Tag Archives: Cinedigm

Review: SCREAMBOX original documentary ‘LIVING WITH CHUCKY’ is killer family fun.

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Screenwriter Don Mancini, writer-director Tom Holland, SFX artist Tony Gardner, and producer David Kirschner brought a possessed doll to life in 1988. In Kara Elise Gardner‘s new documentary, horror actors and CHILD’S PLAY creators comment on the horror industry and the franchise’s specific epicness. LIVING WITH CHUCKY celebrates the genre and its fans. 

Brad Dourif plays Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky. Dourif’s legendary voiceover work will go down in horror history, making ears perk up and fans smirk. He explains his adoration for Chucky but that his experience comes with the isolation of the recording booth. Thank goodness he never gave up on fans. Chucky would not be the same without his frightening and hilarious intonation.

Alex Vincent, the original Andy, speaks to his experience at ages six and seven. Everyone boasts of his maturity and the professionalism he displayed on set. Jennifer Tilly plays Tiffany, aka Bride of Chucky. When Tilly came into the franchise, it revitalized the humor as a straighter foil for Dourif’s maniacal Chucky. The creation of her character is cinematic genius involving the Bride of Frankenstein and a bathtub. Dourif raves about her ability to improvise. 

SFX artist Tony Gardner explains the difficulty in reproducing Chucky, Tiffany, and creating Glen/Glenda for Seed of Chucky. Billy Boyd is Glen/Glenda. He remembers his favorite kill with a famous franchise fan and camp master, John Waters. Don Mancini brings in a wider queer audience with this film but also gets meta with the on-screen death of Gardner. 

For Curse of Chucky, Brad’s daughter Fiona Dourif played the film’s final girl, Nica. The script returns to a scarier horror, swinging away from the camp of Bride and Seed. Nica was in a wheelchair, a representation that remains rare on film. Cult of Chucky brings back Alex Vincent and a handful of familiar faces over the years. This film is a full-circle moment for the entire Child’s Play franchise.

Brad and Fiona Dourif, Boyd, Vincent, John Waters, Abigail Breslin, Lin Shaye, Marlon Wayans, Christine Elise, and Elle Lorraine discuss the grounded reaction of working with practical fx. We get to see the technical wonder of iconic scenes through behind-the-scenes footage and storytelling from those on set. 

As a Child’s Play fan, transition scenes show you every minute detail of creating a single Chucky doll, and popping in each physical piece of media one at a time is fascinating. Everyone comments on the difficulty of movie-making and maintaining family life. The franchise structure is a unique chance to reconnect with people from year to year. They become your support system while away from your biological crew. Director Kyra Elise Gardner brings her second family into the limelight. LIVING WITH CHUCKY allows fans to celebrate one of their horror legends and those responsible for his status. It’s killer fun. 

US VOD PLATFORMS (April 4)
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, VUDU, Hoopla, Xbox, SCREAMBOX, and more.
(SCREAMBOX is available to stream on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, Cox, and screambox.com)

CANADA VOD PLATFORMS (April 4)
Apple, Google Play, Xbox, and more.

The LIVING WITH CHUCKY Collector’s Edition Blu-ray will also be released on April 18 and available in the US & Canada.
Special features include: Exclusive artwork by Creepy Duck, Candid Conversations, Favorite Death Scenes, Strange Families and Director’s Commentary.

SCREAMBOX, which is powered by Bloody Disgusting, features a broad mix of content for casual and die-hard horror fans alike. The service is refreshed monthly with content from the Company’s extensive genre library with films and episodes delivering every type of terror imaginable — Supernatural, Slashers, Zombies and more. SCREAMBOX currently features classic horror films like Slumber Party Massacre and the original House on Haunted Hill, the blockbuster indie horror films The Outwaters and Terrifier 2 as well as horror series such as “The Island” and “Master of Horror.” Documentaries Pennywise: The Story of It & Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary are also currently available. SCREAMBOX  is available to stream on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, Cox and screambox.com 

ABOUT CINEDIGM  

For more than 20 years, Cinedigm (NASDAQ: CIDM) has led the digital transformation of the entertainment industry. Today, Cinedigm entertains consumers around the globe by providing premium feature film and television series, enthusiast streaming channels and technology services to the world’s largest media, retail and technology companies. As a leader in the rapidly evolving streaming ecosystem, Cinedigm continues its legacy as an innovator through its adoption of next-generation technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, through its proprietary, highly-scalable Matchpoint™ technology platform. For more information, visit  cinedigm.com. 

Review: Robbie Banfitch’s ‘The Outwaters’ is dizzying terror like you’ve never experienced before.

