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Hail there fellow film fiends! I hope everyone is having a splendid bank holiday, and taking the chance to kick back and enjoy some silver screen delights. September 9th is the date set for the worldwide release of Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE trailer, and anticipation is certainly high for the first look at the director’s take on Frank Herbert’s sprawling sci-fi vision.

While we are all waiting, I’ve got a whole barrel load of new and upcoming genre cinema for you all to peruse. So without further ado – 

From Freedom Cinema, and director James Di Martino, comes face to face with THE FACELESSMAN this summer.
Premiering on Demand August 28, the Australian horror film took home 6 major awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival including Best Director and Best Film.
Emily is a recovering cancer survivor of three years. Faced with her fear of getting sick again, her best friend Nina plans a weekend away. Six friends venture out to a country holiday house to party over a weekend. Cut off from the rest of the world they soon learn the inhabitants are unsettling red neck individuals who terrorize and humiliate travelers. At the same time a para-normal monster seen as the faceless man haunts the house pushing the friends to their limits.

From writer/director James Di Martino, and featuring WOLF CREEK’s Andy McPhee, Roger Ward (MAD MAX), Lucas Pittaway (SNOWTOWN) and Sophie Thurling (COUNTER PLAY), THE FACELESS MAN haunts digital from August 28.

A group of sci-fi cosplayers get their shot to be real superheroes in director Nathan Letteer’s MONSTER FORCE ZERO.
Featuring genre favorite Garret Wang (STAR TREK: VOYAGER), WWE and WCW wrestling legend Pat Tanaka, and sci-fi staple Heath C. Heine (JURASSIC THUNDER, DRAGON SOLDIERS), the action-packed sci-fi jaunt will be available On Demand this October from Wild Eye Releasing.

After their comic book dreams are crushed, a group of sci-fi cosplayers are granted superpowers and are transported into the multiverse to do real battle with evil alien forces bent on earth’s destruction.

Jeff Schneider’s captivating new horror film EVIL UNDER THE SKIN, starring Helen Udy (MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE DEAD ZONE), arrives on DVD and Digital September 8.

A mother and daughter head off for a secluded weekend to reconnect but little do they know the sordid past of the home they’re staying in let alone the strangeness it attracts as they descend into madness. 

  

Scripted by Luc Bernier, EVIL UNDER THE SKIN stars Helene Udy, Carl Bailey, Tim O’Hearn, Donna Hamblin, and Angela Barajas.
Available on DVD and Digital 9/8 from Midnight Releasing.

Featuring a star-studded cast headlined by Tony Todd (CANDYMAN), Dylan Baker (HUNTERS), Robin Bartlett (SHUTTER ISLAND), Samm Levine (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS), Vanessa Lengies (WAITING…), and Agnes Bruckner (THE WOODS), IMMORTAL – available for sale or rental on demand this September from Stonecutter Distribution.
A chilling horror/thriller anthology film told in four chapters,  Immortal  boasts career-best performances from a cast that also includes Award-winning actor Mario Van Peebles (POSSE, NEW JACK CITY), Lindsay Mushett (BLUE BLOODS), and Jason Stuart (THE INFILTRATORS) with a talented ensemble of filmmakers consisting of Tom Colley,  Jon Dabach, Danny Isaacs and Rob Margolies weaving the exhilarating crosspatch of thrills together.
Thrown into the face of death only to emerge unharmed, the characters of Immortal are left staring at eternity in the face with uncertainty and fear like they’ve never imagined. The film follows Chelsea, a high school track star who comes clean about sexual misconduct with her coach only to find out her confession might be too late, Gary and Vanessa, a young, expecting married couple who scheme a morbid solution to their financial issues, Ted, a man filled with sorrow who agrees to euthanize his cancer-ridden wife Mary, and Warren, a young man with little direction in life who is forced to discover his new gifts after a tragic accident.
IMMORTAL available for sale or rental on demand September 1 from Stonecutter Distribution.

Action superstar Danny Trejo stars in Pikchure Zero Entertainment’s new sci-fi action series PARAGON: THE SHADOW WARS. 

 
In a world where Reapers take souls and demons bargain with humans for their place in the food chain, a new descendent named Jael has emerged. After centuries of civil unrest in the real world, a new war is waging amongst those who are seeking to create a new after-life and Jael finds herself in the middle of it. She must venture into the dark world of Soul Reaping and embrace her new role as the Paragon.  
Trejo, Amin Joseph, Franziska Schissler, Dilan Gwyn, Khu, and Justin Price star in a series,  currently out to networks, that will encompass a 7-episode first season, with each 43-minute episode fixing on the human race dealing with the obliteration of Heaven.  
PARAGON is a sci-fi action series that follows the different factions of society as they deal with Heaven’s destruction. With only a small piece of the after-life to live for, everyone from Death himself is fighting to claim the Elysian for themselves. 

“We have always loved the Sci-fi fantasy genre, and we wanted to create a series that explored one of the most intriguing questions of humanity. Where do we go when we die? And what would happen if Heaven no longer existed?”, says Justin Price, who is also a producer on the series alongside  Khu and  Franziska Schissler. Price adds, “Paragon is an edgier and grittier cable style series in the vein of FIREFLY and ALTERED CARBON. I believe we have an electric hybrid that explores the human spectrum of dealing with loss and love in a stylistic way. Danny Trejo is outstanding as Kincaid, the half-dead leader of disbanded reapers.”

