Horror Highlights: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE DRAWING, GEHENNA: WHERE DEATH LIVES, WOOM Excerpt, Ithaca Fantastik Fest, THE MASTER CLEANSE

"I may be dead, but I'm still pretty." Whether you want to watch Buffy Summers and company battle supernatural beings for the first time or re-live all your favorite moments from the show, reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are playing now on Pop TV. Also: The Drawing short film starring Clarke Wolfe in its entirety, a trailer / acquisition news for Gehenna: Where Death Lives, an excerpt from Duncan Ralston's Woom, the lineup for Ithaca Fantastik Film Festival, and The Master Cleanse at Screamfest.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Pop TV: Reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are now playing on Pop TV.

To learn more, visit:

• http://poptv.com/buffy_the_vampire_slayer/

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Watch Short Film The Drawing in its Entirety: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA: THE DRAWING is coming! THE DRAWING is here! THE DRAWING is a modern monster horror short infused with 80s synth overtones. The film features Clarke Wolfe (Collider Nightmares, Nerdist) as a young woman who discovers a mysterious crayon drawing while out for a jog. It was probably nothing, right?

THE DRAWING was created by 1A Plate Productions which consists of Micah Roland and Jason C Brown and is partially based on a true story (no, really)."

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Gehenna: Where Death Lives Trailer and Acquisition: Press Release: "Burbank, CA :  Highly-anticipated creature-feature Gehenna: Where Death Lives, directed, produced, and co-written by makeup and special effects master Hiroshi Katagiri, has been acquired by High Octane Pictures.

High Octane Pictures is a newly-minted shingle, founded by industry vet and CAA Alum Galen Christy. It has acquired the international sales rights for the film, which boasts high-end sets and spectacular effects work from director Hiroshi Katagiri himself, and his friends from the industry. Katagiri’s storied career includes working at Stan Winston Studios and also working with Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park, A.I andWar of the Worlds. Other credits include Pacific Rim, The Hunger Games, and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem. Gehenna marks his debut as a feature film director.

Encompassing horror, suspense, and a twist that will blow your mind, Gehenna fixes on five people who enter a hidden bunker from WW2, and realize it's way more than a bunker. Some fates are MUCH worse than death.

The ensemble cast includes Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak), Genre icon Lance Henriksen (TV’s Millennium, Aliens), Eva Swan, Simon Phillips, and Justin Gordon.

Spectral Motion, known for award-winning work on such films as Hellboy and Looper, did the makeup effects on the creature played by Jones.

Gehenna has been accepted at festivals that include Shriekfest and  with the support of High Octane Pictures, will have a major presence at this year’s American Film Market."

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Read an Excerpt from Duncan Ralston's Woom: From author Duncan Ralston: "The Lonely Motel holds many dark secrets… and Room 6 just might possess the worst of them all.

Angel knows a lot about pain. His mother died in this room. He's researched its history. He's come back today to end it, no matter the cost, once and for all.

Prostitute Shyla believes the stories Angel tells her can't be true. Secrets so vile, you won't want to let them inside you.

But the Lonely Motel doesn't forget. It doesn't forgive. And it always claims its victim.

When Matt Shaw, one of the UK's leading purveyors of Extreme Horror (and certainly the most hardworking writer I know), put out a call for authors, I knew I'd be stupid not to at least give it a shot.

There was only one problem: I didn't have any ideas.

That night I was watching Room, the movie based on the book about the kid who'd been born in captivity, living with his young mother in the basement cell of her rapist, and ideas were percolating, and suddenly I thought, "You know, a room is a lot like a womb."

Didn't make sense, but I liked the idea, especially when I noticed "womb" and "room" rhymed (probably took me an hour to figure that one out). The gears had started grinding, and once the movie was over I'd come up with a basic structure for the framing story, which I'd decided almost immediately would have to be called Woom.

After having watched Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac last year, I'd been thinking a lot about writing a story featuring two main characters each other telling stories. But even though I loved Von Trier's film, I thought something like that would make for a very boring book, and wouldn't have much potential. But oddly, a few days before watching Room (excellent movie, by the way; you really should watch it), I'd watched the Black Mirror Christmas special—you know, the one with John Hamm and the other guy, just the two of them swapping stories (Hamm, mostly) in a cabin in the winter.

