Documentaries

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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.

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Joseph Perry

Oct 31, 2019

DocumentariesMoviesReviews

Movie Review: Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019)

Memory: The Origins of Alien, the new film from Director Alexandre O. Philippe takes a whole new tack in investigating the creation of Ridley Scott’s Alien; he sets his eerie eyeballs mostly on the period of time before the film began shooting, rather than showing us yet another “making-of” piece… and that is refreshing as all fuck boils n’ ghouls! To that end, much heed is paid to what may have influenced Writer Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead) to create this story in the first place with the much mentioned It: The Terror From Beyond Space and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, to lesser known (but obvious) inspiration culled from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and E.C. Comics, while creating his own unforgettable mythology and world building. Time is also spent examining cool-as-all-fuck late artist H.R. Giger’s undeniable influence on all things xenomorph, as well as what Scott brought to the table (though as the only surviving

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DanXIII

Oct 12, 2019

DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews

Movie Review: MOMO: The Missouri Monster (2019)

Blackburn’s Cryptid Casefiles, hosted by cryptid expert/author Lyle Blackburn, sets it’s sights on the events of the ol’ summer of ’72; when a hairy sumbitch bugged the shit outta the residents of Louisiana, Missouri. Locations are visited, the locals are chatted up… business as usual; but the real feather in the creepy cap is the presentation of clips from a rediscovered film on the subject from decades past. All of this blurs the line between fantasy and reality as Seth Breedlove and Small Town Monsters have changed up their basic straight-up documentary style format and have presented some elaborate re-enactments with the inclusion of the faux fright film footage (not to mention the addition of Blackburn rather than having Breedlove himself narrate the events) in the style of one of my fav flicks The Legend of Boggy Creek, and the end result is a ton of fearsome fun! As one would expect, the events presented in the “lost” film don’t

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DanXIII

Sep 19, 2019

DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews

Movie Review: Horror Movie: A Low Budget Nightmare (2017)

Director Craig Anderson is like a lot of us… a middle-aged man who hasn’t given up the dream of making his own fright flick. So he leaves his television gig and actually makes a film; 2016’s Red Christmas (which I reviewed in another life right here); a lil’ ditty about an aborted fetus that lives, grows up and decides to get sweet revenge on mommy dearest come Yuletide. Now you may say; “Why in the unholy fuck would I give two generous shits about the making of a film I (probably) never saw?” The answer to that is simple; “Because you need to see the absolute hell filmmaking can be if you aren’t properly prepared.” The main area that unpreparedness shows is in the budgeting of the film… Anderson’s budget, meager to begin with, continues to grow, and he has to bust ass and make many a sacrifice (including totally sucking the teat of his life savings dry as a

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DanXIII

Sep 10, 2019

DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers

Documentary ‘Memory: The Origins Of Alien’ Acquired By Screen Media and Legion M

Screen Media and Legion M announced today that they have acquired the North American rights to Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary feature film Memory: The Origins of Alien. The film premiered to rave reviews in the Midnight Section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, and many others. Screen Media and Legion M plan to release the film in theaters this summer, timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of Alien. The deal comes on the heels of Screen Media’s recent acquisition of Corporate Animals starring Demi Moore, which also premiered in the Midnight Section of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Paris-based Indie Sales is handling sales for the rest of the world. Memory: The Origins of Alien unearths the largely untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s cinematic masterpiece, and reveals a treasure trove of never-before-seen materials from the archives of Alien creators Dan O’Bannon and

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Sep 2, 2019

DocumentariesNewsStreaming TVTravel Channel

Paranormal Series “Mountain Monsters” Gears Up To Premiere On Travel Channel

Jeff Headlee, Joseph “Huckleberry” Lott, John “Trapper” Tice, Jacob “Buck” Lowe, William “Wild Bill” Neff and Willy McQuillian featured left to right, as seen on Travel Channel’s “Mountain Monsters.” Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, creatures both legendary and terrifying lurk among the shadows, evading capture at every turn. Season Four of the cult-classic series “Mountain Monsters,” moves to its new home on Travel Channel with a special two-hour premiere on Wednesday, August 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, reuniting the fearless team of hard-core trappers to confirm the sightings of these fabled monsters. Calling themselves the AIMS team – the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings – this rip-roarin’ group of self-proclaimed “hillbilly hunters” treks through the depths of Appalachia’s mountain forests, searching for creatures of mythical origins, determined to track down proof these monsters still roam this region today. In the two-hour season premiere, the series picks up right where it left off – with team members Trapper, Buck, Huckleberry, Jeff,

