‘SHADOWLAND’ (Beyond Fest 2024) A shapeshifting doc from filmmaker Otso Tiainen

SHADOWLAND   WORLD PREMIERE / RELEASED IN: 2024 / 98 MINUTES / DIRECTED BY: OTSO TIAINEN Beyond Fest 2024 documentary SHADOWLAND, filmmaker Otso Tiainen sets out to the French Pyrenees to explore an area known as “The Zone,” a place famous for embracing the occult, supernatural happenings, religious experience, and the home of cult director Richard Stanley. This documentary takes Read More →

‘ZERO’ (Beyond Fest 2024) A dark, pulse-pounding thriller, that excites in every second.

ZERO WORLD PREMIERE / RELEASED IN: 2024 / 83 MINUTES / DIRECTED BY: JEAN-LUC HERBULOT Jean Luc Herbulot brings Beyond Fest 2024 audiences a heartpounder in ZERO. Two Americans in Senegal wake up to discover bombs strapped to their chests and an unknown man speaking in their ear. They have ten hours to complete seemingly unrelated tasks before they explode. Read More →

‘ABOVE THE KNEE’ (Beyond Fest 2024) This visceral ride into madness is body horror at its finest

ABOVE THE KNEE WORLD PREMIERE / RELEASED IN: 2024 / 76 MINUTES / DIRECTED BY: VILJAR BØE Norwegian filmmaker Viljar Bøe brings his psychological thriller ABOVE THE KNEE to Beyond Fest 2024. The film follows Amir, a man who has a rare psychological disorder called BID (Body Integrity dysmorphia). It is the desire to have a sensory or physical disability Read More →

‘BAAL’ (Beyond Fest 2024) Nonlinear familial horror show.

BAAL WORLD PREMIERE / RELEASED IN: 2024 / 97 MINUTES / DIRECTED BY: JOSEPH SIMS-DENNETT Joseph Sims-Dennett brings BAAL to Beyond Fest 2024. Upon hearing the news of her father’s death, Grace finds her estranged brother missing from their hometown. Following a strange lead and ignoring the ominous warnings from her remaining family members, she takes a journey into the Read More →

Sitges & Beyond Fest 2023 review: Order Up! Alan Scott Neal’s ‘LAST STRAW’ is a delicious revenge horror.

LAST STRAW Set over one night in a dusty roadside diner, LAST STRAW follows Nancy (Belkin), a young waitress working alone on the late shift. As a series of chaotic events spiral out of control, Nancy finds herself in a fight for her life when she is terrorized by a group of masked assailants. No one is who they appear Read More →

Fantasia International Film Festival 2021 review: ‘BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES’ is a mind-blowing cinematic feat.

BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES Born out of an acting workshop and shot on an iPhone, BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is a high-concept time-loop movie that transcends expectations with its inventive concept. Kato (Kazunori Tosa) is at a bit of a dead-end in life. He lives above the cafe he owns and feels that his life isn’t moving forward Read More →

Tribeca Film Festival 2020 review: Short films, ‘I Can Change’, ‘Beyond Noh’, ‘Grey Zone’, ‘Look At Me’.

Beyond Noh Beyond Noh rhythmically animates 3,475 individual masks from all over the world. The transitions are meticulously crafted. The specific choices of masked on a downbeat are no accident. Even though you are experiencing over 3 thousand masks in under 3 and a half minutes, each one make an impact much larger than you can immediately process. I actually spotted Read More →

July Film Festivals In New York City & Beyond

It’s truly how amazing how many film festivals are going on at any given time throughout the year. At first I just compiled those for New York City, but then I dug further and found the others across the country too! So here’s July in order of when they are starting in the month. Please comment if you know of Read More →

‘TEACUP’ (Fantastic Fest 2024) Peacock’s Original Horror-Thriller Series is finally here!

TEACUP The First Two Episodes, “Think About the Bubbles” & “My Little Lighthouse,” Premiere Thursday, October 10, Only on Peacock Ep 1: Think About the Bubbles Based on Robert R. McCammon‘s novel Stinger, Peacock’s original series TEACUP finds a tiny rural community in distress as something unknown affects the animals and the electricity. We meet veterinarian Maggie Chenoweth, her two Read More →

THE HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AMAZING 2024 LINEUP

THE 2024 HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALannounces line-up for 19th edition(May 16-26) Opening Night features the World Premiere of Nana Ghana’s You Are Always Right Hereand an Uptown Shorts Spotlight Saturday’s Spotlight Presentation will feature the NY Premiere of Nancy Saslow’s documentary Xernona Clayton: A Life in Black and White   YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT HERE, XERNONA CLAYTON: A LIFE IN Read More →

Fantastic Fest 2023 documentary review: ‘SPOOKTACULAR!’ tells the tale of the first horror theme park, and it’s scary good.

