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Joseph Perry

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Horror Fuel

Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival Announces Its 2020 Digital Lineup

Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), Canada’s premiere fear-fare fest, is going digital and nationwide this year with a tantalizing 11-night lineup. From the excellent Anything for Jackson and its devil-worshipping grandparents to the appealing documentary Hail to the Deadites and its celebration of The Evil Dead fandom, to Bloodthirsty and its lycanthropy tale, and beyond, BITS promises to deliver shocks and shivers galore across Canada. Following is the fest’s official press announcement. The BLOOD IN THE SNOW FILM FESTIVAL (BITS) unleashed its newest batch of Canadian terror, which takes over Halloween this October 28 to November 7 on Super Channel for 11 incredible nights. For the first time, horror and sci-fi fans across the country can experience all the thrills and chills BITS has to offer with a must-see creepy collection of 10 features and 4 shorts programs airing on Super Channel Fuse. The festival kicks off with ANYTHING FOR JACKSON, (dir. Justin G. Dyck) which sees elderly

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Twisted Dreams Film Festival): VHS Massacre Too

Whereas the documentary VHS Massacre (2016) took a nostalgic look at the decline of VHS and other physical media, its new sequel VHS Massacre Too focuses on such current issues as the lack of interest and even refusal of large streaming platforms — currently the most popular mode of movie consumption — to feature low-budget exploitation films. The documentary takes a sound look at the problem and how it affects independent filmmakers, cast, and crew members. Director Thomas Edward Seymour kicks the film off with film critic Joe Bob Briggs and others discussing exploitation films, censorship, and related topics from the Hays Code onward. It’s a brief but informative introduction and sets the table well for later censorship discussions, such as Blockbuster Video’s refusal to carry certain types of movies. Briggs is just one of several talking heads in the documentary. He provides fine insight on how films can become obscure and even lost without physical media. Filmmaker and actor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 5, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Celebration of Fantastic Fest): The Boy Behind the Door

No exaggeration: The horror thriller The Boy Behind the Door, from the writing and directing team of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, is one of the most tense, gripping films I have seen in ages, and it had me squirming in my seat and shouting advice and encouragement at its young protagonists throughout the film. It’s a sure bet for my list of top 10 horror films of 2020. Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are best friends, preteen boys who harbor dreams of someday escaping their smalltown existence to go to a sunny place like California together. While tossing a baseball around in the woods, the two are abducted. Bobby escapes from the trunk of the car where he was left to die and starts to run away from the property where they were taken. Then he hears Kevin’s screams and breaks into the kidnapper’s house to try to rescue his friend. That’s all you should know in

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 3, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (NOLA Horror Film Fest): Parable

South African feature Parable is all over the place, in the best sense of the term. At times loopy, at other times bitingly satirical, and at still others creepy and unnerving as all get out, director Beer Adriaanse’s film is a blast. Teenager Esther (Jane de Wet) gets caught by her father in the act of kissing another girl, and he sends her off to a Christian camp where the controversial Reverend Day (Michael Richard) means to “cure” her of her sapphic desires. When Esther proves hard to “cure,” Day proclaims that she is possessed by a demon. The thing is, somewhere along the line, Esther does indeed find herself in the clutches of a diabolical force. Meanwhile, high schooler Kasper (Jay Hlatshwayo), his drug-dealing buddy Loyd (Danny Meaker), and their friend Lina (Carla Classen) are entering their gated community when Day drives in to hide Esther in one of the houses there. She scratches Kasper, forming a psychic bond

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary with a Stellar Streaming Version

More than 60 feature-length and short films inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft are slated for this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which marks the 25th edition of this highly revered cinematic event. Festival directors Brian and Gwen Callahan are taking the fest online this year — as they did in June with Portland Horror Film Festival — which opens up H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival to a much larger audience than in the past. As one of H.P. Lovecraft Film Fesetival’s selection judges, I can personally attest to the quality of the films that the fest has on tap. These include the wild, wooly, and jaw-dropping ride The Hill and the Hole, based on a short story by Fritz Leiber, in which a state-employed archaeologist comes across a strange, undocumented mound in a highly remote area, and the Estonian portmanteau Eerie Fairy Tales, which collects a fine group of occult stories, ancient myths, and urban legends. A complete lineup

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Screamfest Horror Film Festival Celebrates Its 20th Edition at the Drive-In