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jul 15, 2019

DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers

‘Scary Stories’ Documentary Coming To DVD This July

The highly anticipated documentary Scary Stories, which examines Alvin Schwartz’s iconic book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will arrive on DVD this July via Wild Eye Releasing. Explore the history of one of the most controversial works of modern children’s literature: The best selling teen classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which scared a generation of young readers and became one of the most banned books of modern times. Scary Stories creates both the ultimate celebration and dissertation of this iconic piece of horror literature. Cody Meirick’s film features more than 40 interviews, from family members of author Alvin Schwartz to fellow children’s book horror authors like R.L Stine (Goosebumps) and Q.L. Pearce, to folklorists, artists and fans discussing the impact that the books have had on both themselves as well as the culture at large. The documentary also explores the various times in which the books were banned or targeted by parent and religious

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jul 10, 2019

DocumentariesMoviesNewsStreaming TV

New Documentary/Art House Streaming Services Ovid.tv Adding 23 Films

OVID.tv, the new streaming service for documentaries and art-house films, has announced that this week twenty-three (23) films will be joining its growing collection, bringing its library to 500 titles, most unavailable on any other platform. On Friday, June 28, OVID released the last two films in its Pride month program of 20 LGBTQ films, along with three prize-winning documentaries on war, and peace. On Friday, July 12, OVID begins to resurface landmark independent works from the 1960s and 1970s including two films by Robert Kramer, “one of the greatest radical filmmakers of the ’60s and ’70s, [who] mixed fiction with documentary, paying scrupulous attention to the ways in which the personal began to dominate the political.” (Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice), and a collection of three short documentaries made between 1977 and 1980 that are companion pieces to, and by the directors of, the 1978 feature film Northern Lights. On Friday, July 19th comes a collection of six films

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jun 30, 2019

DocumentariesMoviesNewsTrailers

New Small Town Monsters Documentary Explores The Legend Of ‘Momo: The Missouri Monster’

A new “docu-drama” from indie film production company, Small Town Monsters, seeks to tell the true and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster. The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of “Star Hill” near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of 1972 where it was seen by terrified citizens for weeks. The case gained national media attention during the ’70s and remains one of the largest tourist draws for the tiny town, which sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. The first trailer for the film debuts today and hints at the storytelling devices employed, as well as some of the fascinating interviews and locations. The latest release from Small Town Monsters and director, Seth Breedlove, is told in narrative and documentary form. The narrative sections appear under the guise of a lost b-movie from the 70s. The horror film depicts the widely believed details of the MOMO story (said to have been inspired by

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jun 20, 2019

DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews

Movie Review: Terror In The Skies (2019)

Following an absolutely gorgeous opening sequence set in 1948 where a young boy who dreams of being a pilot is confronted by a gigantic bird of prey he can scarcely believe, we begin our journey into the investigation of preternatural beings who have made their home in the skies over Illinois for decades in Terror in the Skies; the latest cryptid-focused documentary from Small Town Monsters and their resident demonic director (and writer too) Supernatural Seth Breedlove (okay…maybe he isn’t supernatural, but he sure does talk about the creepy side o’ life quite a bit. Don’t believe me? Check out my revoltin’ reviews of some of his past docs here, and here)! First up we learn the history of this monster-laden land; including chit-chat about the Thunderbirds (called the Piasa Bird in this region) that tormented the Native Americans indigenous to ancient Illinois, and supposedly resided in a deep cave littered with human bones (a cave that some dude in

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DanXIII

Jun 6, 2019

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