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This October, GRIMMFEST, Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Film celebrated its tenth anniversary with the biggest line-up of film premieres ever, along with audiences to match.

Now the Festival Jury’s votes are all in, and the audience ballots all tallied up, Grimmfest is proud to reveal this year’s award-winners:

Horror Channel Lifetime Achievement Award: BARBARA CRAMPTON (RE-ANIMATOR, YOU’RE NEXT)

Best Feature: TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

With Special mentions for ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE and PIERCING

Best Director: JOHN MCPHAIL, for ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE

With Special mentions for ISSA LÓPEZ (TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID), and CLAYTON JACOBSON (BROTHERS’ NEST)

Best Screenplay: ISSA LÓPEZ for TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

With Special mentions for CLAYTON JACOBSON (BROTHERS’ NEST) and ANDY MITTON (THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW)

Best Score: ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE

With Special mentions for PIERCING and SUMMER OF ’84

Best Actor: JUAN RAMÓN LÓPEZ for TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

With Special mention for AIDAN DEVINE (I’LL TAKE YOUR DEAD)

Best Actress: MIA WASIKOWSKA for PIERCING

With Special mentions for ELLA HUNT (ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE) and ABIGAIL CRUTTENDEN (AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS)

Best SFX: GIRLS WITH BALLS

With Special mentions for AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS and FRAMED

Best Kill: GIRLS WITH BALLS

With Special mentions for PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH, OFFICE UPRISING and SATAN’S SLAVES

Best Scare: THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW

With Special mention for SATAN’S SLAVES

Best Short: WE SUMMONED A DEMON

With Special mentions for CONDUCTOR, DEAD COOL and THE OLD WOMAN WHO HID HER FEAR UNDER THE STAIRS

Finally, as voted for by Grimmfest 2018 attendees:

The Audience Award: TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

With Special mentions for SUMMER OF ’84, WITCH IN THE WINDOW, ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE, and BROTHERS’ NEST

The Festival Jury Panel consisted of; Actress and Writer Lauren Ashley Carter, Film Sales Agent Caroline Couret-Delegue, Acquisitions Consultant, Festival Programmer and Producer Annick Mahnert, Writer, Actress and Producer Joanne Mitchell, Dread Central Journalist Anya Stanley and Rue Morgue Executive Editor Andrea Subissati. 

Grimmfest is even more delighted to announce that the winners of the BEST FILM and BEST DIRECTOR categories will each be awarded £40,000 worth of post-production services by Festival Award Sponsor BCL Finance Group, which can be used against a future film. 

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID is a Mexican magic realist movie written and directed by Issa López, the film has gained huge festival acclaim and awards around the World. It has been championed by Guillermo del Toro who will be producing Issa’s next film. Issa López said: “It’s an incredible honour to receive so many beautiful awards at a festival with such an incredible slate…Grimmfest is the very image of genre cinema’s credibility and substance, and it means a lot to the entire ‘Tigers’ team to be recognized by the festival’s jury and incredible audiences.” 

ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE is a UK Christmas set Zombie musical directed by John McPhail. Since its debut at Fantastic fest last year, it has been making waves around the festival circuit, winning the audience award at the Edinburgh International film festival. It will be released theatrically in the UK and US in time for the festive season. John McPhail, Director of ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE, said: “I am over the moon to receive this award, to know my peers enjoyed the film… I only started directing 6 years ago, and to receive Best Director award from a film festival like Grimmfest really puts the icing on the cake.” 

BCL have already agreed to partner with the festival next year, when they will again be offering big prizes for BEST FILM and BEST DIRECTOR categories and Grimmfest is also excited to announce the introduction of a new award category WORK IN PROGRESS, in association with BCL. The winning filmmaker will receive access to all-important post production services that will enable the completion of their film.

Michael Laundon, Managing Partner at BCL, adds “All of us at BCL are delighted to be prize sponsors for Grimmfest, as they enter their second decade. 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.” 

Finally, Grimmfest is thrilled to announce that Barbara Crampton has agreed to become head of the Festival Jury for Grimmfest 2019. 

Grimmfest 2019 will take place in early October in Manchester UK. Film submissions will open December 2018 via Film Freeway. More information about the festival can be found at www.grimmfest.com 

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Good morning film fiends! I have a quadruple whammy of upcoming greatness for you all to feast your retinsa on as well as a cool little short form the Dobrofsky brothers over at Short Story TV. let’s dive in –

It’s going to be a killer Christmas!

The terrifying backstory of the yuletide slaughterer comes to digital and DVD this November with KRAMPUS: ORIGINS, arriving November 6 from Uncork’d Entertainment.
The first World War rages on when a group of American soldiers find a mysterious artifact that can summon the ancient evil of the Krampus.  After the men are killed in action, the artifact is sent to the commanding officers widow who is a teacher at a small-town orphanage.  The orphans accidentally summon the Krampus and the teacher, and her pupils are forced to battle this ancient evil.
Starring Maria Olsen (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: DÉJÀ VU, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3) and Anna Harr (BETHANY, RESTORATION), and directed by Joseph Mbah and written by Robert Conway, KRAMPUS: ORIGINS on digital and DVD November 6.

