Since it started in 2001, Screamfest has served as both a launching pad for new filmmakers and a celebration of the horror genre's past, and this year is certainly no exception.
Sy Lombrok (Kellan Lutz) is an escaped convict, Kane Sommerville (Daniel MacPherson) is an alcoholic lieutenant. They don't really get along, but they both have only hours to get off the planet before it's obliterated in the new sci-fi action film The Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume One. An ambitious sci-fi story that retains an epic scope without losing sight of its character-centric sensibilities, The Osiris Child is now out on VOD and Digital HD from RLJ Entertainment, and Daily Dead recently had the chance to speak with actor Kellan Lutz about his intriguing role, working with director Shane Abbess, visiting a real prison to prepare to play his character, and much more.
Composer Kevin Blumenfeld has enhanced scares through his music on The Walking Dead webisodes, and now he's bringing horror to the halls of higher education with his electronic score for go90's new murder mystery series, In the Vault. For our latest Q&A feature, we caught up with Blumenfeld to discuss his new project, working within the world of The Walking Dead, and the horror films that have inspired and influenced him over the years.
[Originally appeared in the February 2015 issue of DEADLY Magazine.] I had survived. There were hundreds more to come, but I had made it through that dreaded first one. Arriving home on a weekday afternoon after earning an “A” on my first college test, I was looking to celebrate. So what if I would have failed without the massive grading curve my professor threw out as a life preserver for the class? An “A” was an “A”, and with the rigid time structure of high school in the rearview mirror, I had the entire afternoon to celebrate my first higher education victory (if you could call it that). I knew exactly where to go for the proper party, a destination that didn’t even require getting off the couch: the “Free Movies” menu on Xfinity.
He ushered in a new Halloween tradition by taking us to Haddonfield and introducing us to The Shape, and now John Carpenter has teamed up with a talented team of artists and writers to bring us more seasonal scares with Tales for a HalloweeNight Volume 3, the latest entry in the graphic novel anthology series from Storm King Productions. Ahead of the third volume's release in early October, we've been provided with preview pages that tease fun and frightening times in a haunted house filled with familiar faces from horror genre history.
If you have arachnophobia, you might need to take a deep pull from an inhaler after watching the trailer for Itsy Bitsy, an upcoming horror film in which a single mother and her children are stalked by a spider that's large enough to haunt your dreams for life, but still compact enough to fit in your bathtub or under your bed... As impressive as the trailer for Itsy Bitsy is, the film still needs help from horror fans to make it across the cinematic finish line in post-production, and director Micah Gallo has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help bring his creature feature to the big screen.
They collaborated creatively through multiple decades, creating cinematic magic on the screen that still resonates with horror fans today. As far as one-two punches go when it comes to directors and composers, Lucio Fulci and Fabio Frizzi pack a huge wallop, and in the years since Fulci's passing in 1996, Frizzi has kept the spirit of Fulci's movies alive through his music, including recent live performances of his scores, two of which will take place on October 29th and the 30th at the New York City's Music Hall of Williamsburg. Ahead of the anticipated shows, I had the honor of catching up with Frizzi for our latest Q&A to talk about the joys of performing live, collaborating with Fulci, The Beyond Composer's Cut, and more.
Social media can be a real time killer in everyday life, but in the new movie Friend Request, it kills more than just time, thanks to a supernatural social outcast who seeks vengeance on a group of tight-knit college classmates (suffice it to say that there are some people you should never unfriend). With the new horror film now out in US theaters from Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, I had the pleasure of catching up with co-writer/director Simon Verhoeven for our latest Q&A to discuss how he came up with the idea for the film, exploring a supernatural subconscious of the Internet, mixing ancient rituals with new technology, and much more.
Social media outlets like Facebook are supposed to bring people together, but anyone who has an online account nowadays knows that isn’t always the case, and it especially isn’t true for a college student named Marina (Liesl Ahlers) in Friend Request, a new horror film featuring witchcraft, disturbing visions, and face-eating wasps. But perhaps the most haunting thing of all is the number lurking under the friends tab on Marina’s page: “0.”
You'd think it would be difficult to empathize with someone who uses Facebook to destroy people's lives in gruesome ways, but Liesl Ahlers absolutely pulls it off in Friend Request.
Going off the beaten path on vacation can be a picturesque experience, but it can be a perilous one as well. An American couple accidentally disturbs a deadly spirit in Thailand in the new horror film Ghost House, and with the supernatural thriller out now in select theaters from Vertical Entertainment and on DVD and VOD platforms from Lionsgate, Daily Dead caught up with director Rich Ragsdale to discuss filming in Thailand, the presence of ghosts on set, and working with Scout Taylor-Compton and James Landry Hébert.
If you've read my work on Daily Dead or listened to my ramblings on the Corpse Club podcast, then you might be aware of my deep love for Dance of the Dead, Gregg Bishop's midnight movie masterpiece that blended prom, zombies, and the music of Pat Benatar (via a great cover) into one of the most memorable rentals I ever enjoyed from Blockbuster. When I saw that Joe Ballarini, the screenwriter of Dance of the Dead, had written a new book (for children and adults) called A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting, I knew that I had to talk with him about it, and I recently had the great pleasure of doing just that.
Out of all the places I visited at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the most memorable was the screening of the Channel Zero: No-End House premiere episode. The way the series has lingered in my mind makes me think that I haven't truly left the house since first seeing it... making me even more eager for the new season to premiere on the SYFY channel beginning Wednesday, September 20th. To help hold me over until then, I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Channel Zero showrunner Nick Antosca about the psychological scares of the suburban-set second season, and we've also been provided with an exclusive clip from No-End House to share with Daily Dead readers.
This past summer was a memorable one for fans of Konami's video game franchise Castlevania. In addition to the release of a new four-episode animated series adaptation of the video games on Netflix, the streaming service also renewed the series for an eight-episode second season, and viewers of the show were treated to a story that took an R-rated approach to violence and a bold path with its storytelling. One of the creative forces behind the new series is Adi Shankar (executive producer of films such as Dredd and The Grey) and I had the opportunity to talk with the filmmaker about collaborating with Sam Deats and Warren Ellis, the freedom of working with Netflix, and much more.
Ahmanet awakens today with the release of The Mummy (2017) on Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and VOD platforms from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and for our latest Q&A, I had the chance to catch up with Yianni-Georgiou, one of the artists behind the amazing makeup of The Mummy, to discuss bringing the undead to life (including Sofia Boutella's title character) and looking back at the classic Universal Monsters films for stylistic inspirations.
