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Joseph Perry

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Horror Fuel

U.K.’s Horror-on-Sea Film Festival Announces Its Stellar 2020 Lineup

Horror-on-Sea returns to Southend once again in 2020 with its biggest blood-soaked line up yet of independent film as the fest celebrates its eighth year. One of the UK’s biggest independent film festivals, it was originally formed to promote independent horror films. The fest gives an opportunity to fright-fare features and shorts that are not normally played on the big screen. Taking place at The Park Inn Palace Hotel (Southend-on-Sea), the festival will run over two weekends, from Friday, January 10 to Sunday, January 12, and then Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19. Many of the screenings of more than 36 features and 62 shorts will include introductions by the filmmakers themselves. I have reviewed the incredible Bloodsucker’s Planet for Horror Fuel (read here), and can highly recommend adding that film to your must-see list. Among the other announced features that I am greatly looking forward to are Peruvian fear-fare anthology Witch Tales, U.K. home invasion horror outing Nefarious,

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Joseph Perry
Nov 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Atlanta’s Buried Alive Film Festival Offers Witches, Werewolves, and Weirdness

The 2019 edition of Atlanta’s Buried Alive Film Festival is chock full of outstanding, outrageous horror features and shorts from around the world. The fest is scheduled for November 13–17 at 7 Stages Theatre. Following are the features that I am most looking forward to seeing, either for the first time or once again. My thoughts in italics follow the fest’s official descriptions for each film. Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made Dir. Michael Laicini and David Amito – USA – 95min Antrum, a feature length film shot in the late 1970’s, is cursed. In 1988, a movie theatre in Budapest that was screening the film burnt to the ground, killing the 56 people who were in attendance. This incident follows the inexplicable deaths of a number of film festival programmers that had received Antrum as a submission and died shortly after watching the film. These events culminated with a riot during an exhibition in San Francisco, after which the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 8, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

Special guest coauthor: Chris Weatherspoon The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), the largest genre film fest in both its home of South Korea and of Asia as well, took place about a month earlier than its preceding editions (running June 27–July 7 this year) and delivered one of its strongest lineups in recent memory. BIFAN boasted horror, thriller, action, and other genre films of all stripes from around the world. Following are our thoughts on five of the fest’s offerings. Chris Weatherspoon: Irish horror-comedy Extra Ordinary is the feature debut for writing/directing team Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. Comedian Maeve Higgins (Inside Amy Schumer) stars as Rose Dooley, a bumbling spinster who earns her living as a driving instructor; however, Rose is far from being an ordinary, lonely middle-aged woman, as the movie’s title notes. Rose has the ability to communicate with the dead and to exorcise ghosts, but a childhood incident has left her traumatized, and for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Frightening Ass Film Fest): After Midnight, Greenlight, and Wrinkles the Clown (all 2019)

After Midnight (formerly titled Something Else) is an odd beast, in the best way. It pushes boundaries on genre blending, resulting in a creature feature film that may be too slow for those hoping for an outright horror outing, but it will highly reward viewers interested in the current trend of quieter, personal fright fare. Writer and codirector (with the film’s cinematographer Christian Stella) Jeremy Gardner (who also helmed, scripted, and starred in The Battery [2012]) stars as Hank, a man content with settling down at his old family home, which is in a state of disrepair, and hunting with buddies when not comanaging the bar he owns with long-time girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant of Beyond the Gates [2016] and Dead Night [2017]). When Abby leaves suddenly with only a short note that doesn’t explain much to announce her departure, Hank becomes isolated and his behavior becomes erratic, including seemingly battling nightly with what he claims to be a monster.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 31, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Brooklyn Horror Film Festival): 1 BR (2019) and This Is Our Home (2019)

A young woman finds out that the old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” can be horrifyingly true in the nerve-wracking chiller 1BR. Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom in a superb performance) moves to Los Angeles without a job or apartment, angry after her recently widowed father takes up with a new lover. She lucks out — or so she thinks — when she wins out over several competitors and lands a highly sought-after apartment in a community where everyone knows each other and has community barbecues. Strict rules are in place, though, and Sarah learns a terrifying lesson when she breaks one of them. This is just the beginning of her problems, though, as 1BR heads into territory that it would be a disservice to spoil here. Suffice it to say that the film is filled with not only loads of suspense and cringe-inducing moments (in the best sense of that term), but that

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 23, 2019
Horror Fuel

‘Sister Tempest’ Promises Surreal Chills, Alien Tribunals, and Cannibalistic Cravings

