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Fantasia

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Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Fantasia 2021): Brain Freeze

Writer/director Julian Knafo’s Canadian feature Brain Freeze serves up plenty of social satire and humor in its tale of a zombie outbreak on an island inhabited by affluent people who want to golf year-round despite the weather. The film is a fun offering that takes on several targets but never gets overly heavy-handed in its messages. A biotech company comes to the rescue of the rich folks with a DNA-modified solution that taints the local water supply and turns people and animals into zombies that sprout grass from their bodies. After a series of unfortunate incidents, phone-addicted teen André (Iani Bédard), baby sister in tow, crosses paths with security guard and survivalist Dan (Roy Dupuis), whose adult daughter Patricia (Marianne Fortier) has been infected with the zombie virus. André and Dan try to survive and find a way to either track down the cause of the outbreak or escape the island, while an ultra-right wing disc jockey (Simon-Olivier Fecteau) fans

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Shudder’s Haunting Fairytale ‘Martyrs Lane’ Conjures A September Release Date

Shudder has unveiled the new trailer for the haunting supernatural fairytale Martyrs Lane ahead of its September release following its World Premiere at the Virtual Fantasia International Film Festival this month. “In this unsettling ghost story, Leah, 10, lives in a large, old house with her family but can’t quite work out why her mother seems so distant. At night she is visited by a mysterious guest, who might be able to give her some answers. With a new challenge every night, Leah is rewarded with bits of knowledge that, when pieced together, threaten to shine a dangerous light on both the truth in her nightmares and of the world she lives in.” Written and directed by Ruth Platt, and expanded from her 2019 short film by the same name, Martyrs Lane is a deeply personal film that explores love and grief through a dark and captivating ghost story. Young actors Kiera Thompson and Sienna Sayer, lead the cast that

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 20, 2021
Horror Fuel

‘King Knight’ Conjures A New Trailer Ahead Of Fantasia Premiere

Double double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Writer-director Richard Bates Jr’s King Knight makes its world premiere this weekend at the Fantasia Film Festival. Ahead of its debut, we’ve conjured the new trailer filled with dark humor and witchcraft. King Knight is an outsider’s outsider comedy starring “Criminal Minds” actor Matthew Gray Gubler and Angela Sarafyan as Thorn and Willow, husband-and-wife high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community. When Willow unearths a secret from Thorn’s past, their lives are thrown into turmoil in this kooky, clever film. Andy Milonakis, Kate Comer, Johnny Pemberton, Josh Fadem, Nelson Franklin, Emily Chang, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Swati Kapila, Shane Brady, AnnaLynne McCord, Alice Glass, Aubrey Plaza, with Barbara Crampton, and Ray Wise also star. As soon as a release date is announced we’ll let you know.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 7, 2021
Horror Fuel

Fantasia 2021: Five Fright Films We Can’t Wait to See

Montreal’s vaunted Fantasia International Film Festival continues its reputation of being North America’s largest fest highlighting genre-film fabulousness with this year’s 25th edition, which runs online August 5–25. Science fiction, thriller, dark comedy, action, animation, and other exciting genres are all on tap, and as always, horror is a huge part of Fantasia. Here are five of Fantasia’s exciting fright-fare features for this year’s edition, with descriptions from official press materials and the fest’s website, along with comments in italics from yours truly. STEADY YOUR GAZE FOR THE LAST THING MARY SAW Brace yourself for THE LAST THING MARY SAW, a breathtaking period occult drama set in an isolated farmhouse in the winter of 1843, where a young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family’s matriarch. It soon becomes apparent that ageless forces are at play, from within and without. An eerie and hypnotic nightmare vision from debuting writer/director Edoardo Vitaletti, starring Stefanie Scott (INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 6, 2021
Horror Fuel

Shudder Claims The Horror ‘Hellbender’ Ahead Of Fantasia

Shudder has acquired the occult horror feature Hellbender ahead of its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. Shudder will release the film, which is written and directed by Toby Poser, John Adams, and Zelda Adams, in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand in early 2022. In Hellbender, 16-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams) suffers from a rare illness that has kept her isolated on a mountaintop with her mother (Toby Poser) her whole life. As Izzy begins to question her sickness, she pushes back against her confinement and secretly befriends Amber (Lulu Adams), another girl living on the mountain, but her newfound happiness is derailed after she eats a live worm as part of a juvenile game and finds an insatiable and violent hunger awakened within her. To understand the hunger, Izzy must learn the dark secrets of her family’s past and the ancient power in her bloodline. We are thrilled to bring this family-focused folk nightmare

