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Joseph Perry

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Vampires, Witches, and Other Occult Entities Headline Screamfest’s 2024 First Wave Announcement

Fright-fare fanatics, Los Angeles-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival has just unleashed its first wave lineup, and as always, the fest boasts chilling cinematic fare from around the world. Check out the following press information to see what chills and thrills are in store. Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, today announced its first-wave lineup of competitive features and shorts for its 24th edition. Running October 8 through 17, 2024 at the TCL Chinese Theater, Screamfest® welcomes horror cinephiles to experience twisted tales and frightening films together on the big screen. Tickets will be on sale soon and can be purchased via the festival website: https://screamfestla.com/ Considered the “Sundance of Horror,” Screamfest® proudly highlights the innovative work of independent filmmakers from across the globe. This past year, the festival featured several standout films that have since secured distribution, including Monolith (WellGO USA), Faceless After Dark (Dark Sky Films), and Pandemonium (Arrow Video).

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 6, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: MEMBERS CLUB and THE DEAD THING (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

MEMBERS CLUB Official synopsis: Wet Dreams, a middle-aged male stripper group have hit rock bottom. After a string of disastrous gigs, the gang considers disbanding. Alan (Dean Kilbey), the group’s happy-go-lucky front man, takes over the business and books the boys a lucrative and mysterious gig in rural Essex. But when the group arrive at the desolate club, their night quickly takes a dark turn when they find themselves tangled up in a plot to raise a murderous 16th century witch from the dead. The humor is Rabelasian and the gory dismembering of male genitalia is prominent in writer/director Marc Coleman’s horror comedy Members Club (U.K., 2024). The film is an overall fun romp that makes its well-past-their-prime male strippers a rather likable bunch for whom it is easy to cheer, and to hope for their survival. Members Club boasts additional heart in its family drama between front-man Alan (Dean Kilbey) and his daughter Daisy (Barbara Smith). The practical effects

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 2, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST) and BROKEN BIRD (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST) Writer/director John Farrelly’s excellent Irish chiller An Taibhse (The Ghost; 2024) — the first horror film in the Irish language — has echoes of The Shining and classic haunted house stories in its tale of Éamon Finegan (Tom Kerrisk) and his daughter Máire (Livvy Hill), who have been hired on as maintenance workers for a large mansion in need of repair. The proceedings take place during a great famine in the winter of 1852, and the pair will be the only people there for most of the winter. Máire believes that a ghost haunted her at their previous home, and it seems that it has either followed her or that she has new specters with which to deal. Éamon injures himself and turns to the bottle, becoming increasingly unhinged. Coollattin House, County Wicklow, which has been uninhabited for 25 years, makes for a superbly eerie setting, and cinematographers Farrelly and Ross Power maximize the atmosphere of

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 29, 2024

The Sinister Six: A Half-Dozen Horrors Recommended for Pigeon Shrine FrightFest

London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest kicks off on Thursday, August 22 and runs through Monday, August 26, with 69 features from around the globe on tap. With chillers, thrillers, documentaries, and other genre fare scheduled, the festival presents a wealth of cinematic riches. Horror Fuel has selected six films that we are greatly looking forward to, including a few that we have already been lucky enough to have an advance look at (but we can’t say anything until the embargoes lift!). Check out the official festival descriptions below and then the links for more information, including trailers when available. The Monster Beneath Us Windswept Yorkshire, 1898. A grieving woman and her son move back to the unoccupied house of her ex-husband, who was recently found dead in mysterious circumstances. However, they soon discover they are not alone inside the icy house in a slow-burn horror, exploring the themes of isolation, otherness and loss. The house is home to a Boggart, an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 21, 2024

Fantastic Fest Announces Its Stellar 2024 Film Lineup and Other Offerings

Austin’s Fantastic Fest offers chillers, thrillers, serial killers, and all other sorts of cinematic horror, along with a wide range of other genre films, too. Have a gander at what’s in store with the following official press announcement. Step right up for the greatest show on Earth! That’s right, Fantastic Fest is back for its 19th edition, bringing you a cavalcade of cinematic wonders from around the globe. Featuring 28 World Premieres, 23 International and North American Premieres, and 15 U.S. Premieres that are guaranteed to delight and surprise you, complemented by jaw-dropping events and spectacular special guests. Join us under the big top at the world-famous Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX, from September 19th- 26th. Badges are available now at FantasticFest.com. “The Fantastic Fest team is absolutely elated about this year’s festival. We can’t wait to share the very best new films from around the world and enjoy our sensational events together this September,” says Festival Director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 16, 2024

Spoiler-Free Review: IN OUR BLOOD (Fantasia 2024)

