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Videogame IP, a remake, and a children’s film: August’s blockbuster titles don’t really need marketing help. So, Borderlands (August 9), The Crow (August 23), and Harold and the Purple Crayon (August 2) go heavy on the Photoshop to slap something on the wall and rake in the cash. If Bill Skarsgård didn’t look so much like Jared Leto’s Joker, I’d probably be more interested in his film’s goth artistry. Alas.

That leaves the little guys. And not just the indies either—although they take up most of the space below. Because despite one title’s own IP legacy and another’s director’s pedigree, those two Hollywood productions aren’t necessarily slam dunks. Every bit of intrigue therefore helps. Tease the horror and suspense to come.

Drips

First up is B O N D’s Strange Darling and its slow melt of candle wax. Not quite...

Four new Dark Sky Films titles have been added to our massive Screambox library, which already includes Willow Creek, Minor Premise, and The Deeper You Dig (details); Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary, Landlocked, and Possum (details); Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 1 & 2, and Emelie (details); Stake Land, Summer of Blood, & Bitter Feast (details); and Wake Wood, Eaten Alive and Sleep Tight (details). Holy shit, right?!

The final batch of films is now streaming on Screambox and begins with Pollyanna McIntosh‘s Darlin’ (review), which she wrote, directed and stars in(!).

“In this sequel to Bloody Disgusting’s The Woman, a feral teenage girl is taken into strict Catholic care and prepared for her First Holy Communion.”

“Found at a Catholic hospital filthy and ferocious, feral teenager Darlin’ (Lauryn Canny) is whisked off to a care home run by The Bishop and his obedient nuns where she is to be tamed into a “good girl.

Yet another trio of Dark Sky Films titles have made their way onto Screambox, joining previously dropped classics Willow Creek, Minor Premise, and The Deeper You Dig (details), as well as Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary, Landlocked, and Possum (details), and even Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 1 & 2 and Emelie (details).

All of them have a taste for blood…

First, Stake Land, the Jim Mickle-directed vampire classic that set the stage for his cannibal horror We Are What We Are and the Netflix series “Sweet Tooth”.

In the film, “America has fallen. A vampiric scourge sweeps the nation, turning brother on brother and parent on child as the blood-hungry beasts take deeper and deeper hold upon the land. It’s hard for the survivors to know whether to be more afraid of the creatures themselves or the violent religious groups that have sprung up in response, but there is...

Exclusive: Comedian and writer Dina Hashem has set a November 10th premiere date for Dina Hashem: Dark Little Whispers, her first-ever stand-up special, which is headed for Prime Video. View the trailer for it above.

In Hashem’s breakout hour of comedy, exec produced by fellow comic Sam Morril (Netflix’s Same Time Tomorrow), she discusses everything from death threats and existential dilemmas, to relationship problems, quiet people, and her upbringing as a first generation Arab-American. Amazon Studios and Pop Studios served as producers. In addition to Hashem and Morril, EPs included Kelly Van Valkenburg and James Webb.

Currently a writer on The Daily Show, Hashem has also recently been staffed on Season 2 of Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, as well as B.J. Novak’s FX anthology The Premise. Known for her deadpan delivery and nuanced observations on stage, she has been a stand-out on the New...

A trio of Dark Sky Films titles have made their way onto Screambox this Friday the 13th!

A young couple find themselves face to face with a terrifying evil when they venture into the heart of Bigfoot country in Willow Creek, director Bobcat Goldthwait’s unique spin on the horror genre.

“Looking to make a splash with his research videos into the existence of Bigfoot, Jim (Bryce Johnson) and his skeptical girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) take a camping trip to the mountains surrounding Willow Creek, California, a small town where famous footage of the legendary Sasquatch was filmed decades earlier. Jim believes Bigfoot exists and is intent on finding the very spot where the huge, hairy, man-like creature supposedly strode.

But before long, Jim and Kelly are lost in the woods and discover that someone – or something – is stalking them. With each passing night bringing unknowable danger, the two must...

Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), Boyd Holbrook (The Premise), Adelaide Clemens (The Great Gatsby), Vondie Curtis Hall (Harriet), Marin Ireland (Y: The Last Man), Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline), Victor Williams (The Good Lord Bird) and Vivian Olyphant are set as leads opposite Timothy Olyphant in FX’s Justified: City Primeval, the limited series inspired by Elmore Leonard’s City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. Production begins this week in Chicago.

Seven years following the end of FX’s Justified, the limited series returns to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ (played by original series star Olyphant) story eight years after he’s left Kentucky and now is based in Miami, balancing life as a marshal and part-time father of 14-year-old Willa, who will be played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian. A chance encounter on a Florida highway sends him to Detroit and he crosses paths with Clement Mansell (Holbrook), aka The Oklahoma Wildman,...

