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Good morning fellow discerning film fans! Feast those tired Monday morning retinas on the following upcoming goodness soon to emerge from the primordial soup of the cinematic underbelly – 

This October “It simply doesn’t get much better than the two Bills” (Pop Horror) as horror icons Bill Moseley (THE DEVIL’S REJECTS) and Bill Oberst, Jr (3 FROM HELL) team for director Jeff Broadsteet’s “Jolly” bloody horror epic Devil’s Junction : Handy Dandy’s Revenge.
The J.S Brinkley-scripted Halloween treat sees a shuttered TV studio in Detroit haunted by a magician ventriloquist from a 1960’s children’s show, and he’s looking for a new live, or dead, studio audience.
Jeff Broadsheet (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D) directs genre vets Bill Moseley (Rob Zombie’s THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, 3 FROM HELL) and Bill Oberst, Jr. (3 FROM HELL, DEATH HOUSE) alongside Jake Red, Cody Cameron, Arthur Marroquin, Danni Spring, Kyle Anderson and Katelynn Newberry. Returning to the abandoned Detroit television station where they once delighted a generation of children viewers, master puppeteer Mister Jolly re-incarnates his minion puppets for a final performance to settle an old score with Richard. The rare blood moon casts an ominous glow as Mr Jolly unleashes his puppets, lead by the infamous Handy Dandy to seek his revenge. Further complicating Richard’s dilemma is the unexpected arrival to the Studio of his son Steffen and his friends. The group become entangled in the thrilling pursuit by Mr Jolly and Handy Dandy through the annuls of the old studio building. They soon realize that they are in a new version of “Mister Jolly and the Handy Dandy Show” -where pain is the game!


Writer/director Anthony M. Winson’s classy creepfest THE BAYLOCK RESIDENCE premieres on DVD and Digital this September from Wild Eye Releasing. THE CONJURING meets DOWNTON ABBEY in a goosebump-inducing haunted house flick now available!

After the death of her sister, Patricia inherits her family’s estate and soon discovers that something or someone has been haunting the home for decades and harbors a disturbing family secret that she must uncover. Kelly Goudie, Sarah Wynne Kordas and Lindsay Foster help make up the cast.


GLOBAL DIGITAL RELEASING has acquired the worldwide rights to writer / director Anderson Cowan’s feature film debut, GROUPERS.

The film centers around two all-American high school jocks Brad and Dylan (Peter Mayer-Klepchick and Cameron Duckett) who are out for a night on the town when they are approached by the beautiful and seductive Meg (Nicole Dambro) at a local bar.  Ready for what they hope will be a night to remember, the guys are subsequently kidnapped, drugged and awaken tied up face to face in an abandoned pool in the middle of nowhere. Absurdity and insanity ensue as we learn that Orin (Jesse Pudles), Meg’s overly flamboyant brother has been the target of Brad and Dylan’s homophobic bullying and that Meg is actually a grad student who plans to perform a psychological and somewhat sadistic experiment on them as part of her thesis, which poses the question, “is homosexuality a choice”.
The Cinequest Film Festival referred to the film in its 2019 line up as “a rare, highly original, and super-charged dark comedy that will keep you guessing and contemplating the provocative, yet crucial themes at its essence”.
 “This is an important film”, stated Global Digital Releasing President Joe Dain. “Homophobia has always been an issue in our society but with the current administration and the potential roll backs of LGBTQ protections in this country, it’s not only timely but Anderson effectively tackles the subject matter in a dark, humorous, yet thought provoking and entertaining way that we believe will resonate with audiences and we wanted to give it the opportunity to garner the attention we feel it deserves.”

The frightening HELLMINGTON from writer-directors Justin Hewitt-Drakulic and Alex Lee Williams is out now on on DVD and Digital.
Genre icon Michael Ironside (TOTAL RECALL, TOP GUN, TURBO KID) and Shadowhunters’ Nicola Correia-Damude star. 