Screamfest Horror Film Festival celebrates its 20th edition this year under the stars for a 10-night showcase of chilling new features and shorts. From supernatural to psychological horrors, the festival’s 2020 drive-in edition offers must-see fright fare. Following is the festival’s official press release. The 20th annual Screamfest Horror Film Festival today announced their lineup of features and shorts, kicking off with a drive-in screening of Hulu’s Books of Blood. The festival, which will run from October 6-15, 2020, is the largest and longest running horror film festival in the United States. This year the festival will move entirely to drive-in screenings with a lineup of ten back-to-back nights of fright, each showcasing a feature film paired with a number of shorts. Tickets can be purchased here: https://screamfestla.com/ Screamfest LA will kick off on October 6 with the Opening Night screening of Books of Blood, based on Clive Barker’s acclaimed and influential horror anthology BOOKS OF BLOOD. The feature from

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (NOLA Horror Film Fest): The Unfamiliar

U.K. chiller The Unfamiliar treads some recognizable ground but balances that out by placing its characters in an unusual setting, that being in the world of the Hawaiian occult. Military doctor Elizabeth “Izzy” Cormack (Jemima West) has just returned from a tour of duty during which she was forced into combat. She is having a difficult time reconnecting with her distant teenage stepdaughter Emma (Rebecca Hanssen), preteen son Tommy (Harry McMillan-Hunt), her professor/writer husband Ethan (Christopher Dane), and their baby Lilly (Beatrice Woolrych). To make matters worse, Izzy starts seeing and being part of weird occurrences, and when she tries to record these events as proof that they aren’t part of her PTSD, naturally there is no video evidence. Meanwhile, Ethan oddly wants to abandon his recent book research about the myths and customs — some of them dealing with the occult — of Hawaii in favor of writing children’s books. Tommy is acting strangely, including performing Hawaiian supernatural rituals.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 24, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Mr. HoleHead’s Warped Dimension): Stray Dogs

Two brothers already uneasy in each other’s company find themselves in an increasingly tense situation when they encounter a stranger during a backpacking trip in director Adam Gascho’s thriller Stray Dogs. Solid acting and storytelling make Gascho’s debut feature an independent effort worth seeking out. Jeff’s (Skyler Pinkerton) beloved dog has just passed away, and Jeff wants to bury him in the remote forest area where he found him. Jeff insists that his brother Travis (Tad Davies) accompany him on the backpacking excursion, which will mean Travis having to miss custody time with his children. He reluctantly goes along with Jeff, and the two brothers quarrel often. Meanwhile, in the area where the brothers are hiking, Park Ranger Miller (April Martucci) happens upon the body of someone who appears to have been murdered. During their hike, the brothers run into a stranger named Angus (Gascho) and when Ranger Miller asks the men for their IDs and relationship, Jeff surprisingly backs

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

NOLA Horror Film Fest Serves Up Aliens, Vampires, and Witches for Its 2020 Online Virtual Experience

This month, NOLA Horror Film Fest celebrates its 10th year with a real-time virtual online festival chock-full of fear-fare delights. The superb new occult feature The Reckoning from director Neil Marshall, the mind-blowing sophomore feature Sister Tempest from director Joe Badon of The God Inside My Ear fame, and U.K. supernatural outing The Unfamilar are just a few of the outstanding feature-length and short films on tap for the festival. Following is the official press release from NOLA Horror Film Fest. In its tenth year, NOLA Horror Film Fest will be a virtual online festival experience hosted live in real time when presented Central Standard Time on September 25-27, 2020. This year’s official selections include 54 films and 50 screenplay finalists from all over the world, chosen from 865 national and international submissions exclusively through FilmFreeway. Through three days of the best horror & sci-fi programs (Features & Film Shorts Screenings and Zoom Panel Discussions) the NOLA Horror Film Fest

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Beyond Fest Goes to the Drive-In and Announces A Loaded Horror Slate   

The highly regarded Beyond Fest has announced that it is forging ahead with the first physical genre festival of the year as it takes up a week-long drive-in residence at the Mission Tiki Drive-In From October 2nd–8th. The stellar lineup includes world premieres of Christopher Landon’s Freaky, Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Archenemy, and Jim Cummings’ The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Following is the fest’s official announcement. Beyond Fest, the highest-attended genre film festival in the US, is excited to announce its complete slate of 2020 programming comprising seven nights of double-bill features including three world premieres, one North American Premiere, and two US premieres of unadulterated cinematic excess. Following a sold-out Summer residence with the American Cinematheque at the Mission Tiki Drive-In, Beyond Fest returns to the socially-distanced safety of the drive-in Friday, October 2nd – Thursday, October 8th to generate funds for the 501c3 non-profit film institution. With a diverse slate celebrating all corners of genre cinema, Beyond Fest is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 20, 2020

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

Canada’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival Announces Its 2020 Digital Lineup

Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), Canada’s premiere fear-fare fest, is going digital and nationwide this year with a tantalizing 11-night lineup. From the excellent Anything for Jackson and its devil-worshipping grandparents to the appealing documentary Hail to the Deadites and its celebration of The Evil Dead fandom, to Bloodthirsty and its lycanthropy tale, and beyond, BITS promises to deliver shocks and shivers galore across Canada. Following is the fest’s official press announcement. The BLOOD IN THE SNOW FILM FESTIVAL (BITS) unleashed its newest batch of Canadian terror, which takes over Halloween this October 28 to November 7 on Super Channel for 11 incredible nights. For the first time, horror and sci-fi fans across the country can experience all the thrills and chills BITS has to offer with a must-see creepy collection of 10 features and 4 shorts programs airing on Super Channel Fuse. The festival kicks off with ANYTHING FOR JACKSON, (dir. Justin G. Dyck) which sees elderly

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Twisted Dreams Film Festival): VHS Massacre Too

Whereas the documentary VHS Massacre (2016) took a nostalgic look at the decline of VHS and other physical media, its new sequel VHS Massacre Too focuses on such current issues as the lack of interest and even refusal of large streaming platforms — currently the most popular mode of movie consumption — to feature low-budget exploitation films. The documentary takes a sound look at the problem and how it affects independent filmmakers, cast, and crew members. Director Thomas Edward Seymour kicks the film off with film critic Joe Bob Briggs and others discussing exploitation films, censorship, and related topics from the Hays Code onward. It’s a brief but informative introduction and sets the table well for later censorship discussions, such as Blockbuster Video’s refusal to carry certain types of movies. Briggs is just one of several talking heads in the documentary. He provides fine insight on how films can become obscure and even lost without physical media. Filmmaker and actor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 5, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Celebration of Fantastic Fest): The Boy Behind the Door

No exaggeration: The horror thriller The Boy Behind the Door, from the writing and directing team of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, is one of the most tense, gripping films I have seen in ages, and it had me squirming in my seat and shouting advice and encouragement at its young protagonists throughout the film. It’s a sure bet for my list of top 10 horror films of 2020. Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are best friends, preteen boys who harbor dreams of someday escaping their smalltown existence to go to a sunny place like California together. While tossing a baseball around in the woods, the two are abducted. Bobby escapes from the trunk of the car where he was left to die and starts to run away from the property where they were taken. Then he hears Kevin’s screams and breaks into the kidnapper’s house to try to rescue his friend. That’s all you should know in

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 3, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (NOLA Horror Film Fest): Parable

South African feature Parable is all over the place, in the best sense of the term. At times loopy, at other times bitingly satirical, and at still others creepy and unnerving as all get out, director Beer Adriaanse’s film is a blast. Teenager Esther (Jane de Wet) gets caught by her father in the act of kissing another girl, and he sends her off to a Christian camp where the controversial Reverend Day (Michael Richard) means to “cure” her of her sapphic desires. When Esther proves hard to “cure,” Day proclaims that she is possessed by a demon. The thing is, somewhere along the line, Esther does indeed find herself in the clutches of a diabolical force. Meanwhile, high schooler Kasper (Jay Hlatshwayo), his drug-dealing buddy Loyd (Danny Meaker), and their friend Lina (Carla Classen) are entering their gated community when Day drives in to hide Esther in one of the houses there. She scratches Kasper, forming a psychic bond

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary with a Stellar Streaming Version

More than 60 feature-length and short films inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft are slated for this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which marks the 25th edition of this highly revered cinematic event. Festival directors Brian and Gwen Callahan are taking the fest online this year — as they did in June with Portland Horror Film Festival — which opens up H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival to a much larger audience than in the past. As one of H.P. Lovecraft Film Fesetival’s selection judges, I can personally attest to the quality of the films that the fest has on tap. These include the wild, wooly, and jaw-dropping ride The Hill and the Hole, based on a short story by Fritz Leiber, in which a state-employed archaeologist comes across a strange, undocumented mound in a highly remote area, and the Estonian portmanteau Eerie Fairy Tales, which collects a fine group of occult stories, ancient myths, and urban legends. A complete lineup

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Screamfest Horror Film Festival Celebrates Its 20th Edition at the Drive-In

