Horror Highlights: THE EVIL DOWN THE STREET, DEAD AIR Indiegogo Campaign, ANTRUM, Horrorant Film Festival

2019/04/30 15:35:23 +00:00 | Tamika Jones

Ahead of The Evil Down the Street's release on Amazon Prime, check out the trailer for the David J. Espinosa-directed film after this mini-breakdown of what is in today's Horror Highlights. Also: Dead Air Indiegogo campaign, Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made release details and the 6th annual Horrorant Film Festival's lineup.

The Evil Down the Street Trailer and Release Details: Directed and co-written by David J. Espinosa ― also co-written by Craig Ahrens ― The Evil Down the Street tells the story of a family who "moves into their new dream home having no idea their new home is possessed by a demon. Katie Ryan becomes tormented by the demon and begins to terrorize her family. [It is} inspired by true events."

The Evil Down the Street has secured distribution with Indie Rights Movies and will premiere on Amazon Prime on May 1st. The film will hit other platforms later on.

For more information, visit The Evil Down the Street's social media accounts:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheEvilDownTheStreetMovie/
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7548732/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theevildownthestreetmovie/

Trailer via Indie Rights Movies:

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Dead Air Indiegogo Campaign Details: "Welcome back to Dead Air, a fun horror comedy film that mixes Gremlins & Critters together with Twilight Zone’s "A Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" & Josie and the Pussycats.

Dead Air is a short film about a group of female punks on a plane to their final gig who come up against a horde of evil little creatures who want nothing more than to drag everyone to hell.

WE HAVE SHOT IT. WE NOW NEED YOUR HELP TO FINISH IT."

For more information on this film's progress, visit:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dead-air-final-finishing-funds#/

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Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made Release Details: Press Release: "Uncork’d Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to distribute Else Films' underground horror feature ANTRUM: THE DEADLIEST FILM EVER MADE. Written and directed by Michael Laicini and David Amito, ANTRUM presents itself as a cursed film from the 1970s. Through several layers of lost and uncovered footage, it explores how audiences allow horror films to frighten them long past their viewing experience. The film’s announcement was made today by executive producer Eric Thirteen.

“ANTRUM was a secret film making its way around the film industry…the kind of elusive oddity that only certain people were able to see,” Thirteen recalls. “When I found it, it wasn’t at all what I expected. I used to hear people say it was a mockumentary, but it turns out that isn’t true. There’s so much misinformation out there because the movie was surrounded in mystery. This week’s announcement is that the film is finally coming out. You won’t have to go to an occult book store and whisper a secret word. You’ll actually be able to get ahold of Antrum and watch it.”

Thirteen negotiated the deal with Keith Leopard from Uncork’d Entertainment on behalf of the filmmakers. Else Films produced the picture, with David Bond and Eric Thirteen serving as executive producers. ANTRUM is set for a limited theatrical release before coming to streaming and VOD services in Fall 2019.

The heart of ANTRUM is the titular cursed feature, which purports to have been shot in the late 1970s by unknown filmmakers. It spins the tale of two siblings who perform an occult ritual in the woods, seeking closure after the death of a beloved pet… but their seemingly symbolic act may have truly unleashed Hell on Earth.

“It’s a feature-length film,” Thirteen says. “It has this look and feeling that I haven’t seen since the 1970s. The hot grainy air of Ridley Scott’s Legend. The ever-present haunting of Don’t Look Now. It’s true that it’s hard to put your finger on what it is. The feeling though…you just know that something is very wrong and that maybe you shouldn’t be watching this.”

As rumor has it, this film vanished shortly after its completion along with the original creators - until a surprise screening during a film festival in Budapest in 1988. Not only did the theater reportedly burn to the ground, but several festival programmers later died under mysterious circumstances. As the story goes, the film was subsequently lost and found multiple times in its history - each with disastrous consequences.

“When you see the final product, you’ll see the full-length movie itself but also get an understanding of the lore. It’s like finding an ancient spell book. You doubt the spells are real, and then you find pages that have increasingly bizarre writing. Competing handwritten notes. Warnings in the margins. Who is the real owner of this thing, who are all these people and what happened to them? Imagine that book is a film, and you start to see why people have been so obsessed with figuring it out.”

The legend is expanded by documentary bookends on the lost film’s shadowy origins, its deadly history, and the path to its ultimate rediscovery - but outside the film, even the actual directors are shrouded in mystery. Laicini & Amito have refused to comment on strange occurrences reported by viewers, nor have they discussed the subliminal insertion of occult symbols (“sigils”) and flash-frame footage that appears unrelated to the central film.

Presented with the editorial segments and all previously mentioned additions, the full feature premiered at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival where it garnered critical praise and won the award for Best Editing. It continues to play festivals around the world, picking up accolades including the Grand Jury Award at San Francisco’s 2019 Unnamed Footage Festival.