In 1999, outside the sleepy town of Hellmington, troubled high school senior Katie Owens mysteriously vanished. Nine years later, Detective Samantha Woodhouse, a former classmate of Katie’s, returns to Hellmington for the first time since graduation to deal with the unexpected death of her father. His passing just another tragedy in an already devastating year for Sam: her own daughter was murdered, resulting in a downward spiral of anguish and guilt that has slowly destroyed her marriage and career.
Sam soon discovers that her father’s demise is one in a series of suspicious deaths over the last several years, and it appears that the grisly fatalities are becoming more frequent. Even more alarming, every victim circles back to the troubled Katie Owens.
Battling hallucinations, insomnia and her own personal demons, Sam struggles to uncover the disturbing truth of what really happened to Katie Owens; a mystery that will lead her to a secretive, centuries-old cult of revenge.


The film they’re calling ‘Blair Witch on Bikes’, Artist’s Rights Distribution presents Matt Wohl’s unique nail-biting indie thriller SCOOTER.

The Three Amigoes are life-long best friends and partners in crime. They became internet famous after their YouTube channel went viral. Each episode of their antics has them undertaking some ridiculous challenge. From racing cars to tricycles and from the waters of the South Atlantic to the bottom of a swimming pool, there’s no challenge too stupid. Like a pack of cats, they always land on their feet.
The Amigoes latest challenge is to ride scooters from Miami to New Orleans. Each person has $1000 to get a scooter, pay for gas, food, and lodging. After they select their vehicles and pack their bags, it’s time to hit the road. They soon find that their 50CC scooters are no match of I-95, and they retreat to the side roads to continue their epic 900 mile journey. While the road is smoother, the trip gets a lot bumpier. One of the scooters break down, the friends start to fight amongst each other, and their troubles reach a climax when they witness and video a murder.
Stuck in rural Florida with two working scooters, they have little hope of escape, and the killer is hot on their trail. What was once a leisurely trip becomes a fight for survival. They end up captured, tortured, and it’s clear they won’t all survive. When those who are sworn to protect you are the problem, where do you turn? Will they all die in a small backwater town, or can they once again defy the odds and come out alive?


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

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Good morning film fiends! Feast your eyeballs on the triple whammy of trashy cinematic greatness I’ve served up below and  wile away those Monday morning blues on the grey drudgery of the morning commute. Rejoice I say and remember it’s just another five days till the weekend…

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This October, you’re not even safe on the Sofa!
From filmmaker Bernardo Rao, comes the most ridiculously entertaining horror jaunt of the year, KILLER SOFA on DVD and Digital from High Octane Pictures.
ELECTRIC DREAMS meets CHRISTINE in the heart-warmingly horrific chronicle of a killer Lazy Boy that falls in love with a girl – and the bloody carnage that follows as a result!
Francesca always attracted weirdos. When one of her stalkers is found dead, she looks for comfort from her best friend, Maxi. Meanwhile, Maxi’s grandfather, Jack, a disgraced Rabbi, comes across a reclining chair containing a Dybbuk inside. Jack and his voodoo sorceress partner try to find out where the recliner has been delivered while exploring Jack’s newfound gift for communicating with the other world. Meanwhile the reclining chair becomes enchanted by Francesca and starts committing crimes of passion.
Jed Brophy (THE HOBBIT), Sarah Munn, Stacy King, and Harley Neville star in a horror treat straight out of New Zealand, available October

 

The book opens on Krisstian de Lara’s spine-tingling Investigation 13 with Uncork’d Entertainment announcing a digital and DVD release for September 10.
Screen icon Meg Foster (LORDS OF SALEM, THE STEPFATHER 2, THEY LIVE) stars in director Krisstian de Lara’s mesmerizingly unnerving INVESTIGATION 13, premiering on digital and DVD this September from Uncork’d Entertainment.

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Incorporating traditional narrative story-telling, as well as numerous forms of pioneering technology, including found footage, hand-held cameras, surveillance cameras, and smart glasses, INVESTIGATION 13 is a new-age fright-fest chronicling the tale of a group of college science students investigating the urban legend of The Mole Man, an ex-patient said to still be residing within the walls of the Black Grove Asylum. When members of the group start missing, they soon learn that this myth is more real than they thought, making this 13th investigation one they will come to regret.
From Gorilla Studios, INVESTIGATION 13 also stars Stephanie Hernandez, Patrick Flanagan, Robert Paget, William Alexander, Giordan Diaz, Jesse Ramos and Peter Aratari as ‘The Mole Man’.
Clay Smith wrote the original screenplay, Rolando Vinas and de Lara wrote the most recent version.
INVESTIGATION 13 On VOD and DVD September 10 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