This November, Gloria is transforming into something very, very strange.
From director Chad Archibald, and in the tradition of CABIN IN THE WOODS and HEREDITARY, comes THE HERETICS on demand November 6 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

A young woman (Nina Kiri of THE HANDMAID’S TALE) is abducted by a strange man who claims that a cult is hunting her. His goal is to protect her until sunrise but while restrained, she falls deathly ill. As her friends and family search for her, the source of her illness becomes more and more apparent. She’s not sick…she’s changing.
From Black Fawn Films, the award-winning and celebrated Canadian horror machine behind the ANTISOCIAL series, BITE, and LET HER OUT, comes a film that’s “part cabin-in-the-woods thriller, part psychological puzzle, and part demonic possession battleground” (iHorror).
Nina Kiri, Ry Barrett (LIFECHANGER), and Jorja Cadence star in THE HERETICS available on Demand November 6 and DVD January 5 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

 

Leading independent distributor Wild Eye Releasing releases Portuguese horror film THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS on Amazon Prime and Blu-ray this month.

The psychological “coming of age” horror film, written and directed by directed by José Pedro Lopes, also has new artwork to coincide with the Amazon and BD launch.
Ricardo and Carolina are complete strangers that meet seemingly by chance in the FOREST OF THE LOST SOULS , a place where many people go to commit suicide. These two, a young woman and an old man, are no different than the others as they also came to the forest for this very reason.
They decide to briefly postpone killing themselves in order to explore the forest and also to continue talking to one another, as Ricardo and Carolina find themselves intrigued by each other.
However, as the pair go further into the forest it becomes clear that one of them has other reasons for being in the forest, is not who they would have the other believe them to be and is actually a psychopath…

 

KISS KISS, BANG BANG meets classic Hitchcock in the whodunnit of the year!
Winner of no less than 9 major film awards, including Best Feature Film at the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival and Best Indie Feature at the Los Angeles Film Awards, Clyde Cooper (Souvenir Films) is on the case this November.

Jordi Vilasuso plays Silicon Valley private detective Clyde Cooper. Hired by a tech investor to find a missing woman, the love of his life, who had mysteriously disappeared, Cooper runs into an odd ring of strange women, and weird characters until he finds much more than what he’s bargaining for.
Jordi Vilasuso, Abigail Titmuss, Richard Neil (PRODIGY), Aria Sirvaitis (ROSEWOOD), Isabella Racco (THE DOLL) and veteran actor Lou Wagner (PLANET OF THE APES) star in a Peter Daskaloff film,CLYDE COOPER on VOD November 22.

https://youtu.be/DRzEQruPr5E

 

I was contacted this week by the Dobrofsky brothers, the team behind the Short Story TV YouTube channel which, in their own words are ‘Content Warriors here to frighten, entertain and inspire!’ Their newest work is MR HOLIDAY, a very dark short little fil about a serial killer who decides to celebrate new tear by making his very own snuff movie…
Check it out below and subscribe to their channel to see what else the brothers have in store. You can also follow them on Twitter @shortstorytv

https://youtu.be/CSBewte4viI

Den of Geek founder and all round nice bloke Simon Brew has launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund is new print format film magazine Film Stories. Already a successful podcast, the monthly mag will primarily focus  on mainstream fare but less on superheroes and Star Wars! In their own words -‘Imagine it as the magazine for the smaller screens in the multiplex, and the larger screens in the independent.’

The campaign runs up until 19th November with a target of £10,000. There are loads of different pledge levels and you can check the project out here –

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 day film fiends! Just one upcoming release to share with you today, but it’s a doozy (I mean, who doesn’t like werewolf films, right?) Check it out below –
THIS OCTOBER, HUNGER SHOWS NO MERCY
From legendary underground filmmaker Todd Sheets comes a howlingly terrifying werewolf movie for Halloween, BONEHILL ROAD!
Emily and Eden Stevens escape one violent situation only to dive head first into another. Terrified and alone they are stranded in the dark woods only to be chased into a horrific scene in a house or horrors. They must work together to get out alive. But what is worse? What is on the inside or out?
Genre legend Linnea Quigley (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, CREEPOZOIDS) stars alongside Gary Kent, and David E. McMahon star in Bonehill Road, out from Wild Eye Releasing this week on DVD and on Digital soon.
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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A Quiet Place (2018) US Dir: John Krasinski
Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds

Several months after the world’s human population has been decimated by blind extra terrestrial creatures that hunt by sound, the Abbott family continue to survive on their isolated farm.
When their youngest son Beau is killed by one of the creatures, their congenitally deaf daughter Regan blames herself. Meanwhile their engineer father Lee (Krasinski) continues to try and upgrade a cochlear implant for Regan and figure out the creatures weakness, while making fruitless attempts to contact any survivors in the outside world. Lee’s heavily pregnant wife Evelyn (Blunt) concentrates on continuing the children’s education whilst making preparations to give birth to their fourth child…
A QUIET PLACE is a terrific achievement and has gone some way to restoring my faith that the major Hollywood studios can still produce engaging multi layered storytelling, and not just endless paint by numbers superhero franchise entries.
Developed from a spec script by Scott Woods and Bryan Fuller, that originally featured only one line of dialogue, writer/director Krasinski sensibly opts for a restrained ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach to what is essentially a creature feature overlaid with familial angst, the film wisely opts for a slow reveal of the creatures, and not just of their appearance but also their abilities and weaknesses. This is a firmly character driven piece that doesn’t drown the audience in flashy cgi or clunky exposition, and is all the better for it. It says a lot about how the cgi revolution has resulted in too many films prioritising spectacle over narrative that A QUIET PLACE’s old school approach to storytelling feels so refreshing.
One of the best examples of this comes from how the backstory of the aliens arrival on our planet and the subsequent breakdown of society is told subtly through glimpsed newspaper cuttings in Lee’s workshop and snippets of deftly crafted dialogue in what has to be a textbook example of world building in a film.
The performances are uniformly excellent, with real life husband and wife Krasinski and Blunt exuding a mixture of fortitude and quiet desperation in the face of their grief and their unspoken fears of what the future may hold for the family. Special mention must go to the sound design by Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van Der Ryn along with the score by Marco Beltrami taking on more significance than usual given the film’s central premise and the attendant sparseness of dialogue for extended periods of the run time.
Stripped of its sci fi trappings, the theme that lies at the heart of the film is the fear of every parent of not being able to protect their children from outside forces beyond their control. The horror genre functions best when putting our repressed fears and anxieties under the microscope, forcing them to the surface through a fantastical narrative device (in this case blind alien predators.)
A QUIET PLACE is a welcome return to old school sci-fi horror in the tradition of ALIEN and THE THING where concept, characterisation and narrative take precedence over empty spectacle (not that the film is deficient in the FX department but Krasinski as writer/director wisely keeps the creatures full reveal for the climax.) Hopefully the film’s healthy box office returns (US$332,583,447 on a bufget ofUS$17,000,00) will bode well for more thoughtful and narrative driven genre cinema of this quality.

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Now in its tenth year, Grimmfest is the premier horror film festival in the north of England, and the organisers were kind enough to grant press passes to The Stricken Land so we could report back on the many delights the festival had to offer. Held at the Odeon Great Northern the centre of Manchester, we were only able to cover the Saturday and Sunday of the festival this year, and due to time constraints we weren’t able to make every single screening, but I’ve compiled all my reviews of the festival highlights for your reading pleasure below. Let’s dive in…

Piercing (2018) US Dir: Nicholas Pesce
Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa

A married father of one goes on what he tells his wife is a short business trip, instead booking a hotel room with the intention of hiring an escort girl and murdering her.
Grimmfest’s press for Nicholas Pesce’s twisted relationship drama calls it a ‘date movie for psychopaths,’ a succinct description that’s hard to top.
Based on controversial Japanese novelist’s Ryu Murakami’s eponymous 1994 novel, this is a complete oddball of a film that nevertheless engages you through the portrayals of its two neurotic leads even if it’s impossible to feel comfortable at any point during its running time. Quickly turning into a black as night comedy of errors as proceedings fail to go according to the meticulous plan laid out by Christopher Abbott’s emotionally constipated protagonist, Pesce’s film veers off into Lynchian style surrealism, mixing in Cronenbergian body horror, explorations of BDSM etiquette and urban alienation all set  against its retro-eighties style neverworld and a score plucked from Patrick Bateman’s record collection.
A brave, interesting and acutely observed character study with excellent performance from its two leads. No one for a first date though, unless you’re both psychopaths of course.

The Witch in the Window (2018) US Dir: Andy Mitton
Adam Draper, Charlie Tacker, Carol Stanzione

A familial drama wrapped in a haunted house flick, Andy Mitton’s debut plays out like a Spielbergian take on a CONJURING movie with a sliver of ice replacing the sugary sentimentality.
Divorced Dad Simon (Draper) buys an old farmhouse in rural Vermont as a renovation project, hoping to use it as some bonding time with his son Finn. After an ambiguous warning from their neighbour about the house’s dark past, father and son soon encounter Lydia, the malicious spirit of the previous owner. Unbowed, Adam determines to continue the project, but with every repair he makes, Lydia becomes stronger…


Less a full blown horror flick than an affecting observation of father son relationship dynamics, this is acutely well observed with two deft performances by Draper and Tacker.But make no mistake, when Mitton wants to inject unease and then outright terror into the lives of his protagonists then he is a true pro, particularly in the scene when Simon takes a phone call from Finn (you’ll have to watch the movie to get the full import of this sequence.)
The nature of Lydia and the history of the house is wisely kept ambiguous and in the background, allowing the relationship between Simon and Finn to come to form the emotional core of the film. A timely lesson that horror can be so much more than jump scares and splatter. THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW serves as a textbook example why budgetary constraints are no barrier when you have well crafted narrative combined with great performances and direction. One to put at the top of your watchlist.

