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Stars: Nahéma Ricci, Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, Bruno Marcil, Marc Beaupré | Written and Directed by Annick Blanc

Hunting Daze (Jour de Chasse), the first feature from writer/director Annick Blanc, begins on a desolate road somewhere in rural Quebec, the kind where the quiet feels eerie rather than peaceful. That’s where we meet Nina and her two companions, fellow strippers stranded by the side of the road because their not-so-bright manager, Mike, forgot to fill up his car’s gas tank.

Nina eventually manages to get Kevin, one of the guys from the bachelor party they’d performed for the night before, to come to their rescue with gas. But things go sideways quickly. A heated argument between Nina and Mike escalates into violence, and Nina winds up returning with Kevin to the hunting lodge. The deal? She can stay the night and get a ride back to civilization later,...

Nina, a tempestuous young woman, joins a group of hunters in a remote cabin. A mysterious stranger's arrival disrupts her newfound place in their male micro-society.   Annick Blanc's Quebecois thriller, Hunting Daze, will have its U.S. release next week on January 14th. Distributor Breaking Glass Pictures have premiered the trailer, which you will find down below.    Hunting Daze stars Nahéma Ricci, Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Marc Beaupré, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, and Noubi Ndiaye.   You can also check out Josh's review from SXSW here.    Breaking Glass Pictures proudly announces the US release of the critically acclaimed Canadian thriller "Hunting Daze," set to release on January 14, 2025. Directed and written by Annick Blanc, this gripping tale of survival, belonging, and mystery has...

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

“Hunting Daze” begins with a premise familiar from many a past exploitation movie: Comely but tough lone woman finds herself having to beg assistance from a bunch of boozed-up, back-slapping bros having a dudes-only weekend in a remote rural setting. Suspense formula would decree that they’ll turn their rifle sights from wild game to this fresh prey, though not before some preliminary “sport” with her.

That is the expectation, but not what writer-director Annick Blanc’s debut feature actually delivers. Instead, she serves up an unpredictable allegory whose message is sometimes cloudy, but whose striking confidence and bold stylistic gambits are never less than impressive. This French-language Canadian production is many things — some aspects less than fully developed — but most of all an announcement of a precociously assured new talent whose future moves will be worth charting.

Introduced as a disgruntled outsider already, Nina (Nahema Ricci) is first seen...

With the 2024 Overlook Film Festival now officially in the rearview mirror, the annual New Orleans celebration of all things horror has announced the winners of its audience and jury awards.

The festival’s top prize, the Audience Award for Feature Film, went to “Oddity,” Damian Mc Carthy’s home invasion horror flick that was a breakout from the SXSW 2024 midnight lineup.

“’Oddity’ delivers a brilliant, bespoke, and tightly entertaining string of ideas that work stronger as a collection — with even these missteps feeling like they branch from a unified center,” IndieWire’s Alison Foreman wrote in her Overlook review of the film. “Similar to Mc Carthy’s earlier ‘Caveat,’ this 98-minute treat demands to be reassessed a second time. Thank the wooden boy it’s coming to streaming: a triumphant addition to the director’s growing filmography and a standout in Shudder’s carousel of kick-ass ghost stories.”

Keep reading...

"She agrees to live like a wolf... according to the laws of the pack." A festival promo trailer has debuted for an intriguing new indie film from Canada titled Hunting Daze, made by the Montreal filmmaker Annick Blanc as her feature directorial debut. This unsettling thriller is premiering at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival in the Midnighter section. Nina, an exotic dancer, is stranded in the far North. She persuades five men on a hunting trip to host her. In this masculine microsociety, by turns hilarious and philosophical, Nina starts to feel a sense of belonging she never has before. But a mysterious stranger’s arrival changes the course of this improvised holiday forever. Nahéma Ricci stars as Nina, with Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Marc Beaupré, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, and Noubi Ndiaye as Dudos. There are a couple of serious "whoaaaa what?!" shots in this trailer, making me extra curious...

This year’s SXSW Film Festival, taking place in Austin, TX, just unveiled their lineup, and what a massive year for horror.

The 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival’s Opening Night TV Premiere is the highly anticipated Netflix series 3 Body Problem created, executive produced and written by Emmy Award winners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and Emmy Award nominee Alexander Woo. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg for what’s in store.

The fest unveiled its Midnight lineup, which includes the Samara Weaving-starring Azrael. Elsewhere, look for Neon’s highly anticipated Cuckoo set to make its premiere.

Read on for the genre titles included in SXSW 2024’s lineup, and stay tuned for additional programming announcements.

Narrative Spotlight

Unforgettable features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres.

Cuckoo (Germany)

Director/Screenwriter: Tilman Singer, Producers: Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, Thor Bradwell, Ben Rimmer...

Stars: Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Patrick Hivon, Marc Beaupré | Written by Ariane Louis-Seize, Christine Doyon | Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize

The feature debut of director / co-writer Ariane Louis-Seize, this splendidly titled French-Canadian vampire flick is a blackly comic coming-of-ager that’s basically a cult movie waiting to happen. With a genre-savvy script, a terrific cast and buckets of charm, it’s a fang-tastic treat that deserves to find a devoted audience.

Set in Montreal, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha, a 62-year-old vampire who still has the body of a teenager. As a young girl (played by Lilas-Rose Cantin) in the 1980s, Sasha was left appalled at her birthday party when she suddenly realised that she was supposed to kill the clown her parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux) had ordered for her, and she refused.

Years later,...