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 5, 2021
Horror Fuel

Supernatural Chills, Teen Terror, and Malevolent Mayhem Highlight Fantasia’s Second Wave Announcement

As if The Fantasia International Film Festival’s first wave announcement wasn’t tantalizing enough, today’s second-wave announcement is mind blowing. With horror titles such as The Last Thing Mary Saw, All the Moons, and Hellbender (to name but a few) on tap alongside science fiction, dark comedy, thriller, and other horror-adjacent genres, Montreal’s premiere genre-film fest promises to be as can’t-miss as usual. Following is the festival’s official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries. In celebration of Fantasia’s

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Yellow Veil Pictures Taking New Horror Film ‘Hellbender’ To Cannes Market

Ahead of the virtual Cannes Pre-Screening market, arthouse genre outfit Yellow Veil Pictures have added worldwide sales rights to Hellbender from directors Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and John Adams, which is set to world premiere at the upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival. The film follows “16-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams), who leads an isolated life on a lonely mountaintop due to a rare sickness. Questioning her illness and starving for companionship, Izzy sneaks down the mountain where she befriends the brazen older girl Amber (Lulu Adams). Just as Izzy finally begins to feel happiness, a drinking game involving a live worm unleashes a new kind of insatiable hunger within her. Confused and scared, Izzy appeals to her mother for answers but the family’s secrets are as old and dark as the bloodline from which they’re born.” Justin Timms, Yellow Veil Pictures Co-Founder, said, “Hellbender is unlike anything you’ve ever seen and we’re absolutely thrilled to team with the mad genius filmmaking

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jun 21, 2021
Horror Fuel

Watch The Trailer For The Spanish Thriller ‘La Dosis’ – Out This June

This summer, Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the Spanish thriller La Dosis, which made its world premiere and the Rotterdam Film Festival last year before being shown at BFI Flare and the Fantasia Film Festival. In the film, “Marcos is an experienced nurse who works the night shift of a private clinic. He is successful and professional, though it is soon revealed that he uses his position to help suffering patients find early peace. A new nurse in the clinic, Gabriel, shakes the sector: he is young, intelligent, beautiful, and seduces everyone. He soon deciphers Marcos’ secret and the clinic becomes a battle of wits and seduction. Marcos retracts until he discovers that Gabriel also dabbles in euthanasia, though for different reasons. This revelation forces him to confront Gabriel and Marcos knows that only by exposing his own true identity will he be able to stop him.” Directed by Martin Krant and starring Carlos Portaluppi, Ignacio Rogers, and Lorena Vega,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 12, 2021
Horror Fuel

Fantasia Opens Its 25th Edition with Québécois Zombie Comedy “Brain Freeze”

The Fantasia International Film Festival had a hugely successful virtual version in 2020, and the fest will be online again this year as it celebrates its 25th edition. Today Fantasia announced that its opening film will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo, and revealed the ultracool poster for its 2021 edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, with a dynamic program of scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops running from August 5 through August 25, 2021, once again using the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. As the summer approaches, the festival will be following advice from local health authorities, with the possibility of also adding a range of flagship physical events to the lineup. Last summer’s virtual edition was a phenomenal success, screening to 85000 spectators and amassing a record amount of

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 9, 2021
Horror Fuel

Haunting Film ‘The Funeral Home’ Gets A New Trailer Ahead Of Release

There are few places that are more creepy than funeral homes between dead bodies and the sadness experienced there. Mauro Iván Ojeda’s new chilling supernatural thriller The Funeral Home capitalizes on that this January, hot off the heels of its premiere at Fantasia. The film centers on Bernardo, an undertaker. He and his dysfunctional family live amongst coffins, wreaths, and mischievous supernatural entities that visit daily. They attribute the paranormal manifestations to the dead bodies from their mortuary work. Finding the real source of all this madness will be their quest, but they might find a terrifying truth. Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini, Susana Varela, and Hugo Arana star in this haunting tale. The Funeral Home plays virtual theaters on January 29, 2021, before arriving on digital on February 2nd via Uncork’d Entertainment. Check out the trailer.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jan 13, 2021

