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This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in August, and others were chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings feature folk horror, killer animals, and more.

Dark August (1976)

Directed by Martin Goldman.

With August 22 being World Folklore Day, horror fans don’t ever have to look too far to find mysticism and superstitions. Right in their backyards are plenty of homegrown horrors that showcase the extraordinary. Martin Goldman’s Vermont-shot regional horror Dark August centers on the man who accidentally runs over and kills a little girl. While J.J. Barry‘s difficult character is found innocent in court, he still suspects the victim’s grandfather has cursed him. Now the protagonist...

Sky has revealed the TV that’s set to get the nation talking with two first-look trailers showcasing the latest Sky Originals, ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’ and ‘The Rising.’

The Midwich Cuckoos

An exciting modern-day reimagining of John Wyndham’s science fiction classic starring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley. Midwich is a quiet commuter town where nothing much happens. That is, until the twilight hours of a late summer’s day, when everyone within a set area of the town falls unconscious. The curious incident seems temporary and those affected regain consciousness, but every woman of child-bearing age inside the zone has suddenly and inexplicably fallen pregnant. As the children of the phenomenon grow, it becomes clear they are not of this world.

The series is written by David Farr, Sasha Hails, Namsi Khan and Laura Lomas. Alice Troughton is the lead director, with Jennifer Perrott serving as director.

Also in...

Exclusive: Hanna actress Cherrelle Skeete has joined Sky Original drama The Midwich Cuckoos, which is in production in the UK.

Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) and Max Beesley (The Outsider) lead the eight-part modern-day adaptation of John Wyndham’s sci-fi novel of the same name. The series is written by David Farr, the British writer behind The Night Manager and Hanna, and centers on a British town where women fall pregnant with alien children.

Produced by ITV Studios-backed Route 24 and Snowed-In Productions in association with Sky Studios, Sasha Hails, Namsi Khan, and Laura Lomas are co-writers. Alice Troughton (Baghdad Central) is the lead director, with Jennifer Perrott (Gentleman Jack) serving as director. Exec producers are Marc Samuelson and Robert Cheek for Route 24 and Ruth Kenley-Letts and Neil Blair for Snowed-In Productions. Series producer is Eliza Mellor.

Skeete, who has joined in a supporting role, was most recently seen in Amazon...

ITV Studios Sets Up Shop In Spain With Netflix Exec

Cattleya, the ITV Studios-backed Italian producer behind Gomorrah, is launching Spanish subsidiary Cattleya Producciones and has hired Netflix’s Arturo Díaz as managing director. The company will be ITV Studios’ first scripted producer in Spain. Díaz was a director of local language originals at Netflix, working on shows including Las Chicas de Cable, the streamer’s longest-running non-u.S. series. Cattleya Producciones will be overseen by Cattleya founder and co-ceo Riccardo Tozzi, alongside his co-CEOs Giovanni Stabilini and Marco Chimenz. Lisa Perrin, managing director of international production at ITV Studios, will also have oversight of the outfit. ITV Studios will distribute its drama series internationally.

Sky Sets Cast For ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’

Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard), and Max Beesley (The Outsider) are to lead the cast of Sky’s modern-day adaptation of John Wyndham’s sci-fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The...

The Bodyguard’s Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley have joined the cast of the dark, disturbing modern-day reimagining of ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’.

The eight-part series is will see Hawes take on the role of gifted psychotherapist Dr Susannah Zellaby, while Beesley plays Local officer Dci Paul Kirby.

Aisling Loftus (A Discovery of Witches), Ukweli Roach (Blindspot), Synnøve Karlsen, Lara Rossi (Robin Hood), Lewis Reeves (I May Destroy You), Rebekah Staton (Raised by Wolves) and Anneika Rose (Line of Duty) will also star.

The series is described as an unnerving fable for our turbulent times, a thrilling, strange and at times horrifying journey into parenthood, which lays bare any parent’s worst fear: that the thing most precious to us – a child – might desire our destruction.