ANTRUM’s reputation is partially due to additional real-world events that took place as the actual film was being shown. When ANTRUM screened at Fantafest Roma, the festival brought in a priest to bless the theater. Many unexpected individuals have admitted to swapping the film outside of festivals, with cult character actor Lawrence R. Harvey (HUMAN CENTIPEDE: FULL SEQUENCE) even declaring ANTRUM “one of the best horror films of 2019.”

Journalists and curious fans have further blurred the lines by adding to the lore themselves. The continued pattern of reactions and “micro-obsessions” are encouraged by the producers. This phenomenon is now on the radar of festival programmers as the film approaches its next screening at the prestigious Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF) on April 18.

ABOUT ERIC THIRTEEN
Eric Xandra Thirteen (real name) is an American horror director and the executive producer of ROB ZOMBIE’S 31 and the Adam Rifkin / Penn Jillette film DIRECTOR’S CUT. Thirteen spent his 20's as a software engineer in Silicon Valley before leaving the tech industry to direct and produce the film in Los Angeles. He recently wrote and directed the award-winning short film, DISPOSITION, which uses horror conventions to show the day to day struggle of a woman stalked by depression.

ABOUT UNCORK’D ENTERTAINMENT
Uncork’d Entertainment was founded in July 2012 by Keith Leopard, a home entertainment industry veteran. Uncork’d’s most recent releases include ST AGATHA, BLUE MY MIND, GEHENNA, TREEHOUSE, SEQUENCE BREAK, THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW, and THE RANGER. The company focuses on distribution in six areas: digital media, physical home entertainment, aggregation, theatrical and television, foreign sales, and has secured relationships across all platforms to ensure every film reaches the widest audience possible."

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Horrorant Film Festival 2019: Press Release: "During the 5 years of its life, Horrorant Film Festival has been acknowledged as one of Europe's most up and coming genre fests, and the ever-growing and hungry for exciting cinematic experiences fans respond more and more enthusiastically.

From May 9 to 15, thirty-six movies from all around the world will premiere in Athens and compete for this year’s Horrorant awards.

We have always been in love with Latin-American cinema, and this year we decided to put it in the spotlight. In the FOCUS LATIN AMERICA 3x3 section, we will screen 9 movies by three (well, technically four) very interesting young directors that we singled out.

The Argentinian Onetti brothers will bring us their Giallo trilogy, SONNO PROFONDO (2013), FRANSESCA (2015) and ABRAKADABRA (2018), with Nico Onetti coming in Athens to present them.

Lucio Rojas from Chile gave us PERFIDIA (2014), SENDERO (2015) and TRAUMA (2017).

Last but not least, PERDIDOS (2014), LUNA DE MIEL (2015) and ROMINA (2019), by Mexican Diego Cohen, complete the list.

*Abrakadabra and Romina are also included in the international competition section.

The first and the last hour of every party are the most critical, so we wanted to say our welcomes and our goodbyes to our fans with two really big bangs.

The opening movie of the 6th Horrorant Film Festival will be the critically acclaimed FREAKS by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein starring Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, and Lexy Kolker.

Six night later, HFF will drop its curtain, screening Owen Egerton’s BLOOD FEST starring Robbie Kay, Jacob Batalon and Seychelle Gabriel.

*Freaks is also included in the international competition section.

Despite our name, we never wanted to be limited to what we generally call horror movies. We have always included features that don’t technically belong in the horror genre, but this year we decided it’s time to clear things up, and that’s exactly what the new PANORAMA section is about.

Here is the list of the 9 movies that will be screened in the Panorama section:

ALBATROZ by Daniel Augusto (Brazil)

CARGA by Bruno Gascon (Portugal)

EVERY TIME I DIE by Robi Michael (USA)

KILL BEN LYK by Erwan Marinopoulos (UK/France)

LAST SUNRISE by Wen Ren (China)

LONG LOST by Erik Bloomquist (USA)

DEAD END by Daniel de la Vega (Argentina)

SCOPOPHILIA by Natalia Lambropoulou & Electra Aggelopoylou (Greece)

TWO TIMES YOU by Salomón Askenazi (Mexico)

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION section is every festival’s backbone, and trying to make the best choices is never simple, but we are pretty sure we made it, and we are really proud of this year’s list:

ABRAKADABRA by the Onetti Brothers (Argentina)

AFTER THE LETHARGY by Marc Carreté (Spain)

ALIVE by Rob Grant (Canada)

ANYA by Erik Zavala (Mexico)

CURSED SEAT by Nadezhda Mikhalkova (Russia)

DUKUN by Dain Said (Malaysia)

FINALE by Søren Juul Petersen (Denmark)

FREAKS by Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein (USA)

GO HOME by Luna Gualano (Italy)

I'LL TAKE YOUR DEAD by Chad Archibald (Canada)

INQUILLINOS by Chava Cartas (Mexico)

PLEDGE by Daniel Robbins (USA)