Only two projects into her already solid filmography, Maria Chapdelaine and Falcon Lake star Sara Montpetit will sink her teeth into Ariane Louis-Seize‘s Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant. A filmmaker who has preemed her shorts at TIFF and Berlinale, Louis-Seize’s feature debut has Félix-Antoine Bénard in the co-lead and the rest of the players include Viking‘s Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Marc Beaupré, Patrick Hivon, Micheline Bernard, Ariane Castellanos, Madeleine Peloquin, Gabriel-Antoine Roy, Emma Olivier, Arnaud Vachon and Isabella Villalba. Production begins today in Montreal until the first week of December. Viking helmer Stéphane Lafleur is onboard as the editor.…...

French production and distribution firm Oble is to handle international licensing of Canadian hit drama series “Aller Simple” or “No Return.”

Produced by French-Canadian firm Sphere Media, the six-episode psychological thriller premiered on prime-time earlier this year in Canada and has been a hit with critics and audiences. It plays on Noovo, where it has been the most watched drama in the channel’s history, and is available before linear broadcast via subscription on Crave TV.

Written by Annie Pierard, Bernard Dansereau and Etienne Pierard-Dansereau, who all previously worked on Sphere’s “Epidemie” (aka “The Outbreak”), the show sees six complete strangers; a former policeman, an art-dealer, a retired teacher, a marketing director, a criminal lawyer and a businesswoman, en-route to a reclusive billionaire’s home when their helicopter makes an emergency landing deep in the forest. Having survived intact, they stumble across a fishing camp. But disturbing incidents suggest...

The festival wrapped up its 26th edition on August 3.

Korean action film The Roundup and US sci-fi The Artifice Girl won the gold awards for best Asian feature and best international feature, respectively, at the audience awards for the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, which wrapped its 26th edition on August 3.

Starring Eternals and Train To Busan’s Done Lee as a ‘best of a cop’, The Roundup is directed by Lee Sang-yong and acts as a sequel to 2017’s The Outlaws. The gold winner was also a box office hit in South Korea, recording over 12.5 million admissions (as...

Escaping human society is one thing, human nature quite another in “The Decline.” The Canadian thriller, available exclusively through Netflix, offers a modicum of timeliness for U.S. viewers who’ve coped with the coronavirus crisis by patronizing gun stores en masse:

A first feature for director Patrice Laliberté and several of his principal collaborators, “The Decline” is lean, credible and well-crafted, even if it never quite makes the leap from efficient suspense machine to something more memorable. Enthusiasm in the States may be tempered by the fact that Netflix’s default English dubbing (several soundtrack languages are available) tends to render the dialogue stilted and unconvincing. For those who can handle subtitles, the film definitely plays better in the original French, minus any slight disconnect between the actors’ lips and words.

The prologue is a red herring: In the middle of the night, Montreal suburbanite Antoine (Guillaume Laurin) packs...

A fourth trailer of the upcoming adventure blockbuster Le poil de la bête has arrived online. The film's release is scheduled for October 1rst.

The story, which was penned by Stéphane J. Bureau and Pierre Daudelin, takes place in 1665 in New France at a time when a part of Canada was colonialized by France. Joseph Côté (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge) escapes from a prison in order to avoid death by hanging. Moreover, while some colonial soldiers are chasing him, Joseph takes the identity of a jesuit and hides in the seigneury of Beaufort where most men are waiting for "daughhters of the king"(French women who were sent to Canada in order to find a husband).

At night, Joseph finds out that there are werewolves that terrorize the village. Besides, things get complicated when he falls in love with Marie Labotte (Viviane Audet), a "daughter of the king" that no one wants to marry.

Les Films Séville, a Canadian film distributor, has revealed the second poster of the upcoming blockbuster Le poil de la bête. Moreover, this film directed by Philippe Gagnon will be released in Quebec on October 1, 2010.

The story, which was penned by Stéphane J. Bureau and Pierre Daudelin, takes place in 1665 in New France at a time when a part of Canada was colonialized by France. Joseph Côté (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge) escapes from a prison in order to avoid death by hanging. Moreover, while some colonial soldiers are chasing him, Joseph takes the identity of a jesuit and hides in the seigneury of Beaufort where most men are waiting for "daughhters of the king"(French women who were sent to Canada in order to find a husband).

At night, Joseph finds out that there are werewolves that terrorize the village. Besides, things get complicated when he falls in love with Marie Labotte...

A few months ago, The Cultural Post introduced you to the teaser of the upcoming film Le poil de la bête. Now, the full-length trailer of this film directed by Philippe Gagnon has surfaced online.

The story, which was penned by Stéphane J. Bureau and Pierre Daudelin, takes place in 1665 in New France at a time when a part of Canada was colonialized by France. Joseph Côté (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge) escapes from a prison in order to avoid death by hanging. Moreover, while some colonial soldiers are chasing him, Joseph takes the identity of a jesuit and hides in the seigneury of Beaufort where most men are waiting for "daughhters of the king"(French women who were sent to Canada in order to find a husband).

At night, Joseph finds out that there are werewolves that terrorize the village. Besides, things get complicated when he falls in love with Marie Labotte...

Admit it: You've been waiting for this. The teaser of the upcoming film Le poil de la bête is already online. Moreover, this film directed by Philippe Gagnon will be released on October 1rst, 2010.

The story, which was penned by Stéphane J. Bureau and Pierre Daudelin, takes place in 1665 in New France at a time when a part of Canada was colonialized by France. Joseph Côté (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge) escapes from a prison in order to avoid death by hanging. Moreover, while some colonial soldiers are chasing him, Joseph takes the identity of a jesuit and hides in the seigneury of Beaufort where most men are waiting for "daughhters of the king"(French women who were sent to Canada in order to find a husband).

At night, Joseph finds out that there are werewolves that terrorize the village. Besides, things get complicated when he falls in love with Marie Labotte (Viviane Audet...