 

Pledge (2018) US Dir: Daniel Robbins
Zachery Byrd, Aaron Dalla Villa, Zack Weiner, Erica Boozer

A group of nerdy misfit freshmen get invited to a secretive frat house for a wild sex, drugs and booze fuelled party, and the next morning are offered admittance if they will pledge to undergo a series of initiation rituals…
Riffing off the time honoured American campus culture that brought a slew of mostly forgettable frat house comedies to 80’s video stores, Pledge is a tense thriller and a razor sharp commentary on just how far human beings will go to gain acceptance from their peer group.

https://youtu.be/Rccq8zK9yI8


Director Robbins’ and writer/star Zack Weiner mix in conspiracy theories about real life fraternities like the Skull and Bones society and urban legends around arcane hazing rituals, and then crank everything up to insane levels of malice and cruelty.
The tight pacing and twisting storyline keeps us guessing as to what the outcome will be right up until the brutal denouement. This is a masterful blend of the stalk and slash and survival horror sub genres underpinned by great naturalistic performance by its cast of newcomers. University never looked less appealing.

 

Alive (2018) Can Dir: Rob Grant
Angus MacFadyen, Thomas Cocquerel, Camille Stopps

A ferociously original take on a source material that to reveal in this review would surely spoil the experience of Rob Grant’s viscera spattered thrill ride.
Two strangers, a man and woman  (Cocquerel and Stopps) awake in a derelict abandoned hospital, inhabited by a seemingly unbalanced doctor (a splendidly manic performance by MacFadyen). Nursed back to health after apparently suffering physical traumas, and with no memories of their pasts, the pair realise that the doctor intends that they should never leave…
What follows is essentially an ‘on the run’ escape movie, although we are never quite clear what or where the pair are escaping from (apart from MacFadyen’s psycho surgeon), or where an eventual sanctuary may be. This makes for a deliberately  disorienting experience for the audience and Grant’s assured direction, sense of quiet menace and frenetic pacing keep us guessing right up until the slam dunk denouement. File under essential viewing.

We also managed to cram in horror anthology NIGHTMARE CINEMA, gross out comedy horror throwback PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH and the period found footage chiller THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY while we were there, but I’ll be giving these a second viewing at Nottingham’s Mayhem Film Festival by the time this gets posted, so look out for my review of these in the coming week.

A big thanks to the Grimmfest organisers who were kind enough to grant us press passes for the festival, and to guest of honour and PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH star Barbara Crampton (gutted we missed the showing of REANIMATOR!) who was kind enough to chat and sign stuff. Her Q & A with the audience was a joy to behold, and her tales of working with legendary genre filmmaker Charles Band sent this writer in particular into paroxsms of fanboyness!  We love you Barbara, come back soon! The Stricken Land crew will definitely be making the trip north next year and plan to extend or coverage of this fine event. Keep an eye on the Grimmfest website people, and get this one in your for your calendars for 2019!

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Good morning film fiends, on this the first day of October, everything horror fan’s favourite month of the year! I’ve got a couple of new releases to impart to you this week, but first I’ll get in a quick plug for the Mayhem Film Festival that takes place at the Broadway cinema in Nottingham over  11th – 14th October.

Sponsored by Shudder and Last Exit to Nowhere, the festival covers horror, science fiction and cult cinema so is right up my street as you can probably well imagine. I’ve managed to book some time of from dad duties to go see new horror anthology NIGHTMARE CINEMA, bad taste splatter fest PUPPETMASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH, Nic Cage weirdfest MANDY and found footage period horror THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY. Needless to say I’ll be providing full reviews after my eyeballs have recovered.

November 1st sees the UK release (US 2nd October) of legendary cut filmmaker Don Coscarelli’s memoir True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking. The director of classics such as PHANTASM, THE BEASTMASTER and BUBBA HO-TEP takes us on a wild ride through his four decades of independent filmmaking in the Hollywood sharkpool in what promises to be a highly entertaining read for all cult movie fans and indeed, for any interested in the art and process of filmmaking in general. If you can’t wait till next month the audiobook version read by Mr Coscarelli himself releases through Audible on 9th October. Here’s the link to buy it through Amazon in the UK and for US readers here.

Now on to this week’s new flicks –

“In the classic tradition of the 1980’s slasher film” (Horror News), Wild Eye Releasing deliver Blessed are the Children, a Reagan-era slasher throwback that’s part HALLOWEEN, part BLACK CHRISTMAS, and all frights, premiering on DVD and VOD October 23.