Writer/director Joe Badon unleashed his surreal mind-bender The God Inside My Ear in 2017, and it instantly became one of my top 10 films of that year, regardless of genre. The Louisiana filmmaker has just released the trailer for his sophomore feature Sister Tempest, and this outing looks to be equally as outré as his jaw-dropping debut. The film’s official synopsis states: “Anne Hutchinson’s troubled relationship with her missing sister is under alien tribunal. Meanwhile, her new roommate’s mysterious illness causes her to go on a cannibalistic killing spree.” The trailer promises intriguing new visions from Badon, and I’m also guessing some of the elements that made The God Inside My Ear so amazing will be in play for this film, too, including head-scratching (in the best way!) visuals, sequences that tread the fine line between nightmarish and dreamlike, a few nods to classic and obscure films from horror and other genres, and, naturally, the unexpected. Badon is also an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (FilmQuest Film Festival): The Black String (2019)

Life goes from boring and lonely to maddening and terrifying for twentysomething Jonathan, the protagonist of director Brian Hanson’s The Black String, a terrific supernatural/body horror film with paranoia thriller and film noir elements. Jonathan, superbly portrayed by Frankie Muniz of Agent Cody Banks (2003) and the TV series Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006), is a loner who lets life pass him by while working at what he calls a “lifestyle convenience boutique,” but what most of us refer to as a liquor store. His outgoing boss and friend Eric (Blake Webb of the American Horror Story [2011] TV series and Alienate [2016]) coaxes him into living life a bit more, which leads Jonathan to call a singles hotline number after seeing its seemingly personalized commercial on television. As a result, Jonathan winds up on a date with the fetching Dena (Chelsea Edmunson of 14 Cameras and Howlers, both 2018) and contracting a horrid looking rash from having unprotected sex

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 18, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (GenreBlast Film Festival): Bloodsucker’s Planet (2019)

Bloodsucker’s Planet screened at GenreBlast, which ran at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia, from August 29– September 1. Fans of space opera creature features such as The Green Slime (1968) and Mario Bava’s Planet of The Vampires (1965; an obvious influence here) are sure to find loads to love about writer/director/cinematographer/editor/producer Mark Beal’s outrageously fun new film Bloodsucker’s Planet. In the distant future, the spaceship Argosy picks up a distress signal from the planet Mara. Captain McDermott (Allen Menefee) decides to have his crew investigate, with everyone heading down to Mara except second-in-command Clarissa (Leni Mex), who remains aboard the ship. Doc (Joel Jeremy Herrera), Paulina (Adrienne Dobson), and Danvers (Logan Hooks) have a look-see, during which time Danvers comes into contact with a small creature that looks like a tentacled bat. The planet’s sole human resident, Bartlett (Joe Grisaffi), has chosen to remain on Mara as caretaker for a large corporation that abandoned its mud farming industry years

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 2, 2019

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

U.K.’s Horror-on-Sea Film Festival Announces Its Stellar 2020 Lineup

Horror-on-Sea returns to Southend once again in 2020 with its biggest blood-soaked line up yet of independent film as the fest celebrates its eighth year. One of the UK’s biggest independent film festivals, it was originally formed to promote independent horror films. The fest gives an opportunity to fright-fare features and shorts that are not normally played on the big screen. Taking place at The Park Inn Palace Hotel (Southend-on-Sea), the festival will run over two weekends, from Friday, January 10 to Sunday, January 12, and then Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19. Many of the screenings of more than 36 features and 62 shorts will include introductions by the filmmakers themselves. I have reviewed the incredible Bloodsucker’s Planet for Horror Fuel (read here), and can highly recommend adding that film to your must-see list. Among the other announced features that I am greatly looking forward to are Peruvian fear-fare anthology Witch Tales, U.K. home invasion horror outing Nefarious,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Atlanta’s Buried Alive Film Festival Offers Witches, Werewolves, and Weirdness

The 2019 edition of Atlanta’s Buried Alive Film Festival is chock full of outstanding, outrageous horror features and shorts from around the world. The fest is scheduled for November 13–17 at 7 Stages Theatre. Following are the features that I am most looking forward to seeing, either for the first time or once again. My thoughts in italics follow the fest’s official descriptions for each film. Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made Dir. Michael Laicini and David Amito – USA – 95min Antrum, a feature length film shot in the late 1970’s, is cursed. In 1988, a movie theatre in Budapest that was screening the film burnt to the ground, killing the 56 people who were in attendance. This incident follows the inexplicable deaths of a number of film festival programmers that had received Antrum as a submission and died shortly after watching the film. These events culminated with a riot during an exhibition in San Francisco, after which the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 8, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews: Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

Special guest coauthor: Chris Weatherspoon The 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), the largest genre film fest in both its home of South Korea and of Asia as well, took place about a month earlier than its preceding editions (running June 27–July 7 this year) and delivered one of its strongest lineups in recent memory. BIFAN boasted horror, thriller, action, and other genre films of all stripes from around the world. Following are our thoughts on five of the fest’s offerings. Chris Weatherspoon: Irish horror-comedy Extra Ordinary is the feature debut for writing/directing team Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. Comedian Maeve Higgins (Inside Amy Schumer) stars as Rose Dooley, a bumbling spinster who earns her living as a driving instructor; however, Rose is far from being an ordinary, lonely middle-aged woman, as the movie’s title notes. Rose has the ability to communicate with the dead and to exorcise ghosts, but a childhood incident has left her traumatized, and for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 4, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Frightening Ass Film Fest): After Midnight, Greenlight, and Wrinkles the Clown (all 2019)

