A goofy horror comedy that boasts some weirdly insane set pieces and a lot of lighthearted fun, Blood Diner is the vegetarian cannibalism movie I never knew I needed (but definitely do now).
Over the weekend, the highly anticipated sequel Phantasm: Ravager enjoyed its world premiere at the 2016 Fantastic Fest. Soon, “Phanatics” everywhere will have the chance to finally see the film for themselves when Ravager arrives on VOD on October 4th, before hitting theaters on October 7th courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.
During the press day at Fantastic Fest, Daily Dead had the opportunity to sit down and chat with both Don Coscarelli (who co-wrote on Ravager and directed the first four Phantasm films) and David Hartman, the lifelong fan of the Phantasm series who had the honor of delivering what looks to be the final installment in this iteration of the long-running franchise.
We horror fans have been spoiled in recent years when it comes to home video titles, with labels like Scream Factory, Arrow, Synapse, Vinegar Syndrome, Blue Underground and several others releasing genre titles both classic and obscure on pristine high definition Blu-rays, often laden with tons of extra content for too much of a good thing. Now Lionsgate is throwing its hat into the special edition Blu-ray market with Chopping Mall, the first title in their new Vestron Video Collector’s Series. They couldn’t have picked a better title to kick off what is, based on the quality work here, a very promising new label.
Easily one of the more unforgettable films I’ve seen this year—genre or otherwise—is writer/director Nicolas Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother, which follows a young woman named Francisca (Kika Magalhaes) as she copes with her loneliness through some rather depraved and heartbreaking ways.
The Eyes of My Mother recently played at the 2016 Fantastic Fest, and while at the festival, we had a chance to speak with the first-time feature filmmaker about his approach to his haunting character study, working with his incredible lead actress Magalhaes, and how he’s trying to bring back the feeling of the classic horror stories most of us grew up on, but with a bit of a modern twist.
Director André Øvredal’s latest film, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, recently enjoyed its debut here in Austin for the 2016 Fantastic Fest. The story follows a father and son (Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch) who work as coroners in their family mortuary business. One night, the sheriff drops off the corpse of a young woman found at a crime scene, and the duo have only a short amount of time to try and piece together what happened to the mysterious woman. But as their examination progresses, the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death become more and more unusual, revealing terrifying secrets the further they get in their work.
While in Austin, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with Øvredal, who discussed why he felt The Autopsy of Jane Doe was a great sophomore effort, working with his insanely talented cast, and whether or not we’ll ever see more from the amazing world he established in Trollhunter back in 2010.
TV horror lives and dies by the pen. From the ‘50s to the ‘90s, network TV shows and movies simply couldn’t carry the weight of special effects, and the content restrictions placed on TV (before the advent of cable, I’m talking the Big Three – ABC, CBS, NBC) back in the day did not allow for the most part a visceral experience. (Oh how times have changed.) So often the tale itself would have to suffice, and if it was gripping enough, blood speckled walls and torn limbs weren’t even necessary. Case in point: The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977), an NBC Monday Night at the Movies written by none other than Richard Matheson, starring Karen Black.
I love going into movies knowing as little as possible, which was certainly the case for Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski’s The Void, which screened on the opening night of this year’s Fantastic Fest. The duo have collaborated on some intriguing indie horror movies as of late, including Manborg and Father’s Day, and without ruining too many of the surprises that the duo keep throwing at viewers the further along they take you on their latest wildly unexpected story, what I can say is that The Void is easily one of the more ambitious indie horror movies I’ve seen as of late. It feels like a movie you’d find on the video store shelves of yesteryear alongside films like Phantasm, Prince of Darkness, Hellraiser I and II, or even In the Mouth of Madness.
Throughout his career, filmmaker Park Chan-Wook has crafted some of the most visceral and evocative films of the last 15 years of cinema, and his latest movie, The Handmaiden, is yet another exquisitely unforgettable experience that feels like nothing we’ve seen from him before, and yet, his adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith still has all his trademark directorial touches and wicked sense of humor firmly entrenched throughout.
While at Fantastic Fest 2016, Daily Dead was honored to participate in the press day for The Handmaiden, where we heard more from Park about his approaches to the film’s sublimely nuanced storytelling, his thoughts on the response to The Handmaiden thus far, why it was important at this point in his career to do a film that was very much about celebrating female characters, and much more.
A spaceship heads to a remote planet to answer an SOS. Upon arrival on the fog covered world, they discover an insidious alien race that needs warm bodies to propagate their species. Yeah, I love Alien (1979) too! However, the film I’m referring to is Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires (1965), an influential departure for the prolific horror auteur and a gorgeously rendered sci-fi/horror blend.
Tonight, Fox debuts their brand new series The Exorcist, which brings William Peter Blatty’s iconic novel to television for the first time ever. Daily Dead had the opportunity to chat with The Exorcist’s pilot director and executive producer Rupert Wyatt about his experiences bringing this new chapter of terror to network television.