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THE OUTWATERS

Robbie Banfitch‘s found footage horror film THE OUTWATERS begins its reign of terror immediately. Presented as case evidence in the disappearance of four friends shooting a music video in the Mojave desert, we experience the film through the three memory cards filled with video in chronological order. Yes, we’ve seen plenty of found footage since The Blair Witch Project in 1999, but THE OUTWATERS takes the genre to a new level. Welcome to the latest film you’ll talk about for a long time.

Like in The Blair Witch Project, each character goes by their real-life name. Banfitch is the sole cinematographer. The shaky handheld camerawork gives the film solid legitimacy. The sound editing varies based on the speaker’s proximity to the camera, lending to the validity of the experience. With the film opening with a horrifying 911 call, memory card number one contains relatively mundane introductions to the characters. Background information reveals itself in what is essentially Robbie’s private vacation footage. But, you’re so entranced by the opening audio, you become obsessed with discovering the cause of those screams. That, my friends, is compelling editing.

Card two introduces the mystery in earnest. Card three is chaos. 99.9% of the film occurs through Robbie’s lens’ perspective. Much of the explosive final hour is lit by nothing but a flashlight. Therefore, a great deal of what we can’t see paralyzes us. Don’t for a second think that the daylight is any safer. What we do get a glimpse of is gag-inducing and chaotic fear. Ultimately, the ear-piercing manipulation of sound grabs you by the throat. I forgot to breathe. Fair warning: Everything is so dizzying you may get queasy. The script evolves in such a clever and unique way I just resigned myself to yelling. “WTF?!” at each new reveal. It simply keeps going and going. I stopped trying to figure out which way was up. THE OUTWATERS‘ final few minutes made me gasp. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is. Robbie Banfitch is the next great horror auteur. No one can take that away from him.

Directed by: Robbie Banfitch

Starring: Robbie Banfitch, Angela Basolis, Michelle May, Scott Schamell, and Leslie Ann Banfitch and features original music by Salem Belladonna.

Playing in select theaters nationwide (US and Canada) beginning February 9 including: New York (Alamo Drafthouse Manhattan, Regal Essex 14, Kaufman Astoria), Los Angeles (Music Hall 3), Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C and many more.

Following its theatrical run, Cinedigm and Bloody Disgusting plan to release The Outwaters exclusively on its horror streaming service as a SCREAMBOX Original.

All theaters: https://fandan.co/3jjjkuW

 

Review: ‘MK Ultra’ is a Dark Moody Dreamscape  

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Mind control. CIA operatives. Clandestine government operations. MK Ultra has it all in this slow-burning thriller written and directed by former intelligence officer Joseph Sorrentino. The film artfully explores a real CIA program that ran illegal human experiments on American citizens on the fringes of 1960s society. Hoping to discover a way to weaken individuals during interrogations, the CIA administered a range of drugs like LSD, hoping to find a way to secure confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. Are these MK Ultra experiences cutting-edge science? Or needless unethical torture? Where is the line? Who gets to make the call? 

 Highly stylized and set in a moody mid-century dreamscape, the filmmakers tell an intriguing story that raises questions of medical ethics, informed consent, and the responsibility of a government to its citizens. Notably, the film weaves fascinating facts about the program into the darkly compelling narrative through a series of voiceover explainers that may have felt choppy or disjointed with a less skilled hand. Here, the background and context of the program within US history are spliced in seamlessly through beautiful cinematography and creative accents that keep the film from coming off as merely a documentary. Impactful performance across the board– and by Jen Richards in particular– raise the stakes to a startling crescendo in its final act.

Cinedigm To Release The Mind-Bending Thriller,
MK ULTRA
In Theaters & On Demand October 7

 Starring Anson Mount, Jaime Ray Newman, Jason Patric, Jen Richards
Alon Aboutboul and David Jensen
Written and Directed by Ex-Intelligence Officer Joseph Sorrentino

Based on the infamous CIA drug experiments from the early 1960s, this psychological thriller follows a brilliant psychiatrist (Anson Mount) who unknowingly becomes entangled with a dangerous government entity fixated on mind control.

Under Project MK Ultra, the CIA ran an illegal human experimentation program intended to develop procedures and identify drugs such as LSD that could be used in interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture.

Fantasia 2022 review: ‘All Jacked Up and Full Of Worms’ is gagworthy arthouse horror.