 

New artwork and a trailer have been released for ONCE UPON A TIME IN DEADWOOD, the new revenge western feature starring Robert Bronzi (recent hit DEATH KISS) and Michael Pare (STREETS OF FIRE) that comes out October 1st in the U.S.
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN DEADWOOD concerns a notorious gunslinger who is slipped a slow-acting poison by an heiress and told he has three days to track down and rescue her sister, who has been kidnapped by a band of hoodlums and holds the antidote.  Rene Perez directs from his screenplay, with Jeff Miller (THE TOYBOX) also contributing.
Bronzi plays the gunslinger.  Pare plays the main villain.  The cast is rounded out with Karin Brauns (PLAYING WITH DOLLS series), Lauren Compton (CLOWNTOWN), actor-model Chris Matteis, J.D. Angstadt, Jose Varela Garcia, Justin Hawkins, Tony Jackson, and Sierra Sherbundy.
The movie was filmed in California as well as in Western Leone, near Almeria, Spain, site of much of the filming of the famous Sergio Leone/Charles Bronson western ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.
Miller (who produced the recent DEATH KISS, which Perez directed, as well as the recent thriller  THE RUSSIAN BRIDE) is producing with Ronnie D. Lee (THE TOYBOX, OUIJA HOUSE) through their companies Millman Productions and Ron Lee Productions, respectively.
“If you liked DEATH KISS, you’ll love Bronzi again delivering his brand of justice,” says Miller.   “We filmed at recognizable locations where Bronson stood 50 years ago on the classic ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and I can’t wait for fans to check out this latest chapter in our series of films with Bronzi.”
ONCE UPON A TIME IN DEADWOOD comes out in the U.S. on October 1st on digital and on November 19th on dvd.  Uncork’d Entertainment is handling distribution in North America and international sales.
For more information and updates, please visit the film’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/onceuponatimeindeadwood

Festival News

With this year’s FrightFest now passed, there are two more annual UK film festivals for horror hounds and cult movie mavens to make a beeline for – Grimmfest 2019 in Manchester, and Mayhem in sunny old Nottingham town.

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Grimmfest 2020 has already announced it’s line up for this year’s event with one of the highlights been the announcement that the Soska Sisters will be attending showcasing their reimagining of the 70’s lo-fi Cronenberg classic RABID. Other flicks lined up include SHE NEVER DIED, director Audrey Cummings female centric follow up to the 2015 Henry Rollins vehicle HE NEVER DIED, Australian WWII set creature feature BLOOD VESSEL and outrageous splatter-satire, SATANIC PANIC, from first-time director, Chelsea Stardust and Fangoria Films and loads more. Horror icon and all round great lady Barbara Crampton heads the jury with 14 awards including BEST FEATURE FILM, BEST SHORT FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST SFX and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, up for grabs with prizes that include over £120,000 worth of post – production support.
For more information on this great festival visit http://grimmfest.com/grimmupnorth/2019/09/grimmfest-2019-schedule/

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As well as continuing to make much hay out of its association with medieval armed robbery, Nottingham is also home to The Broadway cinema which hosts the annual Mayhem Film Festival every October. Billed as a showcase for the best features and short films in horror, sci-fi and cult cinema, through premieres, previews, and special events, this year sees HARDWARE director Richard Stanley’s HP Lovecraft adaptation COLOR OUT OF SPACE, nightmarish sci-fi VIVARIUM starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots (CENTURION), haunted house thriller  GIRL ON THE THIRD FLOOR and twisted suspense thrillers DOOR LOCK and COME TO DADDY.
Two classocs dusted down and brought out of the archive are Nicolas Cage’s VAMPIRE’S KISS and the crinminally underrated late VHS era classic THE HIDDEN.
For more information on this joyful celebration of everything cinematically weird and horrific visit
http://www.mayhemfilmfestival.com/news/2019/09/mayhem-film-festival-reveals-full-line-up-for-2019-edition

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

 