Exclusive: Kitao Sakurai will executive produce and direct multiple episodes of Peacock’s Twisted Metal.

Twisted Metal is a comedic half-hour live-action adaptation of the popular video game from Sony Pictures TV, PlayStation Productions, and Universal Television. Anthony Mackie both stars and executive produces the series.

From Cobra Kai writer Michael Jonathan Smith, Twisted Metal is a high-octane action comedy, based on an original take by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.

Mackie plays John Doe, a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives.

Having recently wrapped shooting in upstate New York, the producers of Jamie Sisley’s debut feature “Stay Awake,” a dramatic family comedy about opioid addiction, have revealed key cast details.

In the film, Emmy and two-time Golden Globe Award Nominee Chrissy Metz (“This is Us”) plays Michelle, a loving and well-meaning mother of two whose struggle with prescription drug addiction is adversely affecting her entire family. Wyatt Oleff plays Ethan, the quick-witted younger brother about to leave the nest, and Fin Argus (“Clouds”) plays Derek, the eldest sibling who’s desires to care for his family are keeping him from moving forward with his own life.

Set in a small community in Virginia, “Stay Awake” confronts a serious and common problem facing many rural families across the country without dwelling explicitly on the negatives, instead choosing to address them with a very human mix of humor and levity.

“There was...

MPI Media Group has acquired U.S. and international sales rights, outside the U.K. and Latin America, to award-winning sci-fi thriller “Minor Premise,” making its market debut at this year’s Cannes Marché du Film. MPI has already closed sales in three key territories: France to Koba Films, the Middle East to Phoenicia Pictures Intl. and in Taiwan with Moviecloud.

MPI VP of sales and acquisitions Nicola Goelzhaeuser handles sales of the company’s catalog, including “Minor Premise.”

“Minor Premise” is the debut directorial feature of exciting up-and-coming filmmaker Eric Schultz, which impressed at Spain’s prestigious Sitges Festival for genre films and finished 2020 as the year’s second best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes.

Starring Dana Ashbrook, a genre cult icon for his work as Bobby Briggs in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” and featuring a critically acclaimed performance by emerging actor Sathya Sridharan (“Bikini Moon”), “Minor Premise” is...

The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, with a

dynamic program of scheduled screenings and premieres, panels, and workshops running from August 5 through August 25, 2021, once again using the leading-edge platform created by Festival Scope and Shift72.

As the summer approaches, the festival will be following advice from local health authorities, with the possibility of also adding a range of flagship physical events to the lineup.

Last summer’s virtual edition was a phenomenal success, screening to 85000 spectators and amassing a record amount of media coverage, with 475 accredited journalists from around the world covering Fantasia and its titles. The lineup showcased 104 features, a quarter of which were World Premieres, with the majority securing distribution out of the festival, with highlights including “The Block Island Sound” selling to Netflix, “Come True” to IFC, “The Paper Tigers” to WellGo USA,...

Minor Premise plays out like a trippy dissection of the human psyche.

Writer/Director/Producer Eric Schultz admits to intrigue in this area, and with this film, he ensures many others will become equally as intrigued.

If you're a fan of sci-fi and issues surrounding the human state and why we are who we are, then you have to check out Minor Premise.

Science and the possibilities of understanding that lies just beyond our grasp make great topics for science fiction movies.

Sathya Sridharan takes the lead in Minor Premise as Ethan, a brilliant scientist battling demons that have led to him experimenting on himself. Ethan is the beating heart of this film, and if he's not in every scene, it's pretty darn close.

That means that if the weight of the film's success behind the scenes falls onto the triple threat that Schultz brings with his writing, directing, and producing,...

Dr. Jekyll had it easy. In Eric Schultz’s Minor Premise, a scientist who’s foolish enough to experiment on himself winds up with not one alter-ego but nine, all competing for control of his body. A mad-science thriller whose inventions spring from a point of actual scholarship (co-screenwriter Justin Moretto has degrees in neuroscience and biotech; Schultz studied psychology at Harvard), it asks us to suspend disbelief in order to work through some concepts about memory and identity that real scientists spend their lives on. Happily, it never feels like homework.

Sathya Sridharan plays Ethan Kochar, a brilliant neuroscientist who’...

Dr. Jekyll had it easy. In Eric Schultz’s Minor Premise, a scientist who’s foolish enough to experiment on himself winds up with not one alter-ego but nine, all competing for control of his body. A mad-science thriller whose inventions spring from a point of actual scholarship (co-screenwriter Justin Moretto has degrees in neuroscience and biotech; Schultz studied psychology at Harvard), it asks us to suspend disbelief in order to work through some concepts about memory and identity that real scientists spend their lives on. Happily, it never feels like homework.

