Grimmfest 2018 – 10th Anniversary Full Line-Up Revealed

By | |
Leave a comment

“I WANT MY CAKE!”

This year, GRIMMFEST, Manchester’s Festival of Horror, Cult and Fantastic Film, celebrates its 10th anniversary. Get ready for decimation, with the darkest, deadliest line-up yet of wild, weird, witty, thrilling, chilling, blood-spilling movies, every one of them a premiere or cult classic of one kind or another, many with cast and crew in attendance.

But Grimmfest will also be looking back, a little nervously over its shoulder, perhaps, at a decade spent delivering top-quality cinematic carnage to the movie-goers of Manchester, and beyond. Beginning with a return to its bloodsoaked origins, and an anticipation of the future, in a special Festival Preview show on Monday 1st October…

IT’S (STILL) GRIMM UP NORTH!

Originally, the festival was known as “Grimm Up North”, in sardonic acknowledgement of its location, and as a declaration of support for filmmaking in the region. So what could be more appropriate as an anniversary celebration than a special North-West programme, featuring three new shorts … Continue reading →

Mayhem Film Festival 2018 announces THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY, MANDY, WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD and NIGHTMARE CINEMA

By | |
Leave a comment

Mayhem Film Festival announces THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY, MANDY, WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD and NIGHTMARE CINEMA

As its 14th edition creeps ever closer, Mayhem Film Festival is proud to announce the next set of titles from this year’s programme.

Mayhem is to present a screening of Aislinn Clarke’s found-footage chiller The Devil’s Doorway. In rural Ireland in 1960, two Catholic priests are sent from the Vatican to investigate reports of miraculous activity in a remote home for ‘fallen women’, only to discover that altogether darker forces may be at work. Mayhem is pleased to welcome director Aislinn Clarke to take part in a post-screening Q&A.

Showing in the festival’s coveted Friday late-night slot, Nicolas Cage goes full… well, Nicolas Cage with a fantastically high-octane performance in Panos Cosmatos’ cosmic revenge thriller Mandy. Pacific Northwest, 1983 AD. Outsiders Red Miller … Continue reading →

Grimmfest Reveals First Look at 2018 Programme

By | |
Leave a comment

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 … Continue reading →

A Life in Blood: Tales of a Horror Queen October 2017

By | | ,
1 Comment

A Life in Blood: Tales of a Horror Queen October 2017

This horror queen recently went to Las Vegas and Los Angeles for film business! In Vegas I attended both Action on Film and Hollywood Dreamz International Film Festivals! Then it was off to Los Angeles to shoot a cameo and do a photo shoot!

My directorial debut, Attack of The Killer Chickens walked away with Best Spoof at Action on Film International Film Festival and came in 2nd place for Best Art Direction at Hollywood Dreamz International Film Festival and Writer’s Celebration. A huge surprise for me and a great honor as a first-time director.

Attack of the Killer Chickens is a short film and my directorial debut. So far it has been accepted to over 20 film festivals and been nominated for numerous awards including Best Actress: Genoveva Rossi in … Continue reading →

IT (2017) Review

By | |
1 Comment

IT (Dir- Andy Muschietti, USA, 2017)

Starring- Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton

It’s ironic in the fact that the central terrifying killer clown of Pennywise comes round every 27 years to terrorise and feed on the souls of the children of Derry, Maine where IT is set, is somehow mirrored by how the last adaptation of Stephen King’s novel was also 27 years ago, in the form of a TV mini series. Whilst the TV adaptation suffered from obvious censorship regulations of the television network, some slightly hammy acting from the adult characters of the cast, it sill had a brilliant central performance from Tim Curry as Pennywise, the shape shifting entity who takes the form of the jovial circus clown to prey on children. The new version, which is also known as IT: CHAPTER ONE, has already gone through a couple of other directors, including TRUE DETECTIVE season one director Cary Fukunaga, and has now landed at the feet of MAMA director Andy Muschietti. So how does he fare in … Continue reading →

Dogged (2017) Review

By | |
Leave a comment

Dogged (2017)

Director: Richard Rowntree
Writers: Matthew Davies (screenplay) Christina Rowntree (based on a short story by) and Richard Rowntree.
Starring: Debra Leigh-Taylor, Sam Saunders, Toby Wynne-Davies and Tony Manders.

When Sam returns home to the tidal island where he grew up to attend a funeral, he soon discovers that the seedy underbelly of this small community harbours more than just a few secrets.