Something sinister is following Traci and her friends – who are behind the masks!?
Traci Patterson (Kaley Ball), an adrift 20-something who’s still reeling from the death of her father and her breakup with an abusive fiancé (Jordan Boyd), discovers that she’s pregnant. With the help of her friends, Erin and Mandy (Arian Thigpen, Keni Bounds), she decides to terminate her pregnancy, but quickly after leaving the clinic, she begins seeing and hearing things – shapes in the corner of her eye, strange noises in the middle of the night, and ghoulish figures stalking her every move. Is it guilt or are Traci and her friends in grave danger?
Kaley Ball, Keni Bounds, and Arian Thigpen star in a Chris Moore (PERVERSION, TRIGGERED) film, premiering on DVD and VOD this October.

 

On her 60th birthday, Mary (Rosemary Hochschild) finds her past coming back to haunt her, as a 25-year-old debt means the mob is ready to collect with interest, their sights set on the strip club she has run all her life. There’s only one thing she can do: Mount her defenses and stand her ground in a spiral of violence and revenge that will leave no one in her life untouched…

Dark Star Pictures has acquired North American rights to Orson Oblowitz’s Tarantino-esque crime-drama THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD BLVD.
Dark Star has set an October theatrical (LA) and VOD release for the film, a dark L.A-set noir exploring the one-day odyssey of a woman’s reckoning. Veteran actress Rosemary Hochschild (SUPERGIRL, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN) plays the lead.
The film, starring Rothschild as a strip club owner who finds herself over her head when a twenty-five-year-old debt to the mob comes back to haunt her, premiered at the Boston Underground Film Festival earlier this year.


“Director Orson Oblowitz’s feature debut is a wild ride through the underbelly of Los Angeles, blending genres in a shocking fashion and firmly establishing himself as a new promising talent” said Dark Star Pictures President Michael Repsch. “Playing like a love child of John Waters and Quentin Tarantino, THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD BLVD. will resonate with audiences for years to come.”
“We are really excited to have found a home at Dark Star Pictures for THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD BLVD.”, says writer/director Orson Oblowitz. “Michael Repsch is a true lover of film, devoted to getting great cinema to the masses and we knew with our movie it needed a distributor that was going to nurture it, as well as help set it apart in a saturated market place, Dark Star is that company.”
Playing over the film’s entrancing visuals of L.A is an electric soundtrack featuring such artists as Jimmy Lee, Lee Williams & The Cymbals, The Lovettes and Arlando King & The Earthquakes.
The film, also starring Ana Mulvoy Ten, Roger Guenveur Smith and the late Michael Parks (‘’Kill Bill’’, ‘’Red State’’) in his final film appearance, has its L.A premiere this week at Beyond Fest.
THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD BLVD theatrical release begins October 12 in Los Angeles; the film will be available On Demand October 16.

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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Don’t Breathe (2016) US Dir: Fede Alverez
Stephen Lang, Jane Levy

One of a crop of home invasion horrors that inverts its premise by having the occupants of said home far more terrifying than the intruders, DON’T BREATHE is a fairly efficient crime horror that mixes in themes of grief, loss and PTSD to come up with a ninety minute knuckle whitener that has enough points of  interest to make it stand alongside peers like THE STRANGERS and INTRUDERS.
As usual with the home invasion trope, the plot is basic; girl from the wrong side of the tracks Rocky (Levy), and her two partners Alex and Money make their living turning over well to do properties courtesy of Alex being the son of the man whose company installs their home security systems.
Rocky’s long term game plan is to get enough money from selling the stolen goods to move to California with her younger sister and start afresh, escaping their alcoholic white trash mother and her lowlife boyfriend.
When Money receives a tip that a blind special forces veteran (Lang) living in a deserted neighbourhood has $30,000 stashed in his house from compensation received over his daughter’s death in a road accident, the trio hatch what seems to be the perfect break and enter in order to steal the cash. Things go awry almost immediately of course with the blind man (Lang) not nearly as helpless as the house breakers imagined. He also harbours a dark secret in the basement…

From here on in, Alvarez’s film follows a cat and mouse narrative before taking a sharp turn with a genuinely surprising curveball which ups the stakes even further for Rocky.
If you can get past the film’s blatant emotional manipulation of its audience, DON’T BREATHE is a deft and well acted thriller, with enough dark turns to earn its spurs as a horror. Levy plays Rocky as the bad girl with her heart in the right place trope. She is the only one of the gang whose home life we get a glimpse of, and Alvarez telegraphs the audience that her criminality has been ‘forced’ upon her by circumstance, (and it’s for a good cause, even if it means robbing a blind war veteran.) Needless to say her male accomplices are entirely expendable. Their portrayal means that we have little sympathy for them anyway, and given the aforementioned plot revelation, the viewer quickly transfers their  initial sympathy for the bereaved war vet over to the imperilled Rocky in good time ready for the climactic confrontation.
If you can get past the film’s questionable morality, then there is an enjoyable ninety minutes to be had here, especially whenever the superb Lang is on screen, exuding a grizzled physical presence and utterly dominating proceedings. A solid entry in the home invasion horror sub genre.

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Good morning film fiends! Feast your eyes on these upcoming offerings –

Ojala Productions announces a limited theatrical release of September 22 (Los Angeles) for new horror feature STRANGE NATURE.

