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Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

MrBeast is back in our latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report, chronicling a 100-hour journey through the Giza pyramid complex. While he did gamify the whole experience–and use it to promote his products at Moose Toys–he did capture the kind of footage most people wouldn’t be able to see otherwise, plus got an interesting historical walkthrough thanks to his Egyptian guide.

Related Images invites readers behind the scenes and into the sketchbooks of working filmmakers to learn more about their creative processes.Elizabeth Sankey’s Witches is now showing exclusively on Mubi.Witches.Title cards are an underappreciated art and a powerful tool for every director. They can punctuate a moment, make it more comic, shocking, or beautiful. They can hold your hand and lead you sweetly down the garden path of the story you’re about to experience, or they can undermine your expectations and throw you for a loop. Even their placement in the runtime can have a huge impact. In the black-metal revenge thriller Mandy (2018) Panos Cosmatos waits 75 minutes before abruptly kicking his title card onto the screen. Conversely Luca Guadagnino places the card for Call Me by Your Name (2017) at the end of the film to enhance Elio’s heartbreaking stare into the fire, intensifying his crushing...

Stars: Boris Karloff, Catherine Lacey, Ian Ogilvy, Elizabeth Ercy, Victor Henry, Susan George, Ivor Dean, Peter Fraser | Written by Michael Reeves, Tom Baker, John Burke | Directed by Michael Reeves

The Sorcerers is a standout film in the canon of British horror cinema, notable not just for its eerie atmosphere but also for its psychological depth and thematic boldness. Directed by Michael Reeves, who would go on to make the iconic Witchfinder General (1968), The Sorcerers is a chilling exploration of power, control, and the darker sides of human desire.

The film stars Boris Karloff as Professor Montserrat, an elderly hypnotist who, along with his wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey), invents a machine that allows them to control the mind and experiences of a young man, Mike Roscoe (Ian Ogilvy). What begins as a scientific experiment soon devolves into a dangerous game of manipulation, as Estelle becomes addicted to the vicarious thrill of...

Stars: Barbara Steele, Ian Ogilvy, John Karlsen, Mel Welles, Joe ‘Flash’ Riley, Richard Watson, Lucretia Love, Peter Grippe | Written and Directed by Michael Reeves

Revenge of the Blood Beast, also known as The She-Beast, is a 1966 horror film directed by Michael Reeves. This movie is a unique blend of Gothic horror and campy humour, which offers a curious mix of eerie atmosphere and unintentional comedy.

The story revolves around a newlywed couple, Philip and Veronica, who are honeymooning in Transylvania. They encounter an eccentric innkeeper and a deranged scientist, Count von Helsing. An ancient witch, executed centuries ago, is resurrected and possesses Veronica, leading to a series of supernatural events. Barbara Steele, known for her roles in Gothic horror films, stars as Veronica. Her performance is captivating and adds a layer of authenticity to the supernatural elements of the film. Ian Ogilvy, as Philip, delivers a solid performance, balancing the...

Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

Last week, MrBeast took the #1 spot in our ranking of the most-watched sponsored YouTube videos released over a specific seven-day period.

One week later, Jimmy Donaldson is still involved in the most-watched branded video, but the clip in question was not uploaded on his record-breaking channel. Instead, MrBeast showed up as a guest star alongside Airrack, who has gotten more than seven million views...

Open Sauce, the San Francisco-based Stem convention that’s expecting to host 150+ content creators, 500+ exhibitors, and 20,000+ attendees June 14-16, is adding an industry track featuring speakers from YouTube, Mythical, Smosh, Roblox, Kajabi, and more.

The convention, founded by science YouTuber William Osman (3 million subscribers), held its debut event in 2023, and featured a main stage with a constant rotation of panels and workshops for creators’ fans and fellow Stem enthusiasts.

This year, it’s amping up programming with an industry stage where presentations will zero in on the impact of artificial intelligence. A full day of programming on June 14 will “[gather] leaders in AI on how the technology will impact tech businesses and engineering and how we can best harness its power,” Open Sauce says.

We’re dropping the complete list of industry track presenters below (with more to be announced in the leadup to Open Sauce), but to give you a taste,...

Open Sauce, William Osman‘s Stem-palooza exhibition for content creators, engineers, and fans of all things science, is returning for its second year–and more than doubling in size.

After debuting in 2023 with an attendance of over 10,000 people, Open Sauce is shifting locations this year to Daly City‘s Cow Palace, and is expecting more than 20,000 attendees.

