CHRIS MORRISSEY’S AWARD-WINNING HORROR MOVIE TRICK OF THE WITCH BEGINS EXCLUSIVE STREAMING DEBUT: "After years of successful film festival screenings and a LA and NY theatrical tour, the award-winning supernatural horror film TRICK OF THE WITCH by filmmaker Chris Morrissey is making its exclusive streaming debut on his official YouTube channel FREE for a limited time period.
"Trick of the Witch centers on a group of fashion models fighting a witchcraft curse during a photo shoot. The film premiered in 2010 at the New York International Independent Film Festival and won awards for Best Horror Film and the Audience Award. The film had a theatrical run in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in 2011. The film recently screened and won awards for Best Actress, Director’s Spotlight, and the Audience Award at the 2016 RIPP Horror Festival and screened along with Morrissey’s most recent feature film Heavy Makeup at the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas in Los Angeles.
Trick of the Witch stars indie film starlet Share Cherrie (Hollywood Babydoll, Superstar Female Serial Killer), Owen Alabado (Shameless), Rebecca Da Costa (The Bag Man, Wild Oats), Suzy Cote (TV’s CSI, The Guardian) and Gia Franzia (L.A., I Hate You, Special dEaD). Chris Morrissey wrote and directed the film which has gained a cult following over the last few years. The film was produced by Morrissey with star Share Cherrie, and co-producers Lacey Rollins and Brittany Andrews.
“Watching movies in theaters is a huge passion of mine” says Morrissey. “I’ve held off releasing all of my films on DVD and Blu-Ray over the years because I really wanted people to cherish that theater experience. I was working on scheduling a new double-feature theatrical screening tour of both Trick of the Witch and Heavy Makeup at the start of 2020 and then the pandemic hit. Everything I planned got put on hold indefinitely as all of the cinema’s sadly closed. I used to watch movies practically every single day in theaters, but during quarantine, I began to watch movies at home and actually started to enjoy it. Things are now starting to slowly re-open but not everyone is able to return to theaters just yet. It feels too early to resume a full blown in-person screening tour right now. As a special treat, I really wanted to give people a chance to watch the film until everyone feels comfortable going back to theaters.”
The film will remain on Morrissey’s YouTube Channel for the next couple of months and then he will remove it as he begins to resume plans for another cinema tour later this year.
CHRIS MORRISSEY is a Los Angeles based filmmaker and actor that has written, produced, and directed several award-winning feature films that have screened theatrically and at various international film festivals during the last 20 years. Other film titles include Superstar Female Serial Killer, Lipgloss Explosion, Fashion Murder Groove, and Hollywood Reject.
Chris has acted in several independent films, television projects (Twin Peaks) and a handful of Hollywood stage plays. Chris is a native of Los Angeles and got his start at Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine and Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures before making the leap into feature films.
Chris is currently writing and producing two new feature film projects, which will begin production in early 2022. He also curates and hosts a monthly Los Angeles theatrical film screening series that will also resume in 2022. Additionally, he is developing a Hollywood film festival that will launch in late 2022."
----------
BLOOD BORN: "From director Reed Shusterman, and in the tradition of THE OMEN, prepare for the birth of evil this summer – BLOOD BORN.
After struggling to conceive, Eric and Makayla hire a witch doctor from the Gravida Foundation to help them conceive. Ola moves into their home, taking over their lives as she puts them through a series of magical rituals. As the ceremonies take a toll on the couple, they discover that their baby might not actually be human, leaving them to decide how far are they willing to go for the family they’ve always wanted.
Antoine Perry (“Major Crimes”), Rosie Moss (“The Conners”), Melanie Haynes (Spider-Man : Into the Spider-Verse), Laurine Price (“American Crime Story : Versace”), and Cole Gerdes (“MOM”) star in BLOOD BORN, on Digital July 16 from Terror Films.
Says director Reed Shusterman :
Having a baby is inherently irrational. It's hard, expensive, potentially dangerous to the mother, and full of unknowns. In a best-case scenario, you end up with an expensive, part-time monster who, after 20-plus years, will hopefully be a moderately functional adult. But people keep doing it, frequently on purpose. And when they try and can’t, they’ll go to extraordinary lengths to get the family they want. It’s not a big leap to see why Eric and Makayla are willing to believe a weird old lady who promises them a magical solution to their problem.
I started development on Blood Born right when my wife and I had just decided to start having a baby. And, in a very literal interpretation of ‘write what you know,’ I wrote about that.
On one level this movie is about the general fears of pregnancy and parenthood, like what happens to you/your partner's body and the physical space the baby will take up. But what really scared me into making this movie was how much a baby would change me. I'd no longer be the most important person in my wife’s life. Hell, I wouldn’t be the most important person in my own life. In a certain way, I'd be giving up myself, my being.
When this story starts, Eric and Makayla have already given up so much in their attempts to have a baby. Inviting a witch doctor to live with you for a week isn’t any more disruptive to your life than a round of IVF. But as the magic–and impending baby–get more and more real, Eric starts to question whether or not the sacrifices are worth it.
I’ve discovered that there’s a lot of overlap between parenthood and making your first feature film. They are freight trains of momentum that cannot be slowed down. They are chaotic, scary, and stressful. But there is discovery in both, of things you’d never expect through, respectively, genetics or a fantastically talented cast and crew.
Blood Born is full of things that are scary and gross, monstrous and joyous. I am enormously proud of this film. It’s a character driven, strange, off-kilter dive into a kind of fear that, to me, is far scarier than killers or ghosts: How, miracle of life or not, the beginning of parenthood is the end of everything you know. And as they say… All babies are monsters."
ON DIGITAL JULY 16
---------
SCALES: "Variance Films is proud to present SCALES, the spellbinding debut feature by Saudi Arabian writer/director Shahad Ameen. The film's premiere took place at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, where it won the Verona Film Club Award, before touring notable festivals around the world, including London, Carthage, Cairo, Singapore and at SXSW 2020. Ameen's debut is a welcome addition to Saudi cinema’s ongoing, female-led cinematic renaissance. The visually arresting film was selected as Saudi Arabia’s Official Oscar® entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2021 Academy Awards, marking Saudi Arabia's fourth ever submission in the history of the Oscars®. SCALES will open in theaters on July 9th at IFC Center in New York and Laemmle's Royal in Los Angeles with rollout to follow.
SYNOPSIS – SCALES is a visually stunning feminist parable set in a dystopian landscape. It follows the story of a strong-willed young girl, Hayat (Basima Hajjar), whose poor fishing village is governed by a dark tradition: every family must give one daughter to the mermaid-like sea creatures who inhabit the waters, to ensure the village can continue their fishing expeditions. When Hayat’s father refuses, the girl becomes a pariah, considered a curse by the village and urged to sacrifice herself - but Hayat has her own plans for her destiny."
OPENS IN SELECT THEATERS IN NY & LA STARTING FRIDAY, JULY 9TH
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