This September, It’s man versus nature when wrestling superstar John Hennigan and acclaimed actor Stephen Tobolowsky (SILICON VALLEY, DEADWOOD) play ‘leapfrog’ with mutated amphibians in Ojala Productions’ highly-anticipated eco-thriller Strange Nature.
By moving in with her estranged hermit father in the backwoods of a small town, Kim (Lisa Sheridan, THE 4400) and son Brody find themselves in the middle of a horrendous phenomenon where deadly offspring mutations spread from animals to humans.


Based on true unsolved outbreaks of wildlife mutations, fall fright-fest STRANGE NATURE marks the directorial debut of fx maestro James Ojala (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, THOR, TRON: LEGACY, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) and stars Lisa Sheridan INVASION), Stephen Tobolowsky (MEMENTO), John Hennigan (MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT), Tiffany Shepis (VICTOR CROWLEY), and Carlos Alazraqui (THE FUNHOUSE MASSACRE).
STRANGE NATURE leaps into theaters from Sep 22 (Los Angeles with other cities to follow).

A fairy tale classic goes under the frightening sea this September with MERMAID’S SONG, premiering on digital from Wild Eye Releasing.

A dark homage to Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, and starring  Iwan Rheon (GAME OF THRONES), the film is set during the 1930s depression and tells of young Charlotte, who is struggling to keep the family business afloat. When gangster Randall offers to pay off the family debt – he demands some illegal changes to the business. But Charlotte, like her mother before her, is a mermaid capable of controlling humans with nothing but her voice, which creates a battle between all of those who want Charlotte’s magical powers for themselves.

From director Nicholas Humphries, and starring Iwan Rheon, Katelyn Mager, and Brendan Taylor, Mermaid’s Song arrives on digital September 18.

Uncork’d Entertainment announces a digital/VOD release date of October 2nd for new action-vigilante feature DEATH KISS.

Filmed in Northern California, the film stars Robert Kovacs (who has gained attention for his uncanny resemblance to a certain well-known action star), Daniel Baldwin (JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES), Richard Tyson (KINDERGARTEN COP, TWO MOON JUNCTION), Eva Hamilton (horror fest fave RUIN ME), Stormi Maya, Leia Perez, Reese Austyn, and Sam Story.
DEATH KISS concerns a vigilante with a mysterious past who goes to a crime-infested city and takes the law into his own hands, at the same time protecting a young mother and her child.

Writer-director is Rene Perez (PLAYING WITH DOLLS: HAVOC).  Producer is Jeff Miller (THE TOYBOX, OUIJA HOUSE), through his company Millman Productions.  Gary Jones helped executive produce through his company Mosquito Entertainment. Zach Carter served as Supervising Producer.
“Rene’s movie is very cool and stylish.  It feels like a throwback to the Cannon films of the ’80s,” says Miller.  “After an enthusiastic response at Texas Frightmare Weekend in May, we’re excited to show the film to the general public.”
The DVD, with special features such as director’s commentary and the trailer, will be released December 4th.

In the tradition of Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, What We Do in the Shadows, James Gunn’s Slither, and Sy Fy’s Sharknado franchise, the demented creature feature RETURN OF THE KILLER SHREWS splatters its way onto VOD platforms this Halloween season!
Fans of pop culture and gonzo gorefests will eat up this tasty treat, as it hearkens back to the grindhouse drive-in era with sexy babes, carnivorous creatures and bloody mayhem, and does it with a smile.

In 1959, the original KILLER SHREWS exploded onto drive-in screens, as a charter boat Captain and a bevy of hapless scientists were besieged by a horde of mutant beasts on a remote, storm-swept island. This classic mad doctor-meets-monster movie mashup featured edgy character actor James Best (Dukes of Hazzard, Rolling Thunder) as Captain Thorne Sherman and famously low-fi special effects, giving birth to one of the most revered genre entries of its era.
Now, more than five decades later, the snarling, blood hungry monsters are back in RETURN OF THE KILLER SHREWS.  Captain Thorne Sherman returns to Shrew Island with a boatload of cargo for a TV crew filming a reality television show.  As the cameras roll, cast and crewmembers start falling prey to strange bloodthirsty creatures, and Thorne Sherman comes face to face with the toothy terrors that have haunted his dreams for so many years. What, or who, could be behind the bloody rampage of the insatiable giant killer shrews?