Screamfest Horror Film Festival celebrates its 20th edition this year under the stars for a 10-night showcase of chilling new features and shorts. From supernatural to psychological horrors, the festival’s 2020 drive-in edition offers must-see fright fare. Following is the festival’s official press release. The 20th annual Screamfest Horror Film Festival today announced their lineup of features and shorts, kicking off with a drive-in screening of Hulu’s Books of Blood. The festival, which will run from October 6-15, 2020, is the largest and longest running horror film festival in the United States. This year the festival will move entirely to drive-in screenings with a lineup of ten back-to-back nights of fright, each showcasing a feature film paired with a number of shorts. Tickets can be purchased here: https://screamfestla.com/ Screamfest LA will kick off on October 6 with the Opening Night screening of Books of Blood, based on Clive Barker’s acclaimed and influential horror anthology BOOKS OF BLOOD. The feature from

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (NOLA Horror Film Fest): The Unfamiliar

U.K. chiller The Unfamiliar treads some recognizable ground but balances that out by placing its characters in an unusual setting, that being in the world of the Hawaiian occult. Military doctor Elizabeth “Izzy” Cormack (Jemima West) has just returned from a tour of duty during which she was forced into combat. She is having a difficult time reconnecting with her distant teenage stepdaughter Emma (Rebecca Hanssen), preteen son Tommy (Harry McMillan-Hunt), her professor/writer husband Ethan (Christopher Dane), and their baby Lilly (Beatrice Woolrych). To make matters worse, Izzy starts seeing and being part of weird occurrences, and when she tries to record these events as proof that they aren’t part of her PTSD, naturally there is no video evidence. Meanwhile, Ethan oddly wants to abandon his recent book research about the myths and customs — some of them dealing with the occult — of Hawaii in favor of writing children’s books. Tommy is acting strangely, including performing Hawaiian supernatural rituals.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 24, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Mr. HoleHead’s Warped Dimension): Stray Dogs

Two brothers already uneasy in each other’s company find themselves in an increasingly tense situation when they encounter a stranger during a backpacking trip in director Adam Gascho’s thriller Stray Dogs. Solid acting and storytelling make Gascho’s debut feature an independent effort worth seeking out. Jeff’s (Skyler Pinkerton) beloved dog has just passed away, and Jeff wants to bury him in the remote forest area where he found him. Jeff insists that his brother Travis (Tad Davies) accompany him on the backpacking excursion, which will mean Travis having to miss custody time with his children. He reluctantly goes along with Jeff, and the two brothers quarrel often. Meanwhile, in the area where the brothers are hiking, Park Ranger Miller (April Martucci) happens upon the body of someone who appears to have been murdered. During their hike, the brothers run into a stranger named Angus (Gascho) and when Ranger Miller asks the men for their IDs and relationship, Jeff surprisingly backs

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

NOLA Horror Film Fest Serves Up Aliens, Vampires, and Witches for Its 2020 Online Virtual Experience

This month, NOLA Horror Film Fest celebrates its 10th year with a real-time virtual online festival chock-full of fear-fare delights. The superb new occult feature The Reckoning from director Neil Marshall, the mind-blowing sophomore feature Sister Tempest from director Joe Badon of The God Inside My Ear fame, and U.K. supernatural outing The Unfamilar are just a few of the outstanding feature-length and short films on tap for the festival. Following is the official press release from NOLA Horror Film Fest. In its tenth year, NOLA Horror Film Fest will be a virtual online festival experience hosted live in real time when presented Central Standard Time on September 25-27, 2020. This year’s official selections include 54 films and 50 screenplay finalists from all over the world, chosen from 865 national and international submissions exclusively through FilmFreeway. Through three days of the best horror & sci-fi programs (Features & Film Shorts Screenings and Zoom Panel Discussions) the NOLA Horror Film Fest

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Beyond Fest Goes to the Drive-In and Announces A Loaded Horror Slate   

The highly regarded Beyond Fest has announced that it is forging ahead with the first physical genre festival of the year as it takes up a week-long drive-in residence at the Mission Tiki Drive-In From October 2nd–8th. The stellar lineup includes world premieres of Christopher Landon’s Freaky, Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Archenemy, and Jim Cummings’ The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Following is the fest’s official announcement. Beyond Fest, the highest-attended genre film festival in the US, is excited to announce its complete slate of 2020 programming comprising seven nights of double-bill features including three world premieres, one North American Premiere, and two US premieres of unadulterated cinematic excess. Following a sold-out Summer residence with the American Cinematheque at the Mission Tiki Drive-In, Beyond Fest returns to the socially-distanced safety of the drive-in Friday, October 2nd – Thursday, October 8th to generate funds for the 501c3 non-profit film institution. With a diverse slate celebrating all corners of genre cinema, Beyond Fest is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 20, 2020
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