I decided it just might work.

The next morning I banged out an outline, pushing myself to make it weirder and more shocking. And I attached along with the idea—because no way was The Matt Shaw gonna go for my little old Woom—a pitch for a story I'd been working on that was sort of a grungy '70s thing with a Clive Barker feel. I hit Send, thinking I'd just wasted a couple of hours, but at least it had been fun. But he got back to me. And he liked it.

That's when I ran into another huge roadblock: I'd actually have to write the damn thing.

I'd never written Extreme Horror before. Well, that's not true. The story I wrote for The Black Room Manuscripts had been described with "Eeeurgh!" by one reviewer, and another (in my first collection, Gristle & Bone) was said to have made one reader's "lady parts hurt."

So I channeled that. I read some of Matt Shaw's books (Porn was the one that influenced me most), and I channeled Chuck Palahnuik, and Irvine Welsh, and Lars Von Trier, and even a bit of my go-to guy Stephen King, and I managed to pound out what I felt was a pretty decent first draft of Woom.

I sent it to Matt, certain he would hate it. And even if he did like it, I was sure no one else would want to read it.

Turns out I was wrong, and Woom is quickly becoming my most successful book, a fact I owe to Matt Shaw's guidance (and name, obviously!). People seem to like it (and not just my mom, who has to), and those one-star reviews I thought would start slamming me right out the gate have only trickled in after a few months of publication. I've met a lot of awesome Extreme Horror fans in the interim, and am currently writing a novelette called Prick, which will be published alongside Matt Shaw's Hole very soon. (See what we did there?)

Shoot me a tweet at @userbits if you dig it (or don't). And while you're on the computer (or mobile device) be sure to check out www.mattshawpublications.co.uk and www.duncanralston.com!"

Excerpt:

ANGEL OPENED THE door to Room 6 with a key so scratched he was surprised it still worked, linked to a vermillion fob worn by so many thumbs the number was barely visible. The old room was just as he remembered it—this was not a good thing. There was no nostalgia here for Angel, only pain. Some places hold the pain in their walls, in the carpet snags, in the cracks of the ceiling and chinks in the baseboards. Room 6 of the Lonely Motel thirty minutes from the New York-Canadian border was one such place, Angel believed. With quiet apprehension, he hoisted the heavy black backpack onto his shoulder and crossed the threshold.

"Hello, Mom," he said to the empty room. "It's been a long time."

Angel dropped the bag on a threadbare carpet the same shade as the key fob, and gave the room a careful examination. The flowery bedspread was new—he supposed it made sense, considering. The solid wood bed-frame, and possibly the mattress if they'd been able to get the red out, were still the same.

The painting stuck to the wood paneling above was the same: a poor oil rendition of Jonah escaping the whale. The same faux red oak dresser and vanity, chipped in the lower right corner, warped near the top like a carnival mirror, so if you stood on your tiptoes your head would stretch out long and pointy. The ashtray was new, a cheap black plastic one. The last time he'd been here, the front desk had requested no smoking, though they'd smoked anyway. You had to, just to get rid of the smell.

Angel sat on the bed and kicked off his shoes. He lay back on the pillows (too large and firm—he preferred thin and soft, though it didn't matter as he wouldn't be sleeping), and drew his knees up to his chest. He remained in that position for several minutes, reflecting on the memory of pain while staring at the closet and bathroom doors, one closed, the other open. Cigarettes and cheap perfume lingered alongside the musty stink of the carpet and the eye-watering dryer sheet smell of the bedspread.

Pain.

Angel knew a lot about pain. Too< much. With any luck, his pain would end today. He would turn the clock back. He would start fresh.

This room was where it all started, he thought. Fitting that it should end here, too.

Struck by sudden nausea, Angel got up and staggered to the bathroom. He raised the toilet seat hastily, managing to drop to his knees before a deluge of undigested breakfast burrito and sour mash whisky poured out of him into the bowl, splashing on the rim and the back of the lid. He coughed several times and spat a thick wad of brown saliva into the mess of frothy puke, much of it floating on the surface, before flushing twice to wash away the last straggling chunks of vomit, and rising slowly to his feet.