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ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS

Writer-director Alex Phillips brings a special kind of WTF to Fantasia 2022 with micro-budget arthouse horror, All Jacked Up and Full of Worms. In a wicked multiple narrative of some seriously messed up people, we are party to some of the sickest storylines we never signed up for. Roscoe, a motel maintenance man in a creepy, sexually adventurous throuple, a mentally ill man named Benny looking to be a father, a violent addict couple, the former pagan member giving an endless interview, and his sex worker daughter all collide. The throughline of these stories is that the characters ingest worms like drugs. The consequences will make you as queasy as you think. If David Cronenberg and Requiem for a Dream had a baby, you might get All Jacked Up and Full of Worms in the bassinet. The likelihood that you’ll be looking around the theatre to check if everyone else is just as horrified as you are incredibly high. Would I recommend you watch high? I’m not not saying it’s a good idea. Films like this bring audiences to Fantasia in the first place. Am I jacked up to see what Alex Phillips does next? Yup.

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms also stars Eva Fellows, Mike Lopez, Carol Rhyu, and Sammy Arechar. The film was produced by Phillips, Georgia Bernstein, and Ben Gojer.

Click here for more information about Fantasia 2022

Review: Despite fantastic performances, ‘The Ravine’ takes a turn for the worse.

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In THE RAVINE, when an unspeakable crime rocks a peaceful community, family and friends are left to wonder if they overlooked the murderer among them or if there might be more to the story. Inspired by true events, this haunting thriller stars Eric Dane, Teri Polo, Peter Facinelli, and Leslie Uggams.

Based on a true story, The Ravine skillfully creates a tense atmosphere. The film opens to ominous phone messages, tight-knit relationships, and one pulse-pounding vignette. It’s a familiar panic for someone who has lost a friend in the prime of their life; the unanswered phone tag, the swirl of shock, and unadulterated, unfiltered emotion. Performances are heartbreaking from the children to the adults. They are raw and riveting. All these positive aspects cannot save the film from a failed ending.

Director Keoni Waxman writes the script based on Robert and Kelly Pascuzzi‘s novel of the same name. Its structure utilizes flashbacks and present-day fallout. Through police work, past regressions, and the unexpected introduction of a gifted and religious psychic, The Ravine takes a turn in genre and never fully recovers. The script leans on religious redemption in the end, but the audience does not expect the hard right turn in the narrative. As a choice in storytelling, regardless of how close these depictions are to true events, it doesn’t match with the repetitive scenes of violence. The final 20+ minutes of the moment-by-moment explanation felt rushed and overwhelming. For a film that begins like an episode of True Detective, The Ravine ends in a preachy manner. It soured the entire experience. 

Cinedigm will release THE RAVINE in theaters and on Demand and Digital on May 6, 2022.

 
The film stars Eric Dane (“Euphoria”), Teri Polo (Meet the Parents), Peter Facinelli (The Vanished), Byron Mann (The Big Short), Leslie Uggams (Deadpool), and Kyle Lowder (“Days of Our Live”).

THE RAVINE was written and directed by Keoni Waxman (The Hard Way). It was co-written with Kelly Pascuzzi and Robert Pascuzzi whose book “THE RAVINE” is the basis for the film.

Review: ‘Painkiller’ is the perfect Bill Oberst Jr. vehicle.

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Painkiller

After a man loses his daughter to a drug overdose, he begins a vigilante campaign to bring down the white-collar criminals, including the doctors and pharmaceutical companies, behind the opioid epidemic.

PAINKILLER boasts gorgeous opening titles with 360-degree slow-motion character images surrounded by raining down multicolored pills. Combined with a truly magnificent score, it feels like the audience is being set up for a wild ride. Unfortunately, the overall experience is less thrilling. The premise is intriguing. It’s a revenge story that any parent could get behind. The film gets bogged down by amateur performances from the majority of the cast. I also scratched my head at the idea that a heart surgeon, whose wife is begging for his money in a divorce proceeding, didn’t reside in a more upscale home. This could have been easily addressed by filming those scenes in the same location used for our leading man. After seeing the clarity and effectiveness of the drone shots, this detail disappointed me.

The acting is either over-the-top or underwhelming, with three notable exceptions. Khalmimah Gaston as Detective Janet Simone is an awesome scene partner for Bill Oberst Jr. Their dialogues lays the emotional groundwork that drives the plot. I absolutely believe her as a cop. She’s even-keeled and always present with Bill. Tom Parnell, who also wrote and produced the film, is very strong as Dr. Thomas Mac. While I did think his character deserved better accommodations, his chemistry with his fellow cast members is solid. That final scene is some of the best written and performed in the film. Now onto our leading man Bill Oberst Jr. The tone of his voice is intoxicating. There’s a vulnerability to his portrayal of Bill that makes the audience root for him. His scenes, both as he interacts with callers on his radio show and as he seeks revenge on those who push opioids, are captivating. He is undeniably the number one reason to watch PAINKILLER.

