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When done right, interactive fiction and horror can be a winning combination. Take R.L. Stine's "Give Yourself Goosebumps" book series as an example, which featured a single story with choice-based branching plotlines. The idea was that the reader would play an active role in nudging the tale towards a certain direction, be it in the form of simple puzzle-solving or classic choices. For instance, if a road diverged, the reader choosing left would land on a certain page number, which would then continue the story and map out the consequences of that choice. This thrilling choose-your-own-adventure approach to "Goosebumps" facilitated a one-of-a-kind storytelling experience, as it added yet another layer of anticipation to the stakes within the narrative. Sadly, almost all of these interactive books in Stine's series are currently out of print.

Interactive fiction in horror, however, is not confined to novels or short stories. There's the Emmy-winning...

This century, Catalonia has emerged as a region with a rich filmmaking tradition, supported by public investment in local artists and production companies. This commitment to nurturing talent and fostering growth has led to significant developments in the region’s industry, culminating in a contemporary state of affairs that sees Catalonia involved in every part of the 2025 Berlin Film Festival, where Spain is the honorary EFM Country in Focus.

Four Catalan productions have been selected for the festival’s official program, highlighting the region’s creative prowess. Eva Libertad’s debut feature, “Deaf,” based on the director’s Goya-nominated short of the same name, will premiere in the Panorama section, while Lucía G. Romero’s “Close to September” will screen in the Berlinale Shorts section. Two Catalan films play in Generation Kplus: Robin Petré’s “Only On Earth” and Karen Joaquín and Uliane Tatit’s “Juanita.”

Catalonia’s presence similarly...

Based on Clive Barker's stories, the Hellraiser franchise stands out as one of the best horror series ever, largely thanks to the iconic villain Pinhead. The movies follow concepts of Hell, pain, and temptation, showing how the curiosity and exploration of its characters can summon the sadistic Cenobites. Sporting a variety of terrifying creature designs, coupled with some of the genre's most brutal kills, the film series isn't for the faint of heart.

The Hellraiser movies can be hit or miss, with the franchise's best films being counted among the best horrors of their time, while its lesser entries are seen as some of the worst the genre has to offer. Considering how Barker's involvement grew and shrank over the years, the series doesn't have the consistency of things like Scream or Evil Dead -- but it still maintains an active and passionate fan base.

Hellraiser: Revelations Is...

Homegrown hits led by A Moroccan Affair and Championext, an explosion of comedies and the solid performance of several European indies have helped the Spanish box office to withstand the lack of US releases following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year.

Local productions were the highest grossing independent films at the Spanish box office in the year ending February 2024, with Álvaro Fernández Armero’s A Moroccan Affair at the top of the list.

The 2023 Spanish box office total was €504 million, with 77.8 million tickets sold, representing a 26% increase on 2022.

The two biggest Spanish films are both part of existing franchises.

There have been at least a hundred horror movies where we have seen a doll as the primary force of haunting. This is one of the oldest genre tropes that will probably stay relevant for at least a hundred more years, if not more. And we can’t deny the effectiveness of the doll horror genre either. The Communion Girl, the latest Spanish horror offering, is yet another fruