tuesday,...

Plot: A high school science teacher (Brandon Routh) tries to save his students and town from a parasitic alien entity.

Review: Joseph Kahn is one of the most underrated genre directors. His first movie, Torque, was a big flop but holds up relatively well twenty years later as a kind of quasi-spoof of early-2000s era action movies in the vein of XXX and The Fast and the Furious. His follow-up, the teen sci-fi flick, Detention, was a total blast, and the last movie he made, Bodied, was probably his best movie to date. Sadly, it kinda got lost when the short-lived YouTube Red picked it up. Now he’s back with Ick, which is very much in the mould of Detention and was one of the most energetic and fun movies I saw out of this year’s TIFF Midnight Madness.

For those who may not know, Kahn is...

In a film where no shot lasts beyond a handful of seconds, the world stops briefly to go over the origins of the black goo that gives “Ick” its title. But in the latest madness from director Joseph Kahn, no one in the small, suburban town of Eastbrook can be sure where it came from, or for how long exactly it’s been around. It’s actually this lack of interest in deeper introspection that the longtime pop culture provocateur takes on in what he dubbed a “soft rock horror” movie before its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. With one of cinema’s most malleable metaphors for societal anxieties since such films as “The Blob” and “The Stuff,” he certainly grabs attention.

Only Kahn — still best known for music videos for the likes of Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, amidst features such as “Torque,” “Detention” and “Bodied” — could make...

Filmmaker Joseph Kahn introduced the world premiere of his latest film, Ick, by explaining that he had just finished his cut of the movie the morning before. It doesn’t take a discerning viewer to tell how rushed this movie was, as the “final” product is wildly uneven. Although there is certainly a good movie to be found here, Kahn could have used two to three more months in the editing room to refine everything to a more presentable level.

Ick Review

Ick is a horror-comedy that follows a high-school science teacher who becomes obsessed with the “ick,” a seemingly harmless substance growing throughout his small town that he claimed ruined his life by injuring him on a football field in his heyday. Of course, his suspicions prove to be true as the ick begins to take over the city and its residents.

The first third of the film is...

The world is ending and nobody cares in Ick, Joseph Kahn’s latest genre offering after 2017’s Bodied and 2011’s Detention. Despite only making four features in 20 years, Kahn is ubiquitous in pop culture from his background in directing music videos for major artists like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. He also directed 2004’s Torque, a film received so disastrously even he pokes fun at it. That might explain why, after making one studio film, he’s directed all of his following films independently––including Ick, a riotous take on the creature feature and a scathing satire of society’s apathetic attitude in the face of existential threats.

It takes almost no time to see that Ick is very much Kahn’s own creation. This film runs rampant without a single studio note. A 2000s-set prologue establishes the backstory of Hank (Brandon Routh), a high school quarterback who was on...

You know a Joseph Kahn film when you see one. There’s an approach to style, narrative, and editing akin to pure adrenaline; it’s as though the filmmaker drank a bunch of coffee, ate a bunch of candy, and then immediately made a movie.

Ick, Kahn’s first feature since 2017’s Bodies, is pure sugar/caffeine rush: when it’s on a high, the film is dazzlingly fun and entertaining (sugar high!). But when the blood sugar crashes, Ick’s lows prove extremely uneven and a little frustrating.

In true Kahn form, Ick opens with energy to spare. An extended montage introduces Hank Wallace and his perfectly cliché high school life. He’s got it all: Hank is the quarterback of the football team, he’s primed for a College scholarship, and he’s dating head cheerleader Staci (Mena Suvari).

Everything goes awry when he blows out his knee during a game.

Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari hit the red carpet for the world premiere of their new movie Ick during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Royal Alexandra Theatre on Saturday (September 7).

Other cast and crew at the big event included Zeke Jones, director Joseph Kahn, Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Taia Sophia, Jennifer Rade, Debra Wilson, and Jeff Fahey. More pictures in the gallery!

Ick Synopsis: Science teacher Hank’s life (Routh) changes when he reconnects with his first love Staci (Suvari) and suspects a new student is his daughter, all while facing an alien threat in their town.

Brandon and Mena recently joined the cast of another film together, a suspenseful romance called Fate The Movie. Synopsis: It takes a minute to find a special person and an entire lifetime to forget them. While healing at a rehabilitation center after a rescue mission gone wrong, a firefighter Sam Ellis (Routh) connects with Tilly,...

Joseph Kahn’s sci-fi/horror satire “Ick” has its world premiere in Toronto Intl. Film Festival’s Midnight Madness slot on Saturday. He previously directed “Bodied,” which premiered at the festival in 2017, and won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. Kahn talks to Variety about his love for creature features, taking comedy-horrors seriously, and his respect for Steven Spielberg’s scary movies.

Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky summarizes the plot as follows: “In the small American town of Eastbrook, nearly two decades after a viscous vine-like growth — colloquially referred to as ‘the Ick’ — began encroaching on every nook and cranny, a nonplussed populus have found their lives seemingly unaffected by the creeping anomaly. The exceptions to this oblivious conformity are Hank Wallace, a former high-school football prospect turned hapless science teacher, and his perceptive student Grace, who both regard the Ick with a suspicious scrutiny that is soon violently validated.