After Midnight (formerly titled Something Else) is an odd beast, in the best way. It pushes boundaries on genre blending, resulting in a creature feature film that may be too slow for those hoping for an outright horror outing, but it will highly reward viewers interested in the current trend of quieter, personal fright fare. Writer and codirector (with the film’s cinematographer Christian Stella) Jeremy Gardner (who also helmed, scripted, and starred in The Battery [2012]) stars as Hank, a man content with settling down at his old family home, which is in a state of disrepair, and hunting with buddies when not comanaging the bar he owns with long-time girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant of Beyond the Gates [2016] and Dead Night [2017]). When Abby leaves suddenly with only a short note that doesn’t explain much to announce her departure, Hank becomes isolated and his behavior becomes erratic, including seemingly battling nightly with what he claims to be a monster.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 31, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Brooklyn Horror Film Festival): 1 BR (2019) and This Is Our Home (2019)

A young woman finds out that the old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” can be horrifyingly true in the nerve-wracking chiller 1BR. Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom in a superb performance) moves to Los Angeles without a job or apartment, angry after her recently widowed father takes up with a new lover. She lucks out — or so she thinks — when she wins out over several competitors and lands a highly sought-after apartment in a community where everyone knows each other and has community barbecues. Strict rules are in place, though, and Sarah learns a terrifying lesson when she breaks one of them. This is just the beginning of her problems, though, as 1BR heads into territory that it would be a disservice to spoil here. Suffice it to say that the film is filled with not only loads of suspense and cringe-inducing moments (in the best sense of that term), but that

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 23, 2019
Horror Fuel

‘Sister Tempest’ Promises Surreal Chills, Alien Tribunals, and Cannibalistic Cravings

Writer/director Joe Badon unleashed his surreal mind-bender The God Inside My Ear in 2017, and it instantly became one of my top 10 films of that year, regardless of genre. The Louisiana filmmaker has just released the trailer for his sophomore feature Sister Tempest, and this outing looks to be equally as outré as his jaw-dropping debut. The film’s official synopsis states: “Anne Hutchinson’s troubled relationship with her missing sister is under alien tribunal. Meanwhile, her new roommate’s mysterious illness causes her to go on a cannibalistic killing spree.” The trailer promises intriguing new visions from Badon, and I’m also guessing some of the elements that made The God Inside My Ear so amazing will be in play for this film, too, including head-scratching (in the best way!) visuals, sequences that tread the fine line between nightmarish and dreamlike, a few nods to classic and obscure films from horror and other genres, and, naturally, the unexpected. Badon is also an

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Oct 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (FilmQuest Film Festival): The Black String (2019)

Life goes from boring and lonely to maddening and terrifying for twentysomething Jonathan, the protagonist of director Brian Hanson’s The Black String, a terrific supernatural/body horror film with paranoia thriller and film noir elements. Jonathan, superbly portrayed by Frankie Muniz of Agent Cody Banks (2003) and the TV series Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006), is a loner who lets life pass him by while working at what he calls a “lifestyle convenience boutique,” but what most of us refer to as a liquor store. His outgoing boss and friend Eric (Blake Webb of the American Horror Story [2011] TV series and Alienate [2016]) coaxes him into living life a bit more, which leads Jonathan to call a singles hotline number after seeing its seemingly personalized commercial on television. As a result, Jonathan winds up on a date with the fetching Dena (Chelsea Edmunson of 14 Cameras and Howlers, both 2018) and contracting a horrid looking rash from having unprotected sex

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 18, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (GenreBlast Film Festival): Bloodsucker’s Planet (2019)

Bloodsucker’s Planet screened at GenreBlast, which ran at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia, from August 29– September 1. Fans of space opera creature features such as The Green Slime (1968) and Mario Bava’s Planet of The Vampires (1965; an obvious influence here) are sure to find loads to love about writer/director/cinematographer/editor/producer Mark Beal’s outrageously fun new film Bloodsucker’s Planet. In the distant future, the spaceship Argosy picks up a distress signal from the planet Mara. Captain McDermott (Allen Menefee) decides to have his crew investigate, with everyone heading down to Mara except second-in-command Clarissa (Leni Mex), who remains aboard the ship. Doc (Joel Jeremy Herrera), Paulina (Adrienne Dobson), and Danvers (Logan Hooks) have a look-see, during which time Danvers comes into contact with a small creature that looks like a tentacled bat. The planet’s sole human resident, Bartlett (Joe Grisaffi), has chosen to remain on Mara as caretaker for a large corporation that abandoned its mud farming industry years

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Sep 2, 2019