It’s also expecting 150 creators and 500 exhibitors, up from 75 creators and 150 exhibitors last year. Featured creators include Osman himself, Mythbusters‘ Adam Savage, Mark Rober, TheOdd1sOut, Emily The Engineer, NileRed, Allen Pan, Evan and Katelyn, Michael Reeves, TheBackyardScientist, ElectroBOOM, DougDoug, Code Bullet, Wren, The Hacksmith, Unnecessary Inventions, Jake Laser, Estefannie, Peter Sripol, Pirate Software, Colin Furze, Nerdforge, and more.

Creators will host a constant rotation of panels and workshops for their attending fans and fellow Stem enthusiasts, and will also do group meet-and-greets. And, for the first time, Open Sauce is also offering...

British special effects artist Roger Dicken, best known for his work on Ridley Scott’s Alien and the 1970s sci-fi thriller When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth has died. He was 84.

Dicken died on February 18 at his home in North Wales. His career began in the mid-60s when he accepted a freelance effects role on a sprawling sci-fi feature helmed by an ambitious American filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick. The project would end up being the seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dicken created miniature moon terrains for the pic. His work would ultimately go uncredited.

Following his sojourn in space with Kubrick, Dicken found work on the Michael Reeves feature Witchfinder General before lending his hand to When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth by Val Guest. Dicken and Jim Danforth shared a Best Special Visual Effects Oscar nomination for their work on the film.

Dicken went on to work on Ridley Scott’s Alien.

Jess Franco’s The Bloody Judge, which was theatrically released in the U.S. by Aip under the nonsensical title of Night of the Blood Monster, is one of the filmmaker’s most lavish productions. It’s one that, absent the outrageous lashings of sadistic violence and nudity that are common to Franco’s work, could almost pass for mainstream cinema.

As a helpful voiceover informs the viewer while the opening credits roll, The Bloody Judge is set in 1684, during the last days of King James II, on the eve of the Glorious Revolution that put William and Mary on the throne. Allegiance to the current king is paramount to the storyline, providing the motivation behind the increasingly sadistic actions of Judge Jeffries (Christopher Lee). Like Michael Reeves’s Witchfinder General, from 1968, Franco’s film pits its youthful protagonists against the hypocrisy and intolerance of an authoritarian regime.

This is...

Maverick film making as shown in the work of Norman J. Warren, the brilliant burned-out Michael Reeves and others is hard to come by. The French based an entire now-classic group of films known as The New Wave of the sixties. Scripts were often not complete, or bare ideas, ad hoc sets, lack of money, filming on the run with camera angles, cut and in some cases non-professional actors. This can yield some fascinating results on screen giving new talent in from and before the camera a chance to shine. It is unfair to compare a film like Gav Chuckie Steele’s The Shadow of Death with something iconic nor will I do that, yet the film is about telling a story making this appear to be ‘slapped together.’

This film tries very hard to tell not one but two stories that are only one story leading up to the...

In modern world history, few single years have been as tumultuous as 1968. The Vietnam War continued to drag on and had reached an unprecedented level of unpopularity. The assasinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy shocked the world. Protests against the war, for civil rights, and at the Democratic National Convention raged in the streets. On movie screens, another revolution was taking place that reflected the values of the passionate youth movement and rejected the “old ways” of filmmaking. In the years 1967-68, the studio system was taking its last gasping breaths and films like Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, The Producers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bullit, and If…. were changing the game in Hollywood and Britain by taking after New Wave movements in France and Italy. The horror landscape was changing as well. Gothic horrors were giving way to modern films both in setting and subject.

This summer, science and engineering creators will flock to San Francisco for a star-studded gathering. Noted builder William Osman is organizing Open Sauce, a two-day event that will be attended by 75 of the top Stem influencers on YouTube and TikTok.

Open Sauce will take place at Pier 35 between July 15-16, 2023. Confirmed attendees include Mark Rober, Allen Pan, The Hacksmith, Jake Laser, Unnecessary Inventions, Michael Reeves, Emily the Engineer, The Backyard Scientist, and Code Miko. According to a press release, additional names on the Open Sauce guest list will be revealed “in the coming weeks.”

The event will be a who’s who of internet-famous engineers, and its festivities will straddle the line between science and content creation. Open Sauce is described as a mix between an online video convention and a science fair. There will be talks and panels hosted by the creators in attendance, and an expo hall will...

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin, from here on simply Orchestrator of Storms, is a long overdue examination of the works of French filmmaker Jean Rollin, a man who has been labelled everything from an auteur to a pornographer and a hack.

Writer/directors Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger have worked together on several previous documentary shorts about genre films and filmmakers such as The Tale of Mr. Corman and Mr. Poe and The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves as well as on individual projects. However, coming in at an hour and fifty-two minutes Orchestrator of Storms is anything but short.