Sathya Sridharan plays Ethan Kochar, a brilliant neuroscientist who’...

The most important memory for audiences to remember is the one Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) specifically tried to forget. His father (Nikolas Kontomanolis) is sitting at a desk telling him how things work in academia. Any idea, theory, or experiment that occurs in pursuit of a university-driven project belongs to said university. And since Paul is the head of the department, it all belongs to him. That’s not to say Ethan won’t get credit—scientific papers often have multiple authors and names listed below the person in charge. It merely confirms that he won’t receive all the acclaim. Nor should he. Whether Ethan cracked the case or not, the school has always been the catalyst. It’s their money that made it happen and the team that fulfilled its promise.

And let’s face it: the fact Ethan hasn’t forgotten that moment proves he hasn’t yet cracked anything.

Even though the holiday season is in full swing, that doesn’t mean the horror has to stop, as we have quite a few genre titles headed to VOD, Digital, and various streaming platforms throughout the month of December. Notable titles you’ll be able to watch at home this month include Tenet, Anything for Jackson, Archenemy, Minor Premise, Skylines, and a pair of holiday specials exclusive to Shudder: Joe Bob Saves Christmas and A Creepshow Holiday Special.

Mark your calendars and happy streaming, everyone!

Backwoods (Gravitas Ventures) – December 1st

High school cheerleader Molly woke bound and gagged in the trunk of her boyfriend's car. That was the high point of her night. After escaping and fleeing into the nearby forest, she comes face-to-face with the town urban legend: The Hangman, a deformed zealot said to lynch male trespassers and keep the women as "brides". Now, Molly, along with her...

In her four-star review, Heather Wixson called Eric Schultz's Minor Premise a "stunning slice of sci-fi cinema," and soon you experience it for yourself, as the official trailer and poster have been revealed ahead of the film's virtual cinema, VOD, and Digital release on December 4th.

"Attempting to surpass his father's legacy and pressured by an old colleague (Dana Ashbrook of Twin Peaks), a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own risky experiment. Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) has now locked himself in his home with his ex-girlfriend Allie (Paton Ashbrook) and the two navigate trauma, ambition, and missteps of the past. Diving headfirst into the uncharted equations of the brain, they realize that there is more at stake than just their relationship or Ethan’s reputation. With time quickly running out, he is forced to face off against the darker sides of himself while frantically attempting to solve an enigma that lies within his subconscious.

Eric Schultz’s feature debut, the indie sci fi flick Minor Premise. lands on VOD platforms December 4th. The first teaser has arrived and everything looks great so far. Really great. From what we can gleam from it it looks like our lead character, Ethan, has carried out an experiment at home (the best kind of science always happens at home) and has ended dividing into ten individuals, each with one of his character traits? It's probably best not to ask much further after that and just let it happen. Attempting to surpass his father's legacy and pressured by an old colleague (Dana Ashbrook of Twin Peaks), a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own risky experiment. Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) has now locked himself...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

After making its World Premiere at Fantasia, Minor Premise is heading to VOD on December 4th. We now have the first teaser trailer for this sci-fi stunner that Heather gave a 4/5 in her recent review!

"Attempting to surpass his father's legacy and pressured by an old colleague (Dana Ashbrook of Twin Peaks), a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own risky experiment. Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) has now locked himself in his home with his ex-girlfriend Allie (Paton Ashbrook) and the two navigate trauma, ambition, and missteps of the past. Diving headfirst into the uncharted equations of the brain, they realize that there is more at stake than just their relationship or Ethan’s reputation. With time quickly running out, he is forced to face off against the darker sides of himself while frantically attempting to solve an enigma that lies within his subconscious.

New York filmmaker Eric Schultz’s striking feature debut,...

After making its World Premiere at Fantasia, Minor Premise is heading to VOD on December 4th! Here's a look at the brand new poster for this sci-fi stunner that Heather gave a 4/5 in her recent review:

"Attempting to surpass his father's legacy and pressured by an old colleague (Dana Ashbrook of Twin Peaks), a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own risky experiment. Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) has now locked himself in his home with his ex-girlfriend Allie (Paton Ashbrook) and the two navigate trauma, ambition, and missteps of the past. Diving headfirst into the uncharted equations of the brain, they realize that there is more at stake than just their relationship or Ethan’s reputation. With time quickly running out, he is forced to face off against the darker sides of himself while frantically attempting to solve an enigma that lies within his subconscious.

New York filmmaker Eric Schultz’s striking feature debut,...