SPOOKTACULAR! Executive produced by Tom Savini, Fantastic Fest 2023 doc SPOOKTACULAR! by filmmaker Quinn Monahan takes us back to a place I never knew existed. Now that it’s gone, I’m incredibly jealous. It’s time to tell the tale of Spooky World. 1991, in the middle of a Massachusetts cornfield, open every day in October, Dave Bertolino‘s Spooky World was a Read More →

True-crime documentary review: ‘BEYOND HUMAN NATURE’ is a twisted whodunit.

BEYOND HUMAN NATURE November 1992. It’s a bone-chilling evening in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as paper mill worker Tom Monfils is discovered at the bottom of a pulp vat with a 40-pound weight tied around his neck. Immediately, Monfils’ death is presumed a homicide. Local law enforcement quickly generates a list of suspects among his co-workers. At the top of the Read More →

Panic Fest 2023 review: Evan Marlowe’s ‘ABRUPTIO’ is mind-bending nightmare fuel.

ABRUPTIO SYNOPSIS:Les Hackel is a guy down on his luck who wakes to find an explosive device has been implanted in his neck. Writer-director-producer-DP-and editor Evan Marlowe brings Panic Fest 2023 audiences, hands down one of the most twisted films in recent history with ABRUPTIO. A maniacally bizarre and wholly disturbing film, this story of coping mechanisms, humanity’s darkness, and Read More →

Review: Festival favorite ‘A LIFE ON THE FARM’ is a weirdly moo-ving doc. Yup.

A LIFE ON THE FARM Somerset, England, and a mysterious VHS tape of a local farmer named Charles Carson. A LIFE ON THE FARM is a documentary feature that has had genre festivals buzzing since last year. Well, the chickens have come to roost, as they say, because the film finally arrives in theaters. You are not ready. Carson’s tape Read More →

GRIMMFEST 2022 review: Ramiro Blas wins Best Actor for ‘THE PASSENGER’

THE PASSENGER Notable framing and beautiful aerial shots get us settled into an eclectic mix of folks on a journey in Blasco’s vintage van he calls Nessa. Young Marta, her mother Lidia, and religious but progressive Mariela are not exactly enjoying the ride. Blasco is a brash misogynistic conspiracy theorist. After spotting something strange on the side of the road, Read More →

Beginning this Friday, both in-person in NYC and virtually, The 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival is ready to blow your mind.

15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival(October 14-21) Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama opens the festivalwith a gala screening at the Museum of the Moving Image Spotlight screenings include Godard’s classicAlphaville, Ali Cherri’s The Dam (Le Barrage),Jacqueline Mills’ Geographies of Solitude,and Signe Baumane’s My Love Affair with Marriage This year’s festival is overflowing with cool. Here are a few of the films Read More →

Fantastic Fest 2022 review: ‘THE ANTARES PARADOX’ pits family and faith against the universe.

THE ANTARES PARADOX Fantastic Fest 2022 feature from Luis Tinoco, The Antares Paradox, brings together science, space, and knowledge enthusiasts. The plot revolves around Alexandra as she works the late shift at a radio telescope lab. With looming familial obligations, an absent co-worker, and the storm of the year swirling around outside, a strong signal begins transmitting to her antenna. Read More →

ICYMI: Fantastic Fest 2022’s massive full lineup includes, ‘SMILE,’ ‘WOUNDED FAWN,’ ‘TRIANGLE OF SADNESS,’ & ‘BLOOD RELATIVES’

FANTASTIC FEST ANNOUNCES A COLOSSAL 2022 LINEUP There’s only one place where you’ll find killer teddy bears, man-eating sharks, elderly zombies, cocktail-serving robots, and Park Chan-wook… all under one roof. That’s right, the world-famous genre festival Fantastic Fest is back for its seventeenth edition featuring 21 World Premieres, 14 North American Premieres, and 21 U.S Premieres. The festival will once Read More →

Film at Lincoln Center announces Currents for the 60th New York Film Festival (September 30–October 16, 2022). #NYFF60

  FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES CURRENTS FOR THE 60th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Opening Night — João Pedro Rodrigues‘s Will-o’-the-Wisp  New York, NY (August 18, 2022) – Film at Lincoln Center announces Currents for the 60th New York Film Festival (September 30–October 16, 2022). “Each Currents lineup is an attempt to distill the spirit of innovation and playfulness in contemporary cinema, Read More →

Bentonville Film Festival 2022 short review: ‘Honey and Clover: A Recipe For Disaster’

HONEY AND CLOVER SYNOPSIS Honey and Clover are former child stars from the hit show Rink Inc. where they played crime-fighting sisters whose parents owned a roller-skating rink. Past and future collide threatening to reveal their darkest secrets when the two are thrust back into the spotlight together after years of estrangement. They are forced to accept that the only Read More →