Orchestrator of Storms picks up almost from the moment of Rollin’s birth to a father who worked in the theatre and a mother who had been an artist’s model. It was his mother who raised him after his father left. The film explores how...

When I left England in 2009 to live in the Czech Republic, I was totally done with the whole thing. I was broke, had no career prospects, and hated the lifestyle. If it wasn't for family and a few close friends I would have gladly never set foot on the island again. That disillusionment might have lasted forever if it wasn't for folk horror which, in its strange way, helped me reconnect with my home country.

It was the BBC's wonderfully chilling adaptation of "A Warning to the Curious" that really got me into it. Based on the ghost story by M.R. James, many scenes were filmed in Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast not far from where I grew up. That really gave me a jolt of recognition; I love the county's desolate beaches and big open skies, and I was suddenly filled with affection and longing for England for...

The Blood Beast Terror

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

1968 / 1.85: 1 / 88 Min.

Starring Peter Cushing, Wanda Ventham, Robert Flemyng

Written by Peter Bryan

Directed by Vernon Sewell

A serene British countryside is rocked by a series of brutal murders with a common thread; each victim has been mutilated and drained of their blood. All eyes are on a nearby university and its resident eccentric, the mysterious Dr. Mallinger, an entomologist with a fascination for Death’s-head moths. His daughter Clare shares his interests but her concerns are more personal than academic—Clare is a shapeshifter, transformed into a deadly butterfly when her blood is up and romance is in the air.

Directed by Vernon Sewell, this not so thrilling thriller features Robert Flemyng as Mallinger, and Wanda Ventham as Clare, whose blank-faced beauty suggests an otherworldly nature or a general lack of enthusiasm for the project—if it’s the latter she’s...

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin, from here on simply Orchestrator of Storms, is a long overdue examination of the works of French filmmaker Jean Rollin, a man who has been labelled everything from an auteur to a pornographer and a hack.

Writer/directors Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger have worked together on several previous documentary shorts about genre films and filmmakers such as The Tale of Mr. Corman and Mr. Poe and The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves as well as on individual projects. However, coming in at an hour and fifty-two minutes Orchestrator of Storms is anything but short.

Orchestrator of Storms picks up almost from the moment of Rollin’s birth to a father who worked in the theatre and a mother who had been an artist’s model. It was his mother who raised him after his father left. The film explores how...

The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1971, 1972 / 1.85 : 1 / 94, 89 Min.

Starring Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Terry Thomas

Written by James Whiton, William Goldstein, Robert Blees

Directed by Robert Fuest

Though he thrived in light comedies and upmarket melodramas, Vincent Price didn’t really find himself till he found Henry Jarrod, the high strung sculptor-turned psychopath in 1953’s House of Wax. The role reinvented the Jekyll/Hyde story and gave Price the key to his long-lasting persona; the well-mannered fiend and the unhinged romantic merged into one tormented soul. Ticket buyers were both moved and terrified by Jarrod and the box office receipts reflected their fascination. Price was happy to dish up more of the same and though he would occasionally play no nonsense villains like the unambiguously evil Matthew Hopkins of 1968’s Witchfinder General, the actor rarely strayed too far from his comfort zone.

There was...

Digital creators Bretman Rock, Bailey Sarian, Mark Rober and MrBeast joined Target and MatPat YouTube series The Game Theorists as top winners at tonight’s YouTube Streamy Awards, notching two wins apiece at the celebration of the year’s best online content and creators, which streamed for free via YouTube.

Rock’s series 30 Days With: Bretman Rock earned him the awards for Show of the Year and Unscripted Series, with Sarian recognized in the categories of Beauty and Podcast. Rober dominated Science and Engineering and nabbed one of nine Social Good Awards, with MrBeast taking another, as well as Creator of the Year. Target won awards for Brand of the Year and Branded Series, with The Game Theorists taking a Social Good Award along with one for writing.

This year’s show produced by MRC Live & Alternative and Tubefilter featured appearances by creators including Rock, Sarian, Rober, MrBeast, Addison Rae,...

“Folk horror” is a term of relatively recent vintage — or at least popularity — that only grows more broad as “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched” spends three and a quarter hours trying to define it. Still, a slippery thesis doesn’t detract from the pleasures of this documentary from genre scholar and programmer Kier-La Janisse. She draws on alluring clips from more than 100 films, plus myriad interviews, to survey an alternately lurid and surreal cinematic (as well as television) field of mostly rural tales inspired by traditional superstitions and lore.

for a long time to come. Production company Severin Films, itself a leading restorer and home-formats distributor of vintage cult movies, should find a ready-made audience in its own customer base—which Janisse’s film will no doubt help expand.