Also in news – Mark Rylance & Simon Pegg to star in Channel 4 series ‘The Undeclared War’

Hawes stated: “I’m absolutely delighted to be working...

"There's nothing harder to find than lost love." Gravitas Ventures has debuted an official trailer for a British comedy called The Man in the Hat, which already opened in the fall in the UK last year. Now arriving in the US this May. The Man in the Hat takes us on a journey through France in a Fiat 500 accompanied by a framed photograph of an unknown woman. He is pursued by five angry men in a Citroën Dyane... Why are they chasing him? And how can he shake them off? Only way to find out is to watch! Ciarán Hinds stars as "The Man In The Hat", joined by Stephen Dillane, Maïwenn, Sasha Hails, Muna Otaru, Brigitte Roüan, Xavier Laurent, & Claire Tran as "The Storyteller". This looks adorable! And gorgeous, all that French countryside. Oh my. I also like that this trailer is dialogue free, selling the story with all the imagery.

Set in the picturesque landscapes of rural France, The Man in the Hat (played by Game of Thrones star Ciarán Hinds) journeys across the country in his Fiat 500 with nothing but a framed photo of an unknown woman on the passenger’s seat. After witnessing what seems to be something of a criminal nature, he takes off and starts the adventure of a lifetime, however, he is somewhat ‘followed’ by the Five Angry Men in a Citroën Dyane. The cars, along with the jaunty french music, gives quite a nostalgic feel, and brings back memories of when good old Mr Bean was back on our screens in 2007 with Mr Bean’s Holiday. Albeit he had a yellow Mini, and not a blue Fiat 500, but it was nostalgic and similar nonetheless.

Written and directed by John-Paul Davidson and Stephen Warbeck, The Man in the Hat is a weird and wonderful yet wacky piece of comical entertainment.

"See the Sea", along with recent Austrian import "Funny Games", seem to indicate that European cinema has embarked on a trend toward brutal, albeit off-screen, violence and unchecked sadism.

A quiet, psychological drama with a horrific conclusion, Francois Ozon's brief effort, though not weighty, signals a talent on the rise. Paired with Ozon's short film "A Summer Dress", it played recently at the New Director/ New Films series. The double bill is set for release shortly by Zeitgeist Films.

This mostly two-character work concerns the encounter between two young women at a seaside house. Sasha (Sasha Hails) is a young housewife vacationing alone with her infant child while her husband works in the city. One day, a young backpacker, Tatiana (Marina de Van), shows up at her door and requests to pitch a tent in the back yard. Sasha is at first resistant to the odd-looking stranger, but, devoid of human contact and terribly bored, she agrees. It isn't long before she's inviting her new friend in for meals, and the two go to the beach together.

"See the Sea", expertly directed with an air of mounting tension, charts the progress of the relationship quietly and ominously and only gradually reveals the depths of the mother's emotional and physical neediness and the young interloper's evil pathologies. After witnessing the conclusion, you're unlikely to open your door to a stranger ever again.

Much more lightweight but no less psychologically acute, "A Summer Dress" is an entertaining comic short about a gay man struggling with his ambivalent sexuality. The title refers to the dress he is forced to wear after an impromptu romantic fling with an attractive woman at the beach.

SEE THE SEA

Director-screenplay: Francois Ozon

Producers: Oliver Delbosc &

Marc Missonnier, Fidelite Prods.

Co-producers: Nicolas Breviere, Local Films

Director of photography: Yorick le Saux

Editor: Jeanne Moutard

Music: Eric Neveux

Color/stereo

Cast:

Sasha: Sasha Hails

Tatiana: Marina de Van

Running time -- 52 minutes

No MPAA rating

A SUMMER DRESS

Director-screenplay: Francois Ozon

Producers: Olivier Delbosc, Fidelite Prods.

Director of photography: Yorick le Saux

Editor: Jeanne Moutard

Color/stereo

Cast:

Frederic: Frederick Mangenot

Lucia: Lucia Sanchez

Sebastien: Sebastien Charles

Running time -- 15 minutes

No MPAA rating...