Dogged begins by introducing us to Sam (Sam Saunders: Reversible Lines, #Selfie and Absent Friends). Sam is returning from university to the family home on Farthing Island, the tidal island where he grew up. Sam has been summoned home to attend the funeral of Megan Lancaster (Abigail Rylance-Sneddon). Straight away, Sam begins to suspect that something about Megan’s death is being concealed.

There are several reasons for his suspicions. First, and most important, the villagers all look as though they have recently relocated from The League of Gentlemen’s Royston Vasey. They study unfamiliar faces with untrusting curiosity and there’s something in the way they regard Sam that makes it clear there is a ‘them’ and ‘us’ … Continue reading →

Che Gilson’s Netflix Roulette #22 – Dream Home (2006)

By | |
Leave a comment

Join Che as she plays Netflix Roulette and watches a randomly selected horror film. Will it be awesome? Will it be torture? What horrors await?? Find out every month with Netflix Roulette!

Title: Dream Home

Year: 2006

Director: Amir Valinia

Starring: Chantelle Win, Cory Stills, Mia X, Chris Fry

Netflix Rating: 2.4 stars

Seen it before: No

First Impressions: The rating doesn’t look promising, but the director has done music videos, so I’m hoping at least the visuals will be stylish. The description says it’s a haunted house film. At least it better be. I’ve been burned before, and when the description starts going on about Dream Home being a subversion of the American dream… well, a crappy psychological thriller can’t be far behind…

The Verdict: That was really painful to watch. Horrifically cheap production values are the only thing that stands out in this poor excuse for a film. The acting is terrible, the dialogue is bad and the cinematography laughable. Which is alarming considering the director … Continue reading →

A Life in Blood – Tales Of A Horror Queen Sept 2017

By | | ,
Leave a comment

A Life in Blood – Tales Of A Horror Queen Sept 2017

Attack of the Killer Chickens had it’s only NYC screening at TromaDance! We celebrated this Horror Queen’s birthday in full b-rated style! This is a FREE event hosted by the king of B himself Lloyd Kaufman and located at The People’s Improv Theater in NYC. It was a huge honor to recently have my directorial debut, Attack of the Killer Chickens screen at TromaDance! It was really awesome to have my film open the film festival!

“Congrats Genoveva! Your film is a fowl masterpiece!” -Lloyd Kaufman

What is TromaDance? The TromaDance Film Festival is a free annual independent film festival organized by Troma Entertainment. Founded in 1999, TromaDance was originally held in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, operating concurrently alongside the Sundance Film Festival in order to showcase an independent alternative to Sundance’s perceived mainstream offerings. Between 2010 and 2013, … Continue reading →

Che Gilson’s Netflix Roulette #21 – Blood Glacier (2013)

By | |
Leave a comment

Join Che as she plays Netflix Roulette and watches a randomly selected horror film. Will it be awesome? Will it be torture? What horrors await?? Find out every month with Netflix Roulette!

Title: Blood Glacier

Year: 2013

Director: Marvin Kren

Starring: Gerhard Liebman, Edita Malovic, Brigitte Kren, Hille Bessler, Peter Knaack

Netflix Percentage that I’ll like it: 57% I’ll like it.

Seen it before: No

First Impressions: Back when Harbinger Down was my monthly Netflix Roulette someone told me I should watch Blood Glacier because it too was reminiscent of The Thing (The Carpenter version) and made a better prequel to The Thing than the actual prequel to The Thing (which I think everyone can agree was terrible). Which sounds pretty promising. So I may like it more than Netflix thinks I will. I have been promised monsters in the movie blurb and there better be monsters.

The Verdict: In the same way that Harbinger Down was a better The Thing prequel than the … Continue reading →

Super Dark Times (2017) Fantasia Film Festival Review

By | |
Leave a comment

SUPER DARK TIMES (2017)

Starring Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Amy Hargreaves, Max Talisman and Sawyer Barth

Directed by Kevin Phillips

Written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski

Reviewed as part of the Fantasia Fest Line-Up

“A harrowing but meticulously observed look at teenage lives in the era prior to the Columbine High School massacre.”

Hey there friends! Listen up! If you and your chums accidentally kill somebody, don’t try to cover it up. If the movies have taught us anything, it’s that doing so never, ever ends well…

It’s the 90’s. Before the millennium. Before smartphones. Before high definition television and before social networks ruled everyone’s lives. Teens Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends. They finish each other’s sentences, know what the other’s thinking and always have each other’s backs. But their lives are irreparably torn apart when a silly argument with another friend escalates accidentally and fatally. But covering up their crime will affect them both in very different ways, and times are about to get super dark…

From its foreboding opening shots of a … Continue reading →