Beyond the director herself, the various authorities heard from here (just a couple in archival interviews) include veteran and next-generation filmmakers,...

Severin continues to impress with their incredible box set releases and their latest announcement was an instant pre-order for me: a collection of five remastered Christopher Lee movies and a rarely seen, Christopher Lee-hosted, anthology horror TV series:

(Los Angeles, CA) On May 25th, Severin Films is releasing a box set of buried gems from one of cinema’s most seminal figures - Sir Christopher Lee. He remains one of the most beloved horror/fantasy icons in US/UK pop culture history, but Christopher Lee delivered several of the most compelling, acclaimed and bizarre performances of his entire career in 1960s Europe. The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee brings together five of these Lee classics - the 1964 gothic shocker Crypt Of The Vampire; the 1964 cult hit Castle Of The Living Dead co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962's celebrated Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace; 1967's lurid favorite The Torture Chamber Of Dr.

Following the misfire of 2019’s “Hellboy” reboot, “The Descent” director Neil Marshall returns to his traditional horror roots with “The Reckoning,” an uneven melodrama about an innocent young widow accused of witchcraft during the Great Plague of London, 1665. Striving to be a rousing tale of female empowerment in the face of brutal patriarchy and religious extremism, “The Reckoning” has some powerful moments but relies too heavily on fantasy sequences to deliver scares, and its credibility is significantly compromised by the heroine consistently emerging from extreme torture sessions with barely a hair out of place or a smudge on her makeup. Dedicated horror hounds will be the main takers when this well-produced item hits U.S. theaters and VOD on February 5.

A world apart from arty contemporary folk-horrors such as “The Witch” and “Hagazussa: A Heathen’s Curse,” Marshall’s new film is more closely related to hellfire European exploitation titles of...

“I want friend like me.”

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

No other actor in the long history of horror has been so closely identified with the genre as Boris Karloff, yet he was as famous for his gentle heart and kindness as he was for his screen persona. William Henry Pratt was born on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell, London, England. He studied at London University in anticipation of a diplomatic career; however, he moved to Canada in 1909 and joined a theater company where he was bit by the acting bug. It was there that he adopted the stage name of “Boris Karloff.” He toured back and forth across the USA for over ten years in a variety of low-budget Theater shows and eventually ended up in Hollywood. Needing cash to support himself, Karloff landed roles in silent films making his on-screen debut in Chapter 2 of the 1919 serial The Masked Rider.

The Vincent Price Collection

Blu ray

1960,’61, ’63, ’64, ’68, ’71 / 79, 85, 87, 90, 86, 94 min. / 2.35 : 1, 1:85:1

Starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, Hazel Court

Cinematography by Floyd Crosby, Nicolas Roeg,

John Coquillon, Norman Warwick

Directed by Roger Corman, Michael Reeves, Robert Fuest

The Vincent Price Collection, the first in a series of Blu-ray sets celebrating the beloved actor’s glory days, arrived in 2013. They sold like hot cakes, quickly going out of print only to pop up on eBay with price tags that would make Bill Gates tremble. That initial release has just been reissued and is a near-duplicate of the original. All the films are here including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Haunted Palace, Witchfinder General, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes. But there are changes—the Poe-related intros Price recorded for a PBS affiliate have been removed due to rights issues. And something new has been added; The Masque of the Red Death,...

In his latest interview/podcast, hos and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks 5 Great Michael Reeves Moments with writer and academic Ben Halligan, including:

Intrusion (1961) Castle of the Living Dead (1964) Revenge of the Blood Beast (1966) The Sorcerers (1967) Witchfinder General (1968)

Ben wrote the book on Michael Reeves as part of the British Film-Makers series (2003). You can buy a copy here. If you’re a fan of Reeves you should also check out The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves, directed by Dima Balllin. Find more information on the documentary here and also read our review here.

Alex Westthorp Oct 1, 2019

Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...

This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.

Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.

In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...

By Tim Greaves

Writer-director Michael Reeves passed away on February 11th 1969, aged just 25. He had helmed a mere three films in his short lifetime – all of them in various fields of exploitation cinema – the third and last of them, Witchfinder General, now widely acknowledged as a classic of 1960s British cinema. (The film was featured in ‘Cinema Retro’ Vol 2 No 5.)

As I was watching The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves, the new documentary from filmmaker Dima Ballin, I found myself wondering, 50 years on from his death, just how far reaching among movie buffs at large Reeves and his films are. Although I can comprehend that mention of his name might draw a blank with many, it seems inconceivable to me that the title Witchfinder General would do so too. So I put it to the test. My daughter, who’s in her mid-20s and shares my passion for film...