I hesitate to call Pedro Kos’s feature In Our Blood a found footage film because although it does use some of the trappings of that subgenre, I feel his tale of a young woman’s search for her missing mother has more of a cinéma vérité feel to it, with a bit of “behind the scenes” sensibilities at play, too. Kos has made documentary films before helming In Our Blood, and he brings a sense of reality to the film. The story concerns Emily (Brittany O’Grady), who travels with cinematographer Danny (E.J. Bonilla) to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she plans to film her reunion with her estranged mother Sam (Alanna Ubach), who she hasn’t seen since she was 13 years old and taken out of Sam’s custody because of the mother’s drug addiction. The reunion is difficult for both women but offers some hope, with Sam inviting Emily to visit her at the shelter where she works the next day.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 1, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: ELECTROPHILIA and ASTRO NOTS (Fantasia 2024)

Electrophilia (Los Impactados) Argentinian feature Electrophilia touches on body horror and eroticism involving electricity but never goes full-on with these themes, instead feeling more like a character study of its protagonist, veterinarian Amanda (Mariana Di Girólamo). The young woman is struck by lightning and after she recovers from a six-week coma, she begins to feel changes that have happened to her mind and now-scarred body. She falls in with a group of lightning-strike survivors under the care of Juan (Germán Palacios), a doctor who uses unorthodox methods to treat those under his care, and begins an affair with him. Amanda develops sexual kinks related to electrical charges and shocks, worrying her significant other Jano (Guillermo Pfening). Director Lucía Puenzo, who cowrote the screenplay with Lorean Ventimigila, leaves viewers hanging with plot points that seem to have no resolution, such as Jano secretly going into Juan’s office and finding the doctor’s file on Amanda but then that scene not being addressed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 27, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: DARKEST MIRIAM and THE OLD MAN AND THE DEMON SWORD (Fantasia 2024)

Darkest Miriam Canadian feature Darkest Miriam is a slow-burn thriller that follows thirtysomething librarian Miriam (Britt Lower), who is grieving over the loss of her father. She spends her days at work following routine— including dealing with an eccentric clientele — until an accident while she rides her bicycle jolts her out of the ordinary. She begins a relationship with foreign taxi driver Janko (Tom Mercier) but also starts receiving mysterious, ominous letters written in the voice of Italian opera character Rigoletto — who sheltered his daughter from the outside world until she was killed. Director Naomi Jaye has fashioned an intriguing character study that deals in genre elements while exploring themes of love and loss. A dreamlike feel pervades the film. Lower is fantastic as the complex title character, and Jank offers fine work in his costarring role. There’s an eccentricity to Darkest Miriam, but it is by no means an inaccessible one. Jaye ultimately aims to inspire, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 24, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: The Cursed Land and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

The Cursed Land Thai horror The Cursed Land is an ambitious work that perhaps takes on too much in its attempt to deliver a fear-fare tale involving djinn while addressing issues involving the largely Muslim Malay community in Thailand. Mit (Ananda Everingham) is wracked by guilt over not being able to save his wife, who died in an accident. He moves with his teen daughter (Jennis Oprasert) to a large house — in disrepair and with talismans placed around it — in a Muslim residential area near Bangkok. Mit removes the talismans and diabolical supernatural events ensue. In trying to find solutions to his newfound bedevilment, Mit learns about the tragic past of the region. Director Panu Aree, who cowrote the screenplay with Kong Rithdee, offers much in the way of eerie atmosphere and is assisted by strong performances from his cast members. The pacing is often slow, sometimes because of plentiful flashbacks, and the running time of 131 minutes

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: The Unrighteous and The Last Stop in Yuma County

The Unrighteous Pseudoreligious cults are prevalent in some Asian countries. Shin’ichirô Ueda took a humorous approach at exposing the ways that such cults can sway people into their fold with his 2019 Japanese comedy Special Actors, and now Korean writer/director Kim Seon-kuk takes a more serious thriller/horror approach about such tactics with his engrossing The Unrighteous. Revolving around the residents of an aging apartment complex named Villa Wonjung and their desire to eventually profit from rising property values to move into fancier, more modern apartments, the story finds young head of household Joo-hyun (Lee Hyun-woo) pitted against neighbor Shin-hye (Moon Jeong-hee) whose sudden devoted involvement in a cult begins the recruitment of the other residents, including his mother. Aided by a young woman (Bang Min-ah) looking to expose the cult, Joo-hyun tries to use reason to stop the cult’s powerful influence while the residents’ fervor grows, and the cult’s underhanded ambitions grow increasingly dangerous. The committed performances by the three