The same mirror as before reflected his haggard face. Shaved bald, his tan dome glistened under the too-bright bulb above the mirror. The bags under his eyes were nearly as heavy and dark as the backpack he'd brought with him.

Angel had always been uncomfortably aware of what most people would consider his "ugly" features. A long, jagged scar ran up the left side of his face, and his head tapered on top like an egg, a feature that had only become noticeable once he'd shaved it. Although not technically a "pinhead," he'd been called it several times by those lower on the evolutionary chain than himself. Dressing well seemed to direct attention away from said features, which was why he wore a crisp pencil stripe Armani dress shirt, black wool pants with a sharp pleat (Hugo Boss), and red silk socks by Paul Smith. The shoes beside the bed were Gucci brown leather, polished so their shine matched that of his head.

Angel flicked off the bathroom light and gave the tub a passing glance before leaving. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and reached for the phone on the bedside table, the same old black rotary phone he'd called 911 from the second-last time he'd been here, on his way out the door. He picked up the clunky receiver and began to dial.

"Yes, hello. I'd like a girl." He paused, listening to the dispatcher. "She has to be heavyset. That's right, the larger the better. Now, the last time I sent for someone the girl wasn't what I'd ordered, so I'm going to say it again: large woman. Attractiveness unimportant. Okay?" He listened. Her dry, nasally apology irritated him, but he kept his anger in check. "China? Shyla. She sounds perfect. I'm at the Lonely Motel, Room 6. Yes, the one near the airport. Thank you."

Hanging up the phone, Angel hoped they'd get it right. His whole day depended on it. He lay back and waited, thinking again about pain.

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The Ithaca Fantastik Film Festival Lineup:  Press Release: "Ithaca, NY, Oct. 18, 2016 – Ithaca Fantastik will unleash its fifth annual film festival Nov. 9–13 in Ithaca, NY. The IF team has carefully crafted a lineup to offer something for every fantastic film lover.

The festival has horror fans covered, with some of the year’s stand-out genre gems. Fantastic Fest award winner “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” (André Orvedal) will lead the pack, followed closely by the ‘knock your socks-off’, “Safe Neighborhood” (Chris Peckover)—a coming of age twist on the home invasion that the IF team calls one of the most fun films of 2016. Horror lovers will be delighted by action-packed “Headshot” (Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto), socially-infused zombie anime “Seoul Station” (Yeon Sang-ho), disturbing “Pet” (Carles Torrens), as well as an over-the-top Indian take on a zombie breakout: “Miruthan” (Shakti Soundar Rajan).

Extreme horror will be well-represented with yakuza tale “Kiyamachi Daruma” (Hideo Sakaki), and “K-Shop” (Dan Pringle), a fun horror film with deeply-anchored social commentary on British society. Plus, the wickedly fun Japanese response to Freddy vs Jason: “Sadako vs Kayako” (Kōji Shiraishi).

Festival offerings will go far beyond pure horror to provide a wide view into the fantastic genre. From enchanting love story “Aloys” (Tobias Nölle), to mental-illness-exploring biopic “I, Olga Hepnarová” (Tomás Weinreb, Petr Kazda), to mumblecore horror comedy “Another Evil” (Carson D. Mell) and Argentinean horror commentary “Terror 5” (Sebastian Rotstein, Federico Rotstein). Sci-Fi fans have not been forgotten; IF will present mind-blowing anime “Nova Seed” (Nick DiLiberto) and the newest trippy film from Hikaru Tsukuda: Return of MIZUNO—these movies will be an excellent segway into horror for those new to the genre.

For its fifth year, IF will continue to bring the best in documentaries to upstate NY. “24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters” (Kevin Burke) will open the festivities. The reality continues with an intimate take on Stanley Kubrick: “S is for Stanley” (Alex Infascelli), as well as “Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex” (Gilles Penso, Alexandre Poncet)—an enlightening look at special effects history with interviews from masters like Phil Tippett, Rick Baker and Guillermo del Toro. Finally, with a perfect mix between feature film and documentary, “Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses” (David Stubbs) mind-blowingly blurs the lines between reality and fiction in this account of a New Zealand exorcism.

For filmmakers, the Nature’s Revenge bumper contest submission deadline has been extended to Oct. 30.