Features: Gavin Baddeley, Tom Baker, Ingrid Cranfield, Kat Ellinger, Steve Haberman, Benjamin Halligan, David Huckvale, Ian Ogilvy | Written by Kat Ellinger | Directed by Dima Ballin

The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves is a documentary film directed by Dima Ballin (A Taste of New Blood: New Directions for Hammer’s Dracula) and written by Kat Ellinger. The two also produced this project, released through Diabolique Films.

The film itself talks about, in some detail, the career of Michael Reeves, the groundbreaking folk horror filmmaker who gave us Witchfinder General and The Sorcerers, and talks about his life, the mark he left as a director and his premature death at the young age of just 25. With a variety of exclusive interviews we learn about the things that Michael loved, his passions in his life, including his obsession with film, as this analysis of his career and the situation surrounding his death are discussed.

In the first of this weeks Arrow Video Frightfest preview podcasts, host Stuart Wright talks The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves with the films director Dima Ballin.

The early death of director Michael Reeves at 25 from an accidental overdose robbed the cinema of a potential major talent. He only made three 1960s shockers – The Revenge Of The Bloodbeast, The Sorcerers and the masterpiece Witchfinder General – each starring a horror icon, Barbara Steele, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. But for many he was the genre’s shining light because he took fright out of studio confines and into stark reality. Reeves’ early life and movie times plus little known facts about his short but incandescent career are all covered in director Dima Ballin’s brilliant and exhaustively researched documentary.

Catch The Magnificent Obsession Of Michael Reeves at Arrow Video Frightfest

22th to 26th August 2018

Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7Na.

Programme listings and film details www.

September 2019 will see the worldwide blu-ray release of Dima Ballin’s feature-length documentary “The Magnificent Obsession of Michael Reeves,” which is co-written and co-produced by Kat Ellinger and is a Diabolique Films Production. Anolis Entertainment is releasing the film together with Michael Reeves’ “The Sorcerers.” Dima Ballin makes his feature film debut with “The Magnificent …

The post The Magnificent Obsession Of Michael Reeves Headed for Blu-ray Fall appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Back in 2016, it was reported at the Cannes Film Festival that a remake of 1968's Witchfinder General was in the works with Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon) producing. Now, several years later at Cannes, the director for the remake has been revealed.

Deadline reports that John Hillcoat is on board to direct the Witchfinder General remake. A cast has yet to be assembled, but production is being planned to begin as early as this year.

Hillcoat will direct from a screenplay by Jon Croker (The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death), with Bynwr.com's Refn and Rupert Preston producing alongside Hillcoat’s Blank Films.

Here's what Refn had to say (via Deadline) about Hillcoat directing the remake:

"It is with extreme pleasure that both Rupert and I can incorporate John Hillcoat into our group as director for our production of Witchfinder General. It gives me enormous satisfaction to...

After Nicolas Winding Refn came on board a few years ago to a remake of the 1968 historical horror classic Witchfinder General, originally directed by Michael Reeves, a new director has been found. Deadline reports John Hillcoat will now be helming the project and Winding Refn will be producing.

The original movie starred Vincent Price in the lead role of Matthew Hopkins who is a witch hunter with some intense violence and scenes of torture unspooling, set during the English Civil War. The project will be developed through Hillcoat’s production company Blank Films, and with additional help from Bynwr.com and Sunrise Films.

Ahead of a shoot beginning later this year, Hillcoat says, “I am excited to work with fellow filmmaker Nic Refn, a maverick auteur and who, together with Rupert Preston, have been fully committed to independent cinema over the years. I’m drawn to the dynamic departures behind this remake.

Exclusive: Former literary agent Scott Chaloff, most recently of Wme in New York, is joining Seller Suarez Productions as Head of Development for Television and Film.

Chaloff will develop new material for Seller Suarez’s first-look deal at Universal Television and assemble a slate of features.

Seller Suarez was founded in 2016 by Jeffrey Seller, producer of Hamilton and a four-time Tony Award winner, and former NBC exec Flody Suarez, whose producing credits include 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. The company recently produced NBC’s reality-based high school musical series Rise.

Chaloff’s client list at Wme over the past few years included Joshua Harmon, Sarah Burgess, Kenneth Lonergan, Robert Askins, Ruby Rae Spiegel, Penelope Skinner, and Be More Chill creators Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz. He represented writers and directors across theater, TV and film.

“Scott Chaloff has impeccable taste, limitless curiosity, and relationships with some of the best writers working today,...