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Escape from Cannibal Farm (UK 2017) Dir: Charlie Steeds
Kate Davies Speak, David Lenik, Rowena Bentley, Barrington De La Roche, Peter Cosgrove, Toby Wynn Davies

The Harver clan head out into the English countryside for a camping holiday in an attempt to bury familial tensions and patch up their differences. Clearly no one told them that family holidays are usually the worst recipe for promoting such harmony, but this being a horror flick, we know that our fresh faced middle class protagonists will soon be plunged into some nightmarish scenario that will indeed force them to discover unforeseen strengths and work together to survive. Just your average bank holiday in the UK then…
Said nightmare begins when the Harver’s mobile home is sabotaged by an unseen intruder and mum Katherine (Bentley) narrowly avoids being killed when her tent mysteriously catches fire. The bickering band of soon-to-be-victims head to a seemingly deserted nearby farm, in search of help and contact with the outside world (anal retentive step dad Wesley has suspiciously banned mobile phones from been taken on the trip…he’s played by Toby Wynn Davies, so we can be pretty sure he’ll turn out to be a wrong ‘un.)
There the Harvers encounter the owner, the demented Hunt Hansen (De La Roche) and his hideously disfigured son (Sam Lane), and soon enough the whole family find themselves caged like animals and awaiting slaughter by the Hansens for delivery to ‘The Meat Eater’, a mysterious figure organising a steady supply of longpig to secret ring of discerning customers…
ESCAPE FROM CANNIBAL FARM (CANNIBAL FARM in the US), is the debut feature from writer/director/editor Charlie Steeds’ Dark Temple outfit, a UK retro horror studio that has already seen its second feature WINTERSKIN recently released to the US market and reviewed here on this very site. Various issues with distributors have delayed the release of Escape  to the UK market, but happily, the excellent 88 Films have finally submitted a release date of October 21 this year.
I’ll freely admit I was expecting a Chainsaw Massacre set in the Cotswolds pastiche, based purely on the snippets served up in the trailer, but I was pleasantly wrong footed as Steeds’ script piles on the plot twists and is surprisingly sympathetic towards the films villains, portraying them as victims of tragic circumstance, driven insane by their misfortune. Even a dash of social commentary about generational wealth divides is thrown in for good measure. The director is certainly not shy on the gore either, favouring practical effects (much to his credit!) and piling on the severed limbs, cooked bodies and bone slicing power tools with relish.
From a production values standpoint, the  direction and camerawork are very assured for a debut feature and Steeds has a great eye for colour and lush visuals which go a long way towards compensating against the film’s tiny budget. The cast is uniformly excellent with British horror’s new favourite ‘final girl’ Kate Davies Speak valiantly holding her own against scenery chewing villainous  turns from De La Roche, Cosgrove and Wynn Davies, last seen in Richard Rowntree’s excellent folk horror update DOGGED.
If there’s a fault to be had with the movie, it’s that the script maybe piles on one two many plot twists and thus risks overreaching. Much of De La Roche’s and Cosgrove’s dialogue too, is at times incomprehensible (I guess that’s what subtitles are for.) These seem like minor quibbles in what is an assured debut from the new studio, which curiously felt like a more rounded experience than its follow up feature WINTERSKIN. Although I doubt it will do  much for west country tourism ESCAPE FROM CANNIBAL FARM is a glorious technicolour love letter to the golden age of much maligned lo-fi straight to video horror flicks of the video nasty era from an exciting new player in British horror film making. Long may they reign!

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Good morning fellow cineastes, here’s another lowdown on some upcoming celluloid gems to cheer you all up on the morning commute – 

Afflicted with a dermatological disease, young and beautiful Kira discovers that she can replace her skin with that of other girls. Helped by her lover, she plots a murder and the victim becomes her donor, but when the disease returns, she is forced to find more victims.From writers Richard Stanley and Norbert Keil, REPLACE stars Rebecca Forsythe (THE BRONX BULL), Lucie Aron (BERLIN SYNDROME), Sean Knopp and genre icon Barbara Crampton.
REPLACE is on DVD and VOD October 1 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

Horror fans are celebrating the terrifying new horror treat ASHES, calling the film “gruesome”, “inventive” and “the scares…so effective”!
It’s time to discover what has film fans cowering under their sofa cushions this month!