Best, making history in his repeat performance as Sherman, is joined by fellow Hazzard alumni John Schneider (SUPER SHARK, SMALLVILLE, GLEE, IT’S HOT IN CLEVELAND) and Rick Hurst (THE GUARDIAN, VENOMOUS). Also aboard for the doomed voyage are Bruce Davison (BLINDSPOT, INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY, X-MEN), Jennifer Lyons (HITTING THE BREAKS, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN), Christopher Goodman (JANE THE VIRGIN), Holly Weber (VALLEY PEAKS, FAST & FURIOUS), Patrick Moran (JACK-O), Jason Shane Scott (THE BAY, GREY’S ANATOMY, SNIPER: SPECIAL OPS), Katherine Randolph (JARHEAD), Jeneta St. Clair (AFTER MIDNIGHT) and Sean Flynn (DEVIOUS MAIDS, LAST OF ROBIN HOOD, ZOEY 101).
RETURN OF THE KILLER SHREWS comes barking onto VOD for the first time with a hearty dose of chills and laughs. It’s a retro homage to the low budget drive-in films of yore, a shock ‘til you drop monster movie extravaganza that’ll make your blood vessels burst with suspense and laughter, RETURN OF THE KILLER SHREWS is just what the mad doctor ordered!   

iTunes Presales – 10/12
iTunes Exclusive Launch (Digital Premier) – 10/26
Amazon and Google Launch – 11/9

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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Dogged (2017) UK Dir: Richard Rowntree
Sam Saunders,Toby Wynn-Davies, Tony Manders, Debra Leigh-Taylor

Sam (Saunders), a university student returns to his middle class parents home, a remote tidal island called Farthing to attend the funeral of Megan Lancaster (Abigail Rylance-Sneddon), the 11 year old daughter of family friends who has mysteriously perished from a cliff top fall.
Soon after attending the funeral service given by local vicar Father David Jones (a superbly menacing Wynn Davies), Sam re-encounters Jones’ disturbed son Daniel (a superbly off kilter and menacing Nick Stopien) and hooks up with his old flame, Jones’ rebellious daughter Rachel (Ayisha Jebali). Realising that Jones appears to exert some kind of hold over the town’s menfolk, including his outwardly authoritarian, but weak willed father Alan (a fantastically twitchy performance by Philip Ridout) and the local Doctor Donald Goodman (Manders), Sam and Rachel are drawn to a hippie commune whose inhabitants are despised by the island’s more ‘well to do’ natives. Suspecting that there is more to Megan’s death than just a tragic accident, they team up with one of the hippies, Sparrow (Nadia Lamin) to investigate further.


Revealing any more will mean plot spoilers, so I’ll refrain and instead, highly recommend that you seek out DOGGED for yourself. The film is the debut from writer/director Richard Rowntree’s Ash Mountain Films outfit, co-written with Matthew Davies from an original short film of the same name co-written and directed by Richard and Christina Rowntree, that was entered into BBC Three’s The Fear, a competition to find up and coming filmmakers in the horror genre.
Considering that DOGGED is a mini budget affair (it became the fourth most successful UK based horror feature film to receive funding from Kickstarter on 24 March 2016), Rowntree works wonders with fifteen grand, delivering a bleak slice of very British folk horror that bodes well for future output from Ash Mountain and for a renaissance in British horror in general.

On first viewing DOGGED appears to owe a very large debt to Robin Hardy and Anthony Schaffer’s 1973 folk horror classic THE WICKER MAN, with it’s tale of an alienated outsider in an isolated close knit community, a missing/dead little girl and strange cultish goings on. But it also has traces in its DNA of two other classic British folk horrors of that era; namely WITCHFINDER GENERAL and BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW. The film’s themes of religious mania, malevolent authority figures and outward hypocrisy masking a cold hearted evil seem particularly suited to british horror, drawing on the class system and our shared history of puritanism and sectarian conflict.The class commentary aspect is represented by the antagonism between the middle class, slightly incestuous villagers and the hippie community, featuring a scene stealing turn by Tony Parkin as Woodsman Jim, the town derelict driven mad by a long ago trauma connected to the island’s dark secret.
But rather than seeking to ape the style or look of the aforementioned films, Rowntree wisely treads his own path to give DOGGED its own identity, the cinematography drenching the film in bleak, windswept greys, browns and creams, and staying just the right side of making the film look like ITV drafted in Eli Roth to direct one of it’s kitchen sink misery-dramas.
Grounding the horror in a real world setting sans any supernatural elements is another aspect of 70’s horror that runs through the film’s bloodstream. Back then indie filmmakers were reacting against the stylised gothic melodramas of Hammer which by then were looking increasingly irrelevant in the era of Vietnam and Watergate. In our own time a film like DOGGED seems like a return to basics after all the derivative jump horror, bloated franchise sequels and tiresome paranormal  found footage cheapies.
As a writer, Rowntree understands that the most terrifying monster is the fallen nature of the human condition itself, where monsters look just like you or I, and hide in plain sight among us. The script is confident enough to leave just the right amount of ambiguity about just how far knowledge of the island’s secret extends, and the direction is assured enough to make certain that Ash Mountain’s feature debut stands on its own alongside its influences. The creative passion and energy of both the cast and behind the scenes creative team really shine through, an once again prove that you don’t need a massive budget to produce something special on screen.
Based on this outing, both Richard Rowntree and Ash Mountain Films have a great future ahead of them, and indeed are filming their second feature NEFARIOUS (also crowdfunded through Kickstarter) as of this writing.