Witchfinder General is more historical reenactment than any kind of supernatural tale, but the horrors experienced in the world are far more terrifying than any creature we could dream up. Like many, I often watch horror movies to be entertained, so this one is an uncomfortable watch and not one I return to often. That said, it’s an important film and worth watching as a reminder of the atrocities that were committed to so many innocent people, a warning not to repeat the sins of the past, and as a showcase of Vincent Price, who delivers one of his best performances as the insidious Matthew Hopkins.

Filmed in 1967 as a co-production between Tigon and Aip, Witchfinder General is based on the 1966 novel of the same name from Ronald Bassett, but it should be considered a very loose adaptation of the historical events surrounding actual witch hunter Matthew Hopkins.

If...

Classic horror film lovers get excited, as Turner Classic Movies just unveiled its movie lineup for the Halloween season. I’d run through and list all the classics that will be popping up throughout the month, but there’s just too many to list. This is Turner Classic Movies after all. Check out the full lineup below, and let us know if you’re excited for any of these! (via Bloody Disgusting)

Wednesday October 3, 2018

8:00 Pm The Unknown (1927) Dir: Tod Browning

9:00 Pm The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Dir: Rupert Julian

10:45 Pm The Monster (1925) Dir: Roland West

Thursday October 4, 2018

12:30 Am The Penalty (1920) Dir: Wallace Worsley

2:15 Am The Unholy Three (1925) Dir: Tod Browning.

4:00 Am He Who Gets Slapped (1924) Dir: Victor Seastrom

Saturday October 6, 2018

2:00 Am Deadly Friend (1986) Dir: Wes Craven

3:45 Am Demon Seed (1977) Dir. Donald Cammell

Sunday October 7, 2018

8:00 Pm The Mummy’s Hand (1940) Dir: Christy...

Aliya Whiteley Oct 21, 2017

There's a touch of Hammer Horror about the BBC's new, macabre gunpowder plot three-parter starring Game Of Thrones' Kit Harington...

This review contains spoilers.

See related The End Of The F***ing World: exclusive clip The End of The F***ing World: first clips arrive New on Netflix UK: what's added in October 2017?

My early knowledge about the Gunpowder Plot came from a Ladybird book in their ‘Adventure from History’ series. It went into a good amount of detail about certain elements such as the people behind the plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament and how they were caught. It was an intriguing business, but it wasn’t until many years later that I made an emotional connection to it through Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. Desperation, fear, and persecution seeped into the mix. Every year, on the fifth of November, I think...

This early gore-horror picture has a remarkable emphasis on human values, believe it or not, with a ‘monster’ that nevertheless is a paragon of loving gentleness. Add Donald Pleasance as a surly, posh-hating police inspector, and the shock value makes the Hammer films of the early ’70s taste like weak tea.

Death Line

Blu-ray + DVD

Blue Underground

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 87 min. / aka Raw Meat / Street Date June 27, 2017 / 39.98

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, June Turner, Christopher Lee.

Cinematography: Alex Thomson

Art Direction: Dennis Gordon-Orr

Film Editor: Geoffrey Foot

Original Music: Jeremy Rose, Malone Wil

Written by Ceri Jones from a story by Gary Sherman

Produced by Paul Maslansky

Directed by Gary Sherman

In 1972, making a horror film was a safe way to start a career: almost anything screen-able could get a release, and if your show had enough shock value, it might even get positive critical attention.

The 1971 Hammer horror cult classic "Twins of Evil" will receive a rare big screen showing on Tuesday May 30 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Brooklyn. Showtime is at 9:30. Here is the official description from the Alamo Drafthouse web site:

Hosted by TV writer/producer, recovering film critic Bruce Bennett. Admission only $10!

By 1971 the UK Hammer House of Horror had traded cleavage and blood trickle for R-rated female nudity and comparatively extravagant applications of “Kensington Gore”. Twins Of Evil literally doubles down on the nudity care of comely Maltese identical siblings Madeleine and Mary Collinson. And writer Tudor Gates’ grafting of vampire yarn with witch-hunt mentality jeremiad offers plenty of opportunities for bloodletting - particularly via a climactic beheading. But with all due respect to the Collinsons, the most memorable charms on display in Twins Of Evil are of a more backward-glancing variety. Taking a page from Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General,...

Horror Channel has eight prime-time weekend film premieres in June including the UK premieres of Retreat, Carl Tibbets’ ‘ménage a trois of terror’ starring Thandie Newton, Cillian Murphy and Jamie Bell and R.D. Braunstein’s smartly gripping I Spit On Your Grave 3: Vengeance Is Mine – widely seen as the best of the series.

There are also network premieres for Jennifer Lynch’s uncompromising and dark chiller Chained, William Malone’s gruesome cyber thriller Feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff and Natascha McElhone and Michael Reeves’s highly acclaimed Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price.