This year’s bumper contest will draw from the theme of retrospective film “Long Weekend,” which proves nothing is scarier than unpredictable nature. Filmmakers are invited to submit their own original nature revenge short film to IF by Oct. 30.

How to Submit:
Use wetransfer.com to submit to hbarbier@ithacafilmfestival.com. Type NATURE’S REVENGE IF in the message section.

Contest Rules:
1. The film must be no more than 45 seconds,
2. The twist should involve nature taking revenge on humans for their acts against mother nature.

The IF team can’t wait to see what the beautifully twisted minds of seasoned and aspiring filmmakers will come up with. The top three entries will be screened during the festival, and winners will receive an Ithaca Fantastik festival pass.

24x36: A Movie About Movie Poster

Kevin Burke, Canada

Alipato: A Very Brief Life of Ember

Khavn, Philippines/Germany

Aloys

Tobias Nölle, France/Switzerland

Another Evil

Carson D Mell, US

Autohead

Rohit Mittal, India

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

André Orvedal, UK

Belief: The Possession Of Janet Moses

David Stubbs, New Zeland

Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex

Gilles Penso & Alexandre Poncet, US

Dearest Sister

Mattie Do, Laos

Headshot

Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto, Indonesia

Here Alone

Rod Blackhurst, US

I, Olga Hepnarova

Petr Kazda &Thomas Weinreb, Czech Republic/Poland/Slovakia/France

Kiyamachi Daruma

Hideo Sakaki, Japan

K-Shop

Dan Pringle, UK

The Love Witch

Anna Biller, US

Master Cleanse

Bobby Miller, US

Miruthan

Shakti Soundar Rajan, India

My Father Die

Sean Brosnam, US

Nova Seed

Nick DiLiberto, Canada

The Open

Marc Lahore, France

Pet

Carles Torrens, USA/Spain

Return of MIZUNO

Hikaru Tsukuda, Japan

S is for Stanley

Alex Infascelli, Italy

Sadako vs. Kayako

Koji Shiraishi, Japan

Safe Neighbourhood

Chris Peckover, Australia/USA

Seoul Station

Yeon Sang-ho, South Korea

She’s Allergic to Cats

Michael Reich, US

Terror 5

Sebastian Rotstein & Federico Rotstein, Argentina

Werewolf 81’

Wolfen

Michael Wadleigh, US- 1981

American Werewolf in London

John Landis, US- 1981

Retrospective: The Known Unknowns

The Naked Prey

Cornel Wilde, US- 1965

Deliverance

John Boorman, US- 1972

Long Weekend

Colin Eggleston, AUS- 1978

Altered States

Ken Russell, US- 1980

Aliens

James Cameron, US- 1981

Visit www.ithacafilmfestival.com for more information and announcements to come about special guests and events."

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The Master Cleanse at Screamfest 2016: Screamfest Horror Film Festival celebrated the Los Angeles Premiere of THE MASTER CLEANSE on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre. Screamfest will be running from October 18th - 27th at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Screamfest is the largest and longest running horror film festival in the U.S. and some have even called it the “Sundance of Horror.”

In attendance from the film: Johnny Galecki (CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory”), Director and Writer Bobby Miller (Tub).

Special guests included: Chris Hardwick (AMC's "Talking Dead," @midnight), Ben Feldman (NBC’s “Superstore”).

Synopsis: "Down, out, and heartbroken, Paul attends a spiritual retreat to cleanse himself and fix his broken life but soon discovers that the cleanse releases more than everyday toxins...a lot more. The feature debut from Bobby Miller (TUB), THE MASTER CLEANSE is a trippy and fantastic journey that examines how we deal with the things that weigh us down in life, ultimately asking the all-important question: given the opportunity to literally face your demons, what would you do?"

ABOUT SCREAMFEST:

Formed in August 2001 by film producer Rachel Belofsky, Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that gives filmmakers and screenwriters in the horror and science fiction genres a venue to have their work showcased in the film industry. Among the numerous films that have been discovered and/or premiered at the festival include “Paranormal Activity,” “30 Days of Night,” “Trick ‘r Treat” and “The Human Centipede.”

For more information, visit www.ScreamfestLA.com."