Of course the best way to support indie filmmakers like Ash Mountain is to buy the fruits of their labours, and I hope this review may go some way to persuading you to part with your hard earned and add a contemporary Brit horror gem like DOGGED to your collection.Let me know what you think of the film in the comments below, or alternatively you can find me on Twitter @thestrickenland or in my Facebook discussion group Movie Babylon.

You can also follow Richard and Ash Mountain Films on Twitter at @r_rowntree and @AshMountainFilm respectively.

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Good morning and fine fettle to you, my celluloid loving brethren! The 25th day of this September sees the unleashing of Brit backwoods horror ESCAPE FROM CANNIBAL FARM (CANNIBAL FARM in the US) on to the home viewing market. This is a title I’ve been anticipating for a while now, ever since it came to my attention from following its leading lady Kate Davies Speak on Twitter. Produced by writer/director Charlie Steeds’ Dark Temple Motion Pictures, the film promises to be an all out retro styled splatter festival that looks a cut above the relentless slew of slick but soulless jump scare horror infesting Netflix, and I’m more than intrigued to see the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE style mayhem transplanted to the bucolic English shires. From the look of the trailer, Mr Steeds won’t be getting a gig scripting The Archers any time soon, though I’m sure his input might liven Radio 4 up a bit.
Dark Temple have a boatload of fun looking horror flicks slated for release in the near future, including the wonderful looking THE BARGE PEOPLE, backwoods survival horror WINTERSKIN and the gothic looking THE HOUSE OF VIOLENT DESIRE. Wonderful titles alone!
Staying on these shores, I’m currently writing up my long delayed review of DOGGED, writer/director Richard Rowntree’s folk horror released a couple of months back. Richard’s Ash Mountain Films outfit is currently filming their second feature NEFARIOUS, an urban crime horror flick that promises to continue the bleak and contemporary style established in their debut feature, and of which this little site is a proud backer through Kickstarter!
Dark Temple and  Ash Mountain Films are both exciting new ventures flying the flag for British horror and I strongly recommend you check them out.
You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, where they tweet as @DarkTempleFilms and @AshMountainFilm respectively, and also on Instagram where they are darktemplemotionpictures and richard.rowntree

Scream Magazine
I’ve finally bitten the bullet and taken out a subscription to Scream Magazine, something I’ve been promising myself to do since I first came across it in early summer. The mag has just reached its 50th issue, so it seemed an appropriate time to jump on.
The mag’s format is a mixture of features on current releases and retrospectives with the usual review columns and regulars  (VHS Ate My Brain, and the Behind The Screams gossip feature being my favourites.)
The fiftieth issue features a great and now poignant interview with the late BLACK CHRISTMAS and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR star Margot Kidder (you’ll always be my Lois Lane, Margot.) Jamie Lee Curtis and David Gordon Green talk the new HALLOWEEN flick coming next month from Blumhouse, along with part one of a look back at the forty year history of the franchise. Other highlights include retrospectives on ROSEMARY’S BABY and Lucio Fulci’s classic undead exploitation epic ZOMBIE FLESHEATERS, and an interview with Corin Hardy, director of the upcoming THE NUN, the next instalment in the ever widening THE CONJURING universe.
However, my absolute stand out favourite feature in the issue is Paperbacks from Hell, an interview with author Grady Hendrix about his eponymous new book detailing the schlocky paperback shockers that festooned supermarket bookshelves back in the 80’s. Reading through the article brought back memories of thumbing through these titles in Morrisons (a northern english supermarket chain, for those not in the know). Although they were never going to win any literary prizes, the sheer amount of imagination featured in the lurid illustrations that adorned their covers was enough to sear them into the collective memories of any impressionable youth that encountered them. Something they had in common with a lot of the titles down the local video rental shop! Guy N Smith anyone?
Published on a bi-monthly basis, the mag is a steal at twenty uid for a years sub and I’d highly recommend it to film geeks as well as gorehounds and VHS era relics like myself! Check out how to subscribe here.

Grimmfest 2018
I’m pleased to announce that The Stricken Land will be attending this year’s Grimmfest festival held over the 4-7th October 2018 at the Odeon Manchester Great Northern. This is our first time at an event where we have bona fide press accreditation, so rest assured we’ll be scouring the event for all the upcoming news and releases in horror and cult cinema, and posting a full report along with select reviews of the festival’s cinematic offerings. Keep your eyes peeled for on the spot updates via our Facebook page and on Twitter and Instagram.
You can pick up tickets to the event here. Hope to see you there!

Mayhem Horror Festival 2018
While we are on the subject of Festivals, Nottingham’s Broadway cinema is once again hosting the Mayhem Film Festival from 14th to 18th October. This year’s line up includes such delights as the bonkers looking Nicholas Cage led MANDY, dystopian sci-fi PROSPECT, THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW, PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH, screening of classics such as Lamberto Bava’s DEMONS and Romero’s original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD along with a whole boatload more horror, sci-fi and cult movies from around the globe. Mayhem is always a great little festival in which to discover new films and the talent behind them that will likely bypass the multiplexes (for the time being anyway!)
To check out the full line up and to bag yourself early bird tickets to screenings, check out their page here.

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