Now available on Digital and Demand from 1091 Media, when an estranged aunt passes away, a family is creeped out to receive her ashes. And when supernatural misfortunes begin to best them, they quickly discover they have to go through hell to rid of her angry spirit.
From writer/director Barry Jay, and starring Elizabeth Keener, Jeremy Earl, Yumarie Morales, Angelique Maurnaé, and Melinda deKay, prepare to receive ASHES.
Audiences are raving about the effective scares, welcome dark humour and haunting imagery from Barry Jay’s triumphant new genre addition.
ASHES is now available on Digital and Demand. 

Acclaimed “Hitchcockian Journey”* WHAT DEATH LEAVES BEHIND will receive a theatrical release across North America this September and October via Artist Rights Distribution.

Following the premiere in Los Angeles on September 11, the multi-award winner will open in other markets including Ohio, San Diego, New York, Tennessee, Florida, DC and Philadelphia.
Directed by Scott A. Hamilton, and scripted by Hamilton, Chad Morton, Nico Giampietro, and Rachel K. Ofori, WHAT DEATH LEAVES BEHIND tells of a man who, after a kidney transplant, experiences reoccurring nightmares he believes to be visions of his donor’s violent murder, sending him on a dark path of vengeance, leading to an unbearable truth.
Christopher Mann, Vincent Young, Erin O’Brien, Johnny Alonso, Alexandra Tydings, Shaira Barton, Amanda Diaz, Kelly Dowdle, and Khalil McMillan star in a Scott A.Hamilton film.
WHAT DEATH LEAVES BEHIND , from Artist Rights Distribution and Smash Entertainment, in theatres nationally this autumn.
PARTICIPATING THEATRES AND DATES : https://www.whatdeathleavesbehind.com/in-theaters/

Dark Star Pictures will release the critically acclaimed EMPATHY INC in theaters (9/13) and VOD (9/24) this fall. 

Yedidya Gorsetman’s sci-fi thriller tells of an investor in a VR startup discovers that the reality the company provides isn’t virtual.
Hotshot venture capitalist Joel has a multimillion-dollar deal go up in smoke, and he and his actress wife Jessica are forced to move in with her parents and start from scratch. At the lowest and most desperate moment in his life, Joel meets old friend Nicolaus and his business partner Lester, who are seeking investors in a new technology known as XVR—Xtreme Virtual Reality—from their company Empathy, Inc., which is said to offer the most realistic and moving experiences for users by placing them in the lives of the less fortunate. Joel gets the startup its funds but soon discovers that the tech’s creators have far more sinister uses in store for their creation and that the reality it provides its customers isn’t virtual.

Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment present SEEDS, in cinemas September 13 and on VOD/DVD September 24.

 Starring Trevor Long, star of Netflix drama Ozark, nominated for 9 Emmy Awards, director Owen Long’s SEEDS is a gothic horror about a man haunted by his dark past while pursuing some self-care on the New England coast.
After a night of debauchery spirals out of control, Marcus retreats to his family home along the New England coast. Solitude is disturbed when his brother asks Marcus to look after his estranged nephew and niece. As days pass, solace escapes him; he feels baited by a dark force. Is he losing his mind or has something terrible burrowed deep within him? Incubating. Waiting until the climate is right. Haunted by his deepest fears, Marcus struggles not to succumb as he fights to protect Lily, his beloved niece from a monster that lies in wait.Andrea Chen, Garr Long, and Kevin Breznahan star opposite Trevor Long in an Owen Long film SEEDS, written by Steven Weisman, out this September from Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment.

The Joke’s on you when CLOWNADO blows in this September!


Bunker down for Todd Sheets’ twisted new horror film, featuring genre icons Linnea Quigley and Eileen Deitz, on VOD September 3 and DVD September 17 from Wild Eye Releasing!
Cursed demonic circus clowns set out on a vengeful massacre using tornadoes. A stripper, Elvis impersonator, truck driver, teen runaway, and a dude get caught in the supernatural battle between femme fatal and the boss clown from hell.Rachel Lagen, John O’Hara, and Joel D. Wynkoop co-star in “an enjoyable, blood-soaked love letter to the genre*” from the legendary Todd Sheets.


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