In a deadly virus catching month, other highlights are first channel showings for John Pogue’s [Rec] inspired scareline Quarantine 2: Terminal, Breck Eisner’s critically-acclaimed remake of George Romero’s 1973 movie, The Crazies and James Cameron’s directorial debut Piranha 2: The Spawning starring Lance Henriksen and plenty of flying killer fish.

Fri 2 June @ 21:00 – Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) *Network Premiere*

A bizarre disease,...

From Kill List to Blood on Satan’s Claw, celebrate May Day with a journey into the dark heart of the English countryside

Folk horror sounds like a contradiction in terms, like a blend of Aran knitwear and paranoia, morris-dancing and carnage. Mark Gatiss popularised the phrase, which is apt, since The League of Gentlemen helped seed the genre’s recent revival. The League found the funny in The Wicker Man, though it wasn’t hard to locate: it was always difficult to take seriously a movie where a strutting, bewigged Christopher Lee sonorously orders Edward Woodward, disguised as a dour jester in a Punch costume, to: “Cut some capers, man! Use your bladder!”

According to Gatiss, folk horror’s central trinity consists of three films from the late 1960s and early 70s: Michael Reeves’s Witchfinder General, a brooding tale of sadism and revenge in East Anglia during the...

Horror and sci-fi home entertainment titles are really picking up this week, as we have almost 20 different Blu-rays and DVDs coming home this Tuesday. Universal is keeping themselves busy with several notable releases including Death Race 2050, Ouija: Origin of Evil, 12 Monkeys: Season Two, and a Ouija double feature.

Scream Factory is dusting off two cult classics, Slumber Party Massacre II and III for a special Blu-ray featuring the slasher sequels, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is getting you guys pumped for the upcoming release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter with several new Blu-ray releases for the franchise's first four films.

Other notable releases for January 17th include Revenge of the Blood Beast, 24 Hours to Die, Wolf House, Mountain Devil, and Space Clown.

Ouija: Origin of Evil (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu / DVD / Digital HD & DVD)

It was never just a game. Inviting audiences again into the lore of the spirit board,...

Revenge of the Blood Beast

Blu-ray

Rarovideo

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 79 min. / Il lago di Satana, La sorella di Satana, The She-Beast / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 29.95

Starring: Barbara Steele, John Karlsen, Ian Ogilvy, Mel Welles, Lucretia Love

Cinematography: Gioacchino Gengarelli

Film Editor: Nira Omri

Original Music: Paul Ferris

Produced by: Paul Maslansky, Michael Reeves

Written and Directed by Michael Reeves

It’s back into the genre argument pits with the interesting director Michael Reeves. Reeves has persisted as a cult figure far longer than most directors with only three credited feature films. The movies are uneven but promising, and certainly the artistic equal (or better) than most of the work being turned out at the time by American-International and the majority of the Euro-horror crowd. The second half of the 1960s saw a general depression in the horror field, with Hammer losing touch with its audience and continental fare turning to sex content to generate interest.

Over/Under Movies continues its month-long Halloween series of episodes with a double feature look at two films united by their period setting, nightmarish pastoral aesthetics, stylish violence and the occult. Or, in the case of our underrated pick, 1968’s “Witchfinder General,” the pursuit of occult practitioners, innocence be damned. Meanwhile, the overrated choice falls to Tim Burton‘s “Sleepy Hollow.”

Read More: Over/Under Movies Gets In The Halloween Mood With New French Extremity Double Feature ‘High Tension’ & ‘Inside’

“Witchfinder General,” from director Michael Reeves, is a cultish oddity well worth tracking down.

Continue reading Podcast: Over/Under Movies Does A Seance, Calls Out To ‘Sleepy Hollow’ & ‘Witchfinder General’ at The Playlist.

Acclaimed filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has scored the remake rights to Michael Reeves' 1968 cult historical horror tale "Witchfinder General" (aka. "The Conqueror Worm").

Based on Ronald Bassett's novel, Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy and Hilary Dwyer starred in the acclaimed original which was set in Norfolk, England in 1645 and follows real-life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins and the heinous crimes he committed during the English Civil War.

Refn will produce, but Not direct, this new $5-10 million budgeted adaptation alongside Rupert Preston through their Space Rocket Nation and Sunrise Films labels. Vertigo Releasing will handle UK distribution.

The plan is to go into production next year with a view to bringing a new audience to the story, but the decision about whether to completely contemporize the story has not yet been decided.

Refn has "The Neon Demon" playing at Cannes and is producing another horror remake, "Maniac Cop," which is...