WIDOW’S POINT, Gregory Lamberson’s highly-anticipated, award-winning adaptation of the book of the same name, premieres on DVD and Digital in the USA and Canada September 1 via 101 Films.


Craig Sheffer (A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, NIGHTBREED) leads the cast of the film, alongside KateLynn E. Newberry (HOMECOMING REVENGE).
WIDOW’S POINT follows a writer who spends a weekend locked in a haunted lighthouse to help promote his next book, where he is targeted by supernatural forces.
Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar, authors of the original source novel, adapted WIDOW’S POINT for the screen.
The film had a successful festival run, including Shawna Shea Film Festival, where it won awards for ‘Best Feature’ and ‘Best Actor’ for Craig Sheffer, Crimson Scream Horror festival, where Craig also picked up ‘Best Actor’ award; LUSCA Caribbean International Fantastic and Twin Tiers International, where the film picked up the ‘Audience Award’.
Widow’s Point was reviewed by Rue Morgue ‘’Sheffer contributes an outstanding display of on-screen insanity…an absolute thrill to witness.” Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story, Shadowland and Mr. X commented ‘’Greg Lamberson’s WIDOW’S POINT offers what is very nearly a solo showcase to Craig Scheffer, who responds with bellows and rants, mutters and whispers, and otherwise by strutting his stuff through this lively horror cut-up.” and Delirium Magazine ‘’Lamberson unleashes what may be his finest work to date – at least, his most elegant and restrained.…embedded in a haunted-lighthouse yarn that creeps under the skin and stays there.”
WIDOW’S POINT will be available 9/1 on DVD and Digital via 101 Films.

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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Morning film fiends!

This week serves up a veritable cornucopia esoteric underground movie goodnes in the form of Indonesian zombie apocalypse flick ZETA, sci-fi satire AUTOMATION, along with old skool horror anthology NIGHTMARE RADIO, and topped off with a good old fashioned alien invasion flick in the form of director James Twyman’s INVASION EARTH. Read on…

Film Regions International (FRI) is announcing the release of ZETA a new foreign language horror film that the company has licensed for video-on-demand both in the United States and United Kingdom. The film was helmed by female first-time  filmmaker Amanda Iswan and stars Indonesian actors Cut Mini, Dimas Aditya and Jeff Smith. The film is subtitled in English for the U.S. and U.K. territories.

 ZETA tells the story about a Deon, a student in Jakarta, Indonesia who witnesses a strange incident at his school when a friend bites a nurse’s neck and becomes a raging cannibalistic flesh eater. Suddenly, he realizes the entire city has become ravaged by a zombie apocalypse caused by an amoeba Naegleria-Zeta parasite. Deon, along with his mother Isma, who is suffering early signs of Alzheimer’s, are forced to quarantine in their sky rise apartment and eventually team up with a rebel gang to get the best combat strategies against the zombie horde.

The film is currently available for rental or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and subsequent VOD platforms will follow soon.

AUTOMATION, a genre mash-up of ROBOCOP and THE OFFICE!

A workplace robot, AUTO, transforms into a killing machine when he discovers he will be replaced by a more efficient model. AUTO fears being terminated and will stop at nothing to prevent his own destruction. The human employees must band together to stop him before it’s too late.

Writer/Director Garo Setian – ‘It seems every day there is another news story or article concerning the threat of machines replacing people in the workplace.  We are also seeing stories about the development of robots that can learn to behave more human by observing human behaviour.

So what would happen when a robot with this ability to learn, replaces humans in the workplace, but then faces the prospect of being replaced by more advanced technology?  Our movie AUTOMATION is a cheeky take on this concept.

Our goal was to tell an interesting and timely story with characters the audience cares about.  So despite the film being a satire of corporate cost cutting and planned obsolescence, there is a true heart to the movie in the relationship between Auto and Jenny.

We are so grateful to our talented cast and crew of pros who came together out of love for this script, and the desire to make something fun. We hope the audience finds AUTOMATION an entertaining 91 minutes that is funny, exciting, has a few surprises and is ultimately kind of moving.’

Release date TBC

10 of horror’s hottest rising filmmakers unite to tell 8 terrifying tales.

A NIGHT OF HORROR: NIGHTMARE RADIO, premiering on Demand and DVD September 1, is a new anthology from brothers Luciano Onetti and Nicolas Onetti. Joining the Onettis are filmmakers Sergio Morcillo, Joshua Long, Jason Bognacki, Adam O´Brien, Matt Richards, A.J. Briones, Pablo S. Pastor and Oliver Park.

Rod, radio DJ, hosts a popular horror-themed show packed with tales of terror for eager listeners. When he receives alarming calls from a horrified child things start to feel off. What ensues is a roller-coaster ride of horror stories…

Premiering in lounge rooms this August, an exhilarating new science-fiction thriller from director James Twyman, INVASION EARTH.

The story follows a group of addicts who attend therapy to avoid being sent to prison, while a TV journalist goes undercover and joins the group to try and expose this as a scam. However, all of their lives are thrown into chaos by the beginning of an alien invasion.

Charlotte Gould, Phoebe Delikoura, Tony Fadil, Jon-Paul Gates, Nigel Thijs, and David Shaw star in the critically acclaimed new film from James Twyman, only On Demand and DVD August 4 from Midnight Releasing.

Before you go, don’t forget to check out our new range of merch available here –

https://www.redbubble.com/people/FilmFiend/shop?asc=u

One 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