*ON DEMAND/DIGITAL/DVD* MAY 4, 2021

Review: ‘BADLAND’ – a western gone south.

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BADLAND

More than a decade after the Civil War, a nation tries to rebuild as an outlaw faction takes root across the West. Gunslinging detective Matthias Breecher (Kevin Makely) is hired by one of the first African American Senators (Tony Todd) to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals (Trace Adkins, Bruce Dern and Jeff Fahey), with nothing more than his wits and his revolver. As he roams the Old West seeking justice, his resolve is tested when he meets a determined pioneer woman (Mira Sorvino) who is far more than she seems. As the lawless converge on this lawman, death is inevitable in a terrain that welcomes no stranger.

Badland is a post civil war western written and directed by Justin Lee. The cinematography is perfect for the genre. Typical western tropes of honorable, gun-slinging hero on horseback and trigger-happy villains are what kept me watching. I was admittedly a bit distracted by the formality of the dialogue. It didn’t feel gritty enough for the time period and at points, I thought I was watching a Hallmark movie. While the actors make the best of it, I found it more difficult to fully immerse myself in a genre I typically enjoy. Because of this, Badland played like a stage play. Over the top line readings and slow pacing between dialogue led to an unnatural feel in exchanges. Ironically, I would watch this on a stage! It looks gorgeous from the sets to the costumes. I must give credit to Jeff Fahey in his role as Huxley Wainright. He is most definitely the highlight of this film. He fills the screen with his presence and makes everything work, finally. The story is presented in 4 chapters. I did get my fist fights, shoot outs, and classic love story but ultimately felt like Lee’s script could have used a good editor and another pass.

from Cinedigm, BADLAND opens in theaters and on-demand on November 1st.

Badland stars Kevin Makely (Big Legend), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Trace Adkins (Hickok, I Can Only Imagine), Bruce Dern (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Tony Todd (The Final Destination), Wes Studi (The Last of the Mohicans) and Jeff Fahey (“Lost”).

Written and directed by Justin Lee, BADLAND is set in the unincorporated areas of the West, where renegade factions have replaced law and order. Co-stars include Amanda Wyss (“Highlander”) and Ryan Kelley (“Teen Wolf”).

3 New Indie Movies To Stream Today – ‘Five Star’ ‘Little Loopers’ & ‘Seashore’

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Five_Star_Poster4_LR

Five Star – on demand & in theaters
A member of the notorious Bloods since he was 12 years old – both in the film and in real life — Primo takes John, the son of his slain mentor, under his wing, versing him in the code of the streets. Set in East New York, FIVE STAR blends documentary and fictional storytelling as director Keith Miller carefully avoids worn clichés of gang culture to offer a compelling portrait of two men forced to confront the question of what it really means to be a man.

Little Loopers 2Little Loopers – on demand
After reacting violently during one of his matches, Hutch McGee has retired from the professional golf circuit and fallen into a cycle of drinking and depression. When the lovely and confident director of the local club team asks him to coach the “Little Loopers,” he isn’t exactly enthused. However, the team takes a liking to Hutch and they begin to learn and grow together, both as individuals and golf players as one gives to an other the best sunglasses for the game according to this golf sunglasses reviews. With a boost of confidence from the kids, Hutch not only guides them all the way to the championship tournament, he manages to pull himself back together, ultimately making it back onto the pro-tour and winning the heart of the lovely club director in the meantime…

seashoreSeashore – on demand
Friends since childhood, Brazilian teenagers Martin (Mateus Almada) and Tomaz (Mauricio Barcellos) have since grown apart. When Martin’s grandfather dies, Tomaz journeys with him on a special mission to the windswept coastal town where the estranged family of his grandfather still lives. There, in an abandoned seaside house, secrets are shared, old family wounds are re-opened, and the boys are challenged to sort out for themselves the meanings of friendship, independence, and love in a suddenly adult world.

Available now

Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A – HBO Monday Doc
TOE TAG PAROLE: TO LIVE AND DIE ON YARD A focuses on the 600 men living at The Progressive Programming Facility, who seek self-improvement and spiritual growth through education, art and music therapy, religious services and participation in peer-group sessions. The film features interviews with three of the inmates – sentenced to life at ages 14, 16 and 17 – who describe growing up within the prison walls.

Enter to Win a DVD Copy of ‘The Kingdom of Dreams & Madness’

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THE KINGDOM OF DREAMS AND MADNESS

The first-ever look at the inner workings of Studio Ghibli, the successful Japanese animation studio, comes to life when the riveting story, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, arrives on VOD January 27 from GKIDS, in conjunction with Cinedigm.

Reel News Daily is excited to offer the opportunity to win a copy of this amazing documentary! Enter below! Read More →