Have you ever wanted to be so wrapped up in your partner, it’s as if you could just melt into them? Well, filmmaker Thibault Emin is taking that sentiment to the extreme — with a horrifying twist.

Emin makes his directorial debut with “Else,” a body horror romance feature about a strange epidemic that causes the infected to melt into their surroundings. Emin is a French director and screenwriter, who is expanding his 2007 short film “Else” into a feature that has been more than 15 years in the making. He co-wrote the script with Alice Butaud and Emma Sandona.

“Else” will have its world premiere at TIFF as part of the Midnight Madness program. The film is a sales title and hails from France and Belgium.

The official synopsis reads: “Introverted and uncomfortable in his own skin, Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) does not consider himself an obvious partner for Cass (Édith Proust...

AGC International has acquired international sales on upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Midnight Madness world premiere Ick.

Joseph Kahn’s sci-fi creature feature stars Mena Suvari and Brandon Routh in the tale of a washed-up jock turned high school science teacher who teams up with a class of rebellious teens to overcome an invasive infectious substance.

The cast includes Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Taia Sophia, Zeke Donovan Jones, and Debra Wilson with Jeff Fahey. Ick premieres on September 7.

Kahn directed from an original screenplay he co-wrote with Samuel Laskey and Dan Koontz. He won the 2017 TIFF People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness for Bodied.

Brace yourself, Canada, “The Substance” is coming.

The explosive body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, directed by French heatseeker Coralie Fargeat, has been set to open the Midnight Madness section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“Substance” follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Moore), an Oscar winner who commits the high crime of aging in Hollywood. Relegated to a morning fitness show, Sparkle’s world closes in on her when opportunities dry up — until a mysterious stranger offers her the titular substance, a chance at a more perfect version of herself. Sparing any spoilers, Qualley comes into play as the idealized version of Moore. The pair learns that coexisting ain’t easy in Fargeat’s violent fantasia.

Also on the lineup, veteran music video and film director Joseph Kahn will show “Ick,” a tribute to ‘80s creature features starring former TV Superman Brandon Routh and “American Beauty” actor Mena Suvari.

“The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, will be the opening night film in the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section, TIFF organizers announced Thursday.

The Mubi film will make its North American premiere at TIFF after having its world premiere in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The extremely graphic and gory film, in which Moore’s character undergoes a treatment that creates a younger and “more perfect” version of herself, won the Best Screenplay prize from the Cannes jury and stirred up awards talk for Moore’s unhinged performance.

“The Substance” is one of 10 films in the Midnight Madness section, which in the past has showcased films including “Pearl,” “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” “Titane,” “Assassination Nation” and the 2017 reboot of “Halloween.”

Other films in the section include two past Midnight Madness directors, Joseph Kahn...

The Toronto Film Festival’s cult sidebar will screen 10 features as part of this year’s schedule and open with the North American premiere of French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy Cannes breakout The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

The Midnight Madness programme features five world premieres all of which will screen at Toronto’s historic — and allegedly haunted — Royal Alexandra Theatre. Fargeat is a TIFF Midnight Madness alumnus. Her first feature Revenge debuted at the festival in 2017. Also returning to the festival this year is Joseph Kahn with Ick. Written by Sam Laskey, Dan Koontz, and Kahn, the film’s synopsis reads: Science teacher Hank’s life changes when he reconnects with his first love and suspects a new student is his daughter, all while facing an alien threat in their town. Kahn won TIFF’s People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award in 2017 with Bodied.

Indonesian filmmaker...

After taking over Cannes 2024, Coralie Fargeat is returning to TIFF seven years after her directorial debut “Revenge” premiered at the 2017 festival.

Fargeat’s buzzy feminist sci-fi drama “The Substance” will make its North-American debut at TIFF 2024, opening the Midnight Madness section of the festival. “The Substance,” which IndieWire’s David Ehrlich deemed an “instant classic,” stars Demi Moore as a former A-list actress past her prime who undergoes a new drug therapy to be temporarily transformed into a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley.

Fargeat writes and directs the film, which was acquired by Mubi and won the Cannes prize of Best Screenplay. Moore later told IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio that the film “felt risky” to join.

“It was one [where] you don’t know if it’s going to all come together or work,” Moore said. “It’s what you hope. […] If we step back from it being about an actor,...

Bravo brings viewers back on board the luxurious yacht for another thrilling episode of “Below Deck” on Monday, April 22, 2024, at 9:00 Pm. In Season 11 Episode 12, titled “Bit of an Ick,” the young and single crew continue to navigate the challenges of living, loving, and working together in close quarters.

As tensions simmer and relationships evolve, viewers can expect plenty of drama, romance, and unexpected twists on the high seas. With the stunning backdrop of the ocean and the luxurious setting of the yacht, the crew’s interpersonal dynamics take center stage as they strive to maintain professionalism while navigating the complexities of their personal lives.

Join Bravo for an evening of entertainment as “Below Deck” delivers another dose of high-stakes drama and unforgettable moments. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to the series, Season 11 Episode 12 promises to keep you hooked from start to finish. Don’t miss...