More from Fantasia

Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Fantasia 2021): Brain Freeze

Writer/director Julian Knafo’s Canadian feature Brain Freeze serves up plenty of social satire and humor in its tale of a zombie outbreak on an island inhabited by affluent people who want to golf year-round despite the weather. The film is a fun offering that takes on several targets but never gets overly heavy-handed in its messages. A biotech company comes to the rescue of the rich folks with a DNA-modified solution that taints the local water supply and turns people and animals into zombies that sprout grass from their bodies. After a series of unfortunate incidents, phone-addicted teen André (Iani Bédard), baby sister in tow, crosses paths with security guard and survivalist Dan (Roy Dupuis), whose adult daughter Patricia (Marianne Fortier) has been infected with the zombie virus. André and Dan try to survive and find a way to either track down the cause of the outbreak or escape the island, while an ultra-right wing disc jockey (Simon-Olivier Fecteau) fans

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Shudder’s Haunting Fairytale ‘Martyrs Lane’ Conjures A September Release Date

Shudder has unveiled the new trailer for the haunting supernatural fairytale Martyrs Lane ahead of its September release following its World Premiere at the Virtual Fantasia International Film Festival this month. “In this unsettling ghost story, Leah, 10, lives in a large, old house with her family but can’t quite work out why her mother seems so distant. At night she is visited by a mysterious guest, who might be able to give her some answers. With a new challenge every night, Leah is rewarded with bits of knowledge that, when pieced together, threaten to shine a dangerous light on both the truth in her nightmares and of the world she lives in.” Written and directed by Ruth Platt, and expanded from her 2019 short film by the same name, Martyrs Lane is a deeply personal film that explores love and grief through a dark and captivating ghost story. Young actors Kiera Thompson and Sienna Sayer, lead the cast that

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 20, 2021
Horror Fuel

‘King Knight’ Conjures A New Trailer Ahead Of Fantasia Premiere

Double double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Writer-director Richard Bates Jr’s King Knight makes its world premiere this weekend at the Fantasia Film Festival. Ahead of its debut, we’ve conjured the new trailer filled with dark humor and witchcraft. King Knight is an outsider’s outsider comedy starring “Criminal Minds” actor Matthew Gray Gubler and Angela Sarafyan as Thorn and Willow, husband-and-wife high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community. When Willow unearths a secret from Thorn’s past, their lives are thrown into turmoil in this kooky, clever film. Andy Milonakis, Kate Comer, Johnny Pemberton, Josh Fadem, Nelson Franklin, Emily Chang, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Swati Kapila, Shane Brady, AnnaLynne McCord, Alice Glass, Aubrey Plaza, with Barbara Crampton, and Ray Wise also star. As soon as a release date is announced we’ll let you know.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 7, 2021
Horror Fuel

Fantasia 2021: Five Fright Films We Can’t Wait to See

Montreal’s vaunted Fantasia International Film Festival continues its reputation of being North America’s largest fest highlighting genre-film fabulousness with this year’s 25th edition, which runs online August 5–25. Science fiction, thriller, dark comedy, action, animation, and other exciting genres are all on tap, and as always, horror is a huge part of Fantasia. Here are five of Fantasia’s exciting fright-fare features for this year’s edition, with descriptions from official press materials and the fest’s website, along with comments in italics from yours truly. STEADY YOUR GAZE FOR THE LAST THING MARY SAW Brace yourself for THE LAST THING MARY SAW, a breathtaking period occult drama set in an isolated farmhouse in the winter of 1843, where a young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family’s matriarch. It soon becomes apparent that ageless forces are at play, from within and without. An eerie and hypnotic nightmare vision from debuting writer/director Edoardo Vitaletti, starring Stefanie Scott (INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Aug 6, 2021
Horror Fuel

Shudder Claims The Horror ‘Hellbender’ Ahead Of Fantasia

Shudder has acquired the occult horror feature Hellbender ahead of its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. Shudder will release the film, which is written and directed by Toby Poser, John Adams, and Zelda Adams, in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand in early 2022. In Hellbender, 16-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams) suffers from a rare illness that has kept her isolated on a mountaintop with her mother (Toby Poser) her whole life. As Izzy begins to question her sickness, she pushes back against her confinement and secretly befriends Amber (Lulu Adams), another girl living on the mountain, but her newfound happiness is derailed after she eats a live worm as part of a juvenile game and finds an insatiable and violent hunger awakened within her. To understand the hunger, Izzy must learn the dark secrets of her family’s past and the ancient power in her bloodline. We are thrilled to bring this family-focused folk nightmare

