by on

Good morning film fiends! And a very merry bank holiday wherever you are (hope that sun is shining!) Straight down to business; I’ve got three splendid looking indie releases coming up, so let’s check out the previews below –

First up is e-DEMON from director Jeremy Wechter. The story centres on an  escaped demon on a dark and twisted mission that manipulates a group of friends hanging out on a video-chat. The film is craftily structured – it takes place completely on a computer screen via the webcams being shown.

Kendra, AJ, Mar and Dwayne are old college friends who find themselves growing apart. Attempting to hang on to their good old Ohio State days, the gang gets together online for a night of stories, pranks and drinking via web-cam. As the evening progresses, they unknowingly release a deviously clever demon that had been trapped for centuries in Salem, Massachusetts. Since the demon can possess multiple people at once, the group of friends must determine who they can still trust in order to survive the demon’s dark and twisted mission.
e-DEMON gets its US theatrical and digital release on September 14 2018.

AFI Winner David Field (THE INBETWEENERS 2, THE ROVER, CHOPPER) “goes brilliantly against type”* in Kosta Nikas’ critically acclaimed SACRED HEART, out from Gravitas Ventures.

SACRED HEART chronicles the journey of a religious man, who rejects God and his faith, after the tragic death of his pregnant wife and then challenges the Devil. He receives a visit from his priest, who pushes him to question his own beliefs. The Priest turns out to be a mirror of his own insanity, pushing the boundaries between heaven and hell.

David Field, Kipan Rothbury (WATER RATS) and Lizzie Schebesta (SLEEPING BEAUTY) star in a Kosta Nikas film.
“A hard-hitting journey of revenge and redemption”**, SACRED HEART is available now on VOD/DVD and BluRay from Gravitas Ventures.
*FilmInk **FilmInk

Sometimes the blood just won’t wash away. This summer, Wild Eye Releasing makes hearts bleed when Colin Floom and Greg Nemer’s highly anticipated horror DEAD LOVE premieres on VOD.  

Brandon is a young train engineer whose world is upended when his mother suddenly takes her own life. At the funeral home, he meets Fiona, a beautiful and mysterious mortician who takes a strong interest in him. Soon they discover they share a passion for music. And when Fiona serenades him with an ancient folk song, their lives become entwined for eternity.

Acclaimed actress Kate Linder (THE YOUND AND THE RESTLESS, MISS MEADOWS) features alongside Nicole Elizabeth Olson, Grayson Low, Bob Buckley, Elias Harger, and Deborah Curtis in a classy, haunting and effective festival favorite available now on VOD, followed by a DVD release this October.

Unrelated to new film releases, but should be of interest to comicbook fans; The Stricken Land has become the proud backer of the independent graphic novel Minding Mama via Kickstarter –

Minding Mama is a comic book series written by Elaine Jackson, Illustrated by Dan Schaefer and colored by Grant Kempster.
Mama, her infant son and Cyril the Farmbot live on Earth several hundred years into our future. Decades of intense solar flare activity have left the surface uninhabitable. Only robots such as Farmbots Cyril and Celia can spend any time on the surface, where they attempt to cultivate UV-resistant crops. But the Farmbots are old, and starting to break down…
The project has some wonderful and evocative art reminiscent of the more ‘european style’ found in publications like Metal Hurlant and our own much loved 2000AD. Check out their page (with a great live action short starring the wonderful and very talented Kate Davies Speak) and website and see if you can’t throw a few quid their way, God knows British comics need all the help they can get!

On a final note –  to any aspiring independent filmmakers, podcasters or film related writers out there out there reading this, let me know if you’d like me to publicize and/or review your projects, The Stricken Land is always happy to promote new talent and ideas! And as ever, please feel free to share this post and any others on here that you like, far and wide.

Spread the Word!

Ian

by on

GENRE FILM FESTIVAL GRIMMFEST REVEALS FIRST LOOK AT 2018 PROGRAMME AND AWARDS PRIZES

Manchester-based genre film festival GRIMMFEST is delighted to announce the first 3 of many UK premieres lined up for this year’s 10th anniversary edition. The festival can also now reveal details of some very special awards prizes on offer for films in the official selection. 

Simeon Halligan, festival director and founder of Grimmfest, says “2018 is a very special year for us and to celebrate this we are proud to welcome back a number of talented filmmakers and actors who’ve shared their work with us over the past decade. We’re also pleased to introduce plenty of new talent to the festival, who we hope to see more work from in the years to come!”

The full festival programme is due to be unleashed on Monday 3rd September 2018, but Grimmfest is whetting audiences’ appetites with an early sneak preview of 3 of this year’s titles.

Grimmfest is thrilled to be hosting the UK Premiere of the much-anticipated NIGHTMARE CINEMA, a weird, wild and most welcome throwback to the classic EC-comics-inspired horror anthologies of the 1970s, from genre giants Alejandro Brugués, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Ryûhei Kitamura and David Slade. Fresh from its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival, the film stars Mickey Rourke, Elizabeth Reaser, Richard Chamberlain and Annabeth Gish.

Mickey Rourke stars in ‘Wrap Around’, one of the segments featured in brand new anthology horror NIGHTMARE CINEMA
 ‘Mashit’, another of the segments featured in NIGHTMARE CINEMA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Director Rob Grant (FAKE BLOOD, MON AMI) will be making a welcome return to the festival with the UK Premiere of Canadian shocker ALIVE. Tense, creepy, darkly funny, and quite spectacularly gory in places, with a truly baroque performance from Angus Macfadyen (BRAVEHEART, SAW III/IV), this offbeat gem cements Rob Grant’s reputation of one of genre cinema’s true mavericks of morbid mischief.

Tom Camille stars in Canadian horror ALIVE directed by Rob Grant

Finally, Grimmfest is proud to announce the UK Premiere of the hilariously twisted Australian comedy BROTHERS’ NEST, courtesy of Signature Entertainment. Written and directed by Clayton Jacobson, who also stars in the film along with his brother Shane, this SXSW hit is an emotionally-charged pitch-black farce of squabbling siblings, filial ingratitude, thwarted ambition, broken dreams and brutal murder.

Clayton and Shane Jacobson star in black comedy BROTHER’S NEST

These and all other selected films are in the running for the previously announced GRIMMFEST AWARDS, which will be judged by a fantastic all-female jury consisting of some of the brightest lights in contemporary Genre cinema. 

Grimmfest can also now reveal that it is partnering with film financing group BCL to offer special prizes for the winners of the BEST FILM and BEST DIRECTOR awards categories. The winning films will each be awarded £40,000 worth of post-production services, which can be used against a future film.

Festival Co-Director Rachel Richardson-Jones says, “Our hope is that these awards will really help to boost productivity within the independent genre film sector, as well as demonstrating our commitment as a festival to supporting rising film talent. We intend to expand these awards further still in 2019.”

Michael Laundon, Managing Partner at BCL, adds “All of us at BCL are delighted to be one of the prize sponsors for Grimmfest 2018, especially in their 10th anniversary year. BCL was established with a quest to truly help independent movies to not only get made but to be finished. We hope to continue our support of Grimmfest in the years to come.”

Grimmfest previously announced actress and producer Barbara Crampton (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND) as the recipient of their 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Horror Channel. Barbara will be attending the festival in person to receive the award, where she will also present a special screening of 80’s horror classic RE-ANIMATOR.  

Grimmfest’s 10th edition will take place from the 4th to the 7th October at the ODEON Manchester Great Northern, UK. 

Full festival passes are on sale now from grimmfest.com. Day passes and individual film tickets will be released on 3rd September 2018, along with the full festival programme.