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2024

More from Joseph Perry

Vampires, Witches, and Other Occult Entities Headline Screamfest’s 2024 First Wave Announcement

Fright-fare fanatics, Los Angeles-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival has just unleashed its first wave lineup, and as always, the fest boasts chilling cinematic fare from around the world. Check out the following press information to see what chills and thrills are in store. Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, today announced its first-wave lineup of competitive features and shorts for its 24th edition. Running October 8 through 17, 2024 at the TCL Chinese Theater, Screamfest® welcomes horror cinephiles to experience twisted tales and frightening films together on the big screen. Tickets will be on sale soon and can be purchased via the festival website: https://screamfestla.com/ Considered the “Sundance of Horror,” Screamfest® proudly highlights the innovative work of independent filmmakers from across the globe. This past year, the festival featured several standout films that have since secured distribution, including Monolith (WellGO USA), Faceless After Dark (Dark Sky Films), and Pandemonium (Arrow Video).

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 6, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: MEMBERS CLUB and THE DEAD THING (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

MEMBERS CLUB Official synopsis: Wet Dreams, a middle-aged male stripper group have hit rock bottom. After a string of disastrous gigs, the gang considers disbanding. Alan (Dean Kilbey), the group’s happy-go-lucky front man, takes over the business and books the boys a lucrative and mysterious gig in rural Essex. But when the group arrive at the desolate club, their night quickly takes a dark turn when they find themselves tangled up in a plot to raise a murderous 16th century witch from the dead. The humor is Rabelasian and the gory dismembering of male genitalia is prominent in writer/director Marc Coleman’s horror comedy Members Club (U.K., 2024). The film is an overall fun romp that makes its well-past-their-prime male strippers a rather likable bunch for whom it is easy to cheer, and to hope for their survival. Members Club boasts additional heart in its family drama between front-man Alan (Dean Kilbey) and his daughter Daisy (Barbara Smith). The practical effects

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 2, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST) and BROKEN BIRD (Pigeon Shrine FrightFest)

AN TAIBHSE (THE GHOST) Writer/director John Farrelly’s excellent Irish chiller An Taibhse (The Ghost; 2024) — the first horror film in the Irish language — has echoes of The Shining and classic haunted house stories in its tale of Éamon Finegan (Tom Kerrisk) and his daughter Máire (Livvy Hill), who have been hired on as maintenance workers for a large mansion in need of repair. The proceedings take place during a great famine in the winter of 1852, and the pair will be the only people there for most of the winter. Máire believes that a ghost haunted her at their previous home, and it seems that it has either followed her or that she has new specters with which to deal. Éamon injures himself and turns to the bottle, becoming increasingly unhinged. Coollattin House, County Wicklow, which has been uninhabited for 25 years, makes for a superbly eerie setting, and cinematographers Farrelly and Ross Power maximize the atmosphere of

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 29, 2024

The Sinister Six: A Half-Dozen Horrors Recommended for Pigeon Shrine FrightFest

London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest kicks off on Thursday, August 22 and runs through Monday, August 26, with 69 features from around the globe on tap. With chillers, thrillers, documentaries, and other genre fare scheduled, the festival presents a wealth of cinematic riches. Horror Fuel has selected six films that we are greatly looking forward to, including a few that we have already been lucky enough to have an advance look at (but we can’t say anything until the embargoes lift!). Check out the official festival descriptions below and then the links for more information, including trailers when available. The Monster Beneath Us Windswept Yorkshire, 1898. A grieving woman and her son move back to the unoccupied house of her ex-husband, who was recently found dead in mysterious circumstances. However, they soon discover they are not alone inside the icy house in a slow-burn horror, exploring the themes of isolation, otherness and loss. The house is home to a Boggart, an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 21, 2024

Fantastic Fest Announces Its Stellar 2024 Film Lineup and Other Offerings

Austin’s Fantastic Fest offers chillers, thrillers, serial killers, and all other sorts of cinematic horror, along with a wide range of other genre films, too. Have a gander at what’s in store with the following official press announcement. Step right up for the greatest show on Earth! That’s right, Fantastic Fest is back for its 19th edition, bringing you a cavalcade of cinematic wonders from around the globe. Featuring 28 World Premieres, 23 International and North American Premieres, and 15 U.S. Premieres that are guaranteed to delight and surprise you, complemented by jaw-dropping events and spectacular special guests. Join us under the big top at the world-famous Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX, from September 19th- 26th. Badges are available now at FantasticFest.com. “The Fantastic Fest team is absolutely elated about this year’s festival. We can’t wait to share the very best new films from around the world and enjoy our sensational events together this September,” says Festival Director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 16, 2024

Spoiler-Free Review: IN OUR BLOOD (Fantasia 2024)

