The Midnight Swim features an almost entirely female cast and will arrive in theaters and VOD in the U.S. later this month. Also in this round-up: casting details for Lavender and an excerpt from the horror fantasy novel Into the Darkness.
The Midnight Swim: "Candy Factory Films is immensely proud to present The Midnight Swim, the haunting new dark drama from director Sarah Adina Smith in U.S. theaters and VOD nationwide on June 26th!
Spirit Lake is unusually deep. No diver has ever managed to find the bottom, though many have tried. When Dr. Amelia Brooks disappears during a deep-water dive, her three daughters travel home to settle her affairs. They find themselves unable to let go of their mother and become drawn into the mysteries of the lake."
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Lavender: The psychological thriller Lavender is set to finish filming on June 29th:
Press Release -- "Lavender, which started principal photography recently in and around Toronto, has added Justin Long (The Break-Up, Dodgeball, Jeepers Creepers) to its cast. Directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly (Small Town Murder Songs, The Last Exorcism Part II), the film also stars Abbie Cornish, (Limitless, Robocop, Sucker Punch), Diego Klattenhoff (The Blacklist, Homeland, Pacific Rim), and Dermot Mulroney (August: Osage County, The Grey).
When a photographer, (Cornish), suffers severe memory loss after a traumatic accident, strange clues amongst her photos suggest she may be responsible for the deaths of family members she never knew she had. Long plays a psychiatrist who helps her recover lost memories, while Klattenhoff and Mulroney play her husband and uncle respectively.
Lavender is co-written by Gass-Donnelly and Colin Frizzell. Gass-Donnelly is producing the film with Dave Valleau (Reasonable Doubt, Capote, Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus) through Valleau’s South Creek Pictures banner.
Andrea Iervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Group is co-financing Lavender with Muraglia’s Paradox Studios with additional financing provided by The Movie Network, a division of Bell Media, and Movie Central, the Harold Greenberg Fund and Telefilm Canada. Iervolino, Lady Bacardi and Muraglia are executive producers along with Jennifer Levine, Emily Alden and Tex Antonucci.
AMBI Distribution, the worldwide sales arm of the AMBI Group, is handling international sales, excluding Canada where Pacific Northwest Pictures has distribution rights and will release the film. XYZ Films will handle domestic sales."
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Into the Darkness: "Full of robust character development and unexpected twists, Into The Darkness brings to life the journey of Aeryn Ravane, a 23-year-old sell sword, and a wide range of characters who help or hinder her along the way in this gripping quest to honor the legendary adventurer Tynan Selvantyr.
Complete with intense gory battles, unnerving creatures and disguised evil forces, Into The Darkness is sure to be a classic for die-hard fans of fantasy and horror alike. Throughout Into The Darkness compelling themes are examined including:
A.M. Rycroft is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. Into the Darkness is her first novel. Besides creating imaginary worlds and immersive stories for her second horror novel, A.M.’s hobbies include weight training, running, basketball, and hockey.
Into The Darkness is available via Amazon and Barnes&Noble."
Chapter 14 Excerpt:
It did not take long to reach the Thieves Guild after they left the stables. The wind picked up even more during the walk, and Theo had to continually brush her blond hair out of her eyes. Thunder rumbled in the distance and nervousness knotted her stomach. She had a bad feeling about what they were about to do.
At the guild house door, Theo glanced at Aeryn and Tynan on her right and left respectively, then reached forward to use the knocker. Before she could lay hands upon it, however, the door swung slowly open, revealing thick darkness inside the guild house. In front of them floated a glowing, gray ball.
Theo hastily pulled her hand back, thrown off her guard. This was new, she thought to herself. She finally spoke to the ball, wanting to feel silly, and feeling anything but. “I’m here to see Pythun? I brought the sell-sword he wanted, and her, uh, companion.”
Only the moaning wind was heard as they stared at the glowing ball. Without warning, the sphere darted in front of Aeryn and hovered there. The sell-sword’s hand dropped to the daggers strapped at her hips, but just as suddenly, the ball darted to Tynan. Then it drifted away from the ghost and back into the guild house where it stopped, as if waiting. Lightning flashed and the sky broke open. Rain poured down on them. Theo, Aeryn, and Tynan looked at each other before, by silent agreement, they followed the orb inside.
As soon as all three of them cleared the threshold, the door swung shut behind them, and Theo heard a lock click into place. Aeryn whirled to face the closed door, hands tightening on her dagger hilts, only to spin back again when the ball’s glow grew brighter. It made no further move. “I don’t like this,” the sell-sword stated.
“Definitely not,” Theo agreed. This was not the reception she had expected. Big, ugly guards grabbing them as soon as they came in, yes. Weird, glowing balls, no.
Tynan was the only one who appeared unfazed. Stepping forward, he addressed the gray ball. “Take us to Pythun,” he said. The sphere moved ahead, leading them.
As they walked, Theo was unable to tell if they were headed to Pythun’s office or someplace else. The ball’s glow was never strong enough for her to see anything beyond a three-foot radius around it, which unnerved her. It was colder than it should have been inside the guild house and there was a foul smell coming from somewhere in the darkness around them. Theo knew what the smell was, having had the misfortune to smell it a time or two. Judging from the grim look on Aeryn’s face, the sell-sword knew as well. It was the smell of death.
Then the gray ball paused and glowed a little brighter, illuminating a stone staircase and a passage at the bottom. They paused as well. Theo and Aeryn glanced at each other as the ball began to descend the stairway and Tynan again took the lead.
“Where are we going?” Aeryn asked her, her voice low.
“I don’t know,” she replied with equal quiet. Theo’s pulse quickened and cold sweat dampened the back of her neck. She had no idea where the sphere was leading them, but she had a feeling that wherever it was, she was going to wish she were elsewhere quickly enough.
The walls of the passage at the bottom of the staircase were a familiar black stone. She guessed it came from the Black Mountains. There was an odd, throbbing quality to the stone, as if it was alive and breathing. When Theo looked over at the sell-sword again, she saw Aeryn was beginning to sweat, too, although it was colder in the passage than in the level above. She saw Aeryn continuously eye the walls of the passage and the ball leading them. The sell-sword’s hands were balled into white-knuckled fists.
Tamika hails from North Beach, Maryland, a tiny town inches from the Chesapeake Bay.She knew she wanted to be an actor after reciting a soliloquy by Sojourner Truth in front of her entire fifth grade class. Since then, she's appeared in over 20 film and television projects. In addition to acting, Tamika is the Indie Spotlight manager for Daily Dead, where she brings readers news on independent horror projects every weekend.
The first horror film Tamika watched was Child's Play. Being eight years old at the time, she remembers being so scared when Chucky came to life that she projectile vomited. It's tough for her to choose only one movie as her favorite horror film, so she picked two: Nosferatu and The Stepford Wives (1975).
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