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Aug 5, 2021
Horror Fuel

Supernatural Chills, Teen Terror, and Malevolent Mayhem Highlight Fantasia’s Second Wave Announcement

As if The Fantasia International Film Festival’s first wave announcement wasn’t tantalizing enough, today’s second-wave announcement is mind blowing. With horror titles such as The Last Thing Mary Saw, All the Moons, and Hellbender (to name but a few) on tap alongside science fiction, dark comedy, thriller, and other horror-adjacent genres, Montreal’s premiere genre-film fest promises to be as can’t-miss as usual. Following is the festival’s official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries. In celebration of Fantasia’s

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Yellow Veil Pictures Taking New Horror Film ‘Hellbender’ To Cannes Market

Ahead of the virtual Cannes Pre-Screening market, arthouse genre outfit Yellow Veil Pictures have added worldwide sales rights to Hellbender from directors Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and John Adams, which is set to world premiere at the upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival. The film follows “16-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams), who leads an isolated life on a lonely mountaintop due to a rare sickness. Questioning her illness and starving for companionship, Izzy sneaks down the mountain where she befriends the brazen older girl Amber (Lulu Adams). Just as Izzy finally begins to feel happiness, a drinking game involving a live worm unleashes a new kind of insatiable hunger within her. Confused and scared, Izzy appeals to her mother for answers but the family’s secrets are as old and dark as the bloodline from which they’re born.” Justin Timms, Yellow Veil Pictures Co-Founder, said, “Hellbender is unlike anything you’ve ever seen and we’re absolutely thrilled to team with the mad genius filmmaking

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jun 21, 2021
Horror Fuel

Watch The Trailer For The Spanish Thriller ‘La Dosis’ – Out This June

This summer, Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the Spanish thriller La Dosis, which made its world premiere and the Rotterdam Film Festival last year before being shown at BFI Flare and the Fantasia Film Festival. In the film, “Marcos is an experienced nurse who works the night shift of a private clinic. He is successful and professional, though it is soon revealed that he uses his position to help suffering patients find early peace. A new nurse in the clinic, Gabriel, shakes the sector: he is young, intelligent, beautiful, and seduces everyone. He soon deciphers Marcos’ secret and the clinic becomes a battle of wits and seduction. Marcos retracts until he discovers that Gabriel also dabbles in euthanasia, though for different reasons. This revelation forces him to confront Gabriel and Marcos knows that only by exposing his own true identity will he be able to stop him.” Directed by Martin Krant and starring Carlos Portaluppi, Ignacio Rogers, and Lorena Vega,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 12, 2021
Horror Fuel

Fantasia Opens Its 25th Edition with Québécois Zombie Comedy “Brain Freeze”

The Fantasia International Film Festival had a hugely successful virtual version in 2020, and the fest will be online again this year as it celebrates its 25th edition. Today Fantasia announced that its opening film will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo, and revealed the ultracool poster for its 2021 edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, with a dynamic program of scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops running from August 5 through August 25, 2021, once again using the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72. As the summer approaches, the festival will be following advice from local health authorities, with the possibility of also adding a range of flagship physical events to the lineup. Last summer’s virtual edition was a phenomenal success, screening to 85000 spectators and amassing a record amount of

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 9, 2021
Horror Fuel

Haunting Film ‘The Funeral Home’ Gets A New Trailer Ahead Of Release

There are few places that are more creepy than funeral homes between dead bodies and the sadness experienced there. Mauro Iván Ojeda’s new chilling supernatural thriller The Funeral Home capitalizes on that this January, hot off the heels of its premiere at Fantasia. The film centers on Bernardo, an undertaker. He and his dysfunctional family live amongst coffins, wreaths, and mischievous supernatural entities that visit daily. They attribute the paranormal manifestations to the dead bodies from their mortuary work. Finding the real source of all this madness will be their quest, but they might find a terrifying truth. Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini, Susana Varela, and Hugo Arana star in this haunting tale. The Funeral Home plays virtual theaters on January 29, 2021, before arriving on digital on February 2nd via Uncork’d Entertainment. Check out the trailer.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jan 13, 2021
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