I hesitate to call Pedro Kos’s feature In Our Blood a found footage film because although it does use some of the trappings of that subgenre, I feel his tale of a young woman’s search for her missing mother has more of a cinéma vérité feel to it, with a bit of “behind the scenes” sensibilities at play, too. Kos has made documentary films before helming In Our Blood, and he brings a sense of reality to the film. The story concerns Emily (Brittany O’Grady), who travels with cinematographer Danny (E.J. Bonilla) to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she plans to film her reunion with her estranged mother Sam (Alanna Ubach), who she hasn’t seen since she was 13 years old and taken out of Sam’s custody because of the mother’s drug addiction. The reunion is difficult for both women but offers some hope, with Sam inviting Emily to visit her at the shelter where she works the next day.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 1, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: ELECTROPHILIA and ASTRO NOTS (Fantasia 2024)

Electrophilia (Los Impactados) Argentinian feature Electrophilia touches on body horror and eroticism involving electricity but never goes full-on with these themes, instead feeling more like a character study of its protagonist, veterinarian Amanda (Mariana Di Girólamo). The young woman is struck by lightning and after she recovers from a six-week coma, she begins to feel changes that have happened to her mind and now-scarred body. She falls in with a group of lightning-strike survivors under the care of Juan (Germán Palacios), a doctor who uses unorthodox methods to treat those under his care, and begins an affair with him. Amanda develops sexual kinks related to electrical charges and shocks, worrying her significant other Jano (Guillermo Pfening). Director Lucía Puenzo, who cowrote the screenplay with Lorean Ventimigila, leaves viewers hanging with plot points that seem to have no resolution, such as Jano secretly going into Juan’s office and finding the doctor’s file on Amanda but then that scene not being addressed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 27, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: DARKEST MIRIAM and THE OLD MAN AND THE DEMON SWORD (Fantasia 2024)

Darkest Miriam Canadian feature Darkest Miriam is a slow-burn thriller that follows thirtysomething librarian Miriam (Britt Lower), who is grieving over the loss of her father. She spends her days at work following routine— including dealing with an eccentric clientele — until an accident while she rides her bicycle jolts her out of the ordinary. She begins a relationship with foreign taxi driver Janko (Tom Mercier) but also starts receiving mysterious, ominous letters written in the voice of Italian opera character Rigoletto — who sheltered his daughter from the outside world until she was killed. Director Naomi Jaye has fashioned an intriguing character study that deals in genre elements while exploring themes of love and loss. A dreamlike feel pervades the film. Lower is fantastic as the complex title character, and Jank offers fine work in his costarring role. There’s an eccentricity to Darkest Miriam, but it is by no means an inaccessible one. Jaye ultimately aims to inspire, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 24, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: The Cursed Land and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

The Cursed Land Thai horror The Cursed Land is an ambitious work that perhaps takes on too much in its attempt to deliver a fear-fare tale involving djinn while addressing issues involving the largely Muslim Malay community in Thailand. Mit (Ananda Everingham) is wracked by guilt over not being able to save his wife, who died in an accident. He moves with his teen daughter (Jennis Oprasert) to a large house — in disrepair and with talismans placed around it — in a Muslim residential area near Bangkok. Mit removes the talismans and diabolical supernatural events ensue. In trying to find solutions to his newfound bedevilment, Mit learns about the tragic past of the region. Director Panu Aree, who cowrote the screenplay with Kong Rithdee, offers much in the way of eerie atmosphere and is assisted by strong performances from his cast members. The pacing is often slow, sometimes because of plentiful flashbacks, and the running time of 131 minutes

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2024

Spoiler-Free Reviews: The Unrighteous and The Last Stop in Yuma County

The Unrighteous Pseudoreligious cults are prevalent in some Asian countries. Shin’ichirô Ueda took a humorous approach at exposing the ways that such cults can sway people into their fold with his 2019 Japanese comedy Special Actors, and now Korean writer/director Kim Seon-kuk takes a more serious thriller/horror approach about such tactics with his engrossing The Unrighteous. Revolving around the residents of an aging apartment complex named Villa Wonjung and their desire to eventually profit from rising property values to move into fancier, more modern apartments, the story finds young head of household Joo-hyun (Lee Hyun-woo) pitted against neighbor Shin-hye (Moon Jeong-hee) whose sudden devoted involvement in a cult begins the recruitment of the other residents, including his mother. Aided by a young woman (Bang Min-ah) looking to expose the cult, Joo-hyun tries to use reason to stop the cult’s powerful influence while the residents’ fervor grows, and the cult’s underhanded ambitions grow increasingly dangerous. The committed performances by the three

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2024
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