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The terrifying cult classic Witchfinder General is getting a remake...

Michael Reeves’ 1968 cult horror film Witchfinder General (known as The Conqueror Worm in the Us) has had several generations looking over their shoulders in the dark. Now Nicolas Winding Refn and Rupert Preston have acquired the rights to revive Reeves’ infamously disturbing classic.

Based on the Ronald Basset novel detailing the gruesome history of 17th-century English witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General gives a harrowing account of his reign of terror. 'Evidence' of a witch could be anything from a stillbirth to a drought to a circle of women gathering in the forest (presumably to worship the devil) to after nightfall. Hopkins would use almost unspeakable methods of torture to wring a confession out of suspected witches, and the violence shown in the film was considered scandalous for late 60s cinema.

While heavily censored following outrage in the UK,...

Considered by many to feature one of Vincent Price’s best performances, 1968’s Witchfinder General is getting remade as a new film produced by Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon).

According to THR, there is word coming out of the Cannes Film Festival that Refn will produce a Witchfinder General reboot. Refn will help move the reboot forward in development with his collaborator Lene Borglum, but The Neon Demon director will not helm the remake. A search is currently underway for a writer and director for the project, which is estimated to have a $5–$10 million budget.

Also on board to produce the film is Rupert Preston’s Sunrise Films. The UK rights to the Witchfinder General remake have already been acquired by Vertigo Releasing, while Protagonist will oversee international sales.

Directed by Michael Reeves and based on the real-life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins, the original Witchfinder General, aka The Conqueror Worm,...

Exclusive: Nicolas Winding Refn and UK-based producer-distributor Rupert Preston are pulling together a passion project, acquiring the remake rights to Michael Reeves’ 1968 Witchfinder General. Re-titled The Conqueror Worm in its U.S. debut at the time, the historical horror drama became a cult favorite. Refn, who will produce and not direct, and Preston are developing the redo — the former via his Space Rocket Nation, in which he is partnered with Lene Borglum, and the…...

Sound Shock takes a brief look and listen to the music of Michael Holm in 1969’s Mark Of The Devil. Taking its commercial cues from the late Michael Reeves’ masterful, fact-based historical 1968 exploitation film Witchfinder General, director Michael Armstrong (The Image) and producer Adrian Hoven’s even more sensational 1969 British/German horror movie Mark Of…

The post Sound Shock: Michael Holm’s Music for Mark Of The Devil appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

“the first film rated V for violence”

“Positively the most horrifying film ever made”

“Guaranteed to upset your stomach”

This is how you market a film, folks. All of the above (and more) is found on the poster for Michael Armstrong’s Mark of the Devil (1970), a particularly nasty bit of Witchploitation that surprisingly manages to shine a provocative light on religious hysteria and hypocrisy.

This German production was released in North America by Hallmark Releasing (not the greeting card company, but a film distributor that released another bastion of good tidings, Last House on the Left) in April of ’72, and myriad distributors in various parts of Europe early ’70. Reviews were decidedly mixed, but the box office was huge, especially for a grimy exploitative horror film that happily wallows in its own depravity. I’m inclined to agree with audiences here – while not a lot of fun, Mark of the Devil...

Shout Factory opens the crypt once more, for the last remaining UA and Aip fright movies starring our favorite gentleman of horror. The label lays on the extras, with Steve Haberman commentaries and episodes of Science Fiction Theater. Now where are the Vincent Price cooking shows? The Vincent Price Collection III Master of the World, The Tower of London, Diary of a Madman, An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, Cry of the Banshee Blu-ray Scream (Shout!) Factory 1961-72 / B&W + Color / 1:85 & 1:66 widescreen / 420 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / 69.97 Starring Vincent Price Directed by William Witney, Roger Corman, Reginald Le Borg, Kenneth Johnson, Gordon Hessler.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Scream Factory now brings us Part Three of its Vincent Price collection, pretty much emptying the closet over at MGM. Not counting his twilight feature The Whales of August every Vincent Price film under the MGM banner will soon be out on Blu-ray.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

No other actor in the long history of horror has been so closely identified with the genre as Boris Karloff, yet he was as famous for his gentle heart and kindness as he was for his screen persona. William Henry Pratt was born on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell, London, England. He studied at London University in anticipation of a diplomatic career; however, he moved to Canada in 1909 and joined a theater company where he was bit by the acting bug. It was there that he adopted the stage name of “Boris Karloff.” He toured back and forth across the USA for over ten years in a variety of low-budget Theater shows and eventually ended up in Hollywood. Needing cash to support himself, Karloff landed roles in silent films making his on-screen debut in Chapter 2 of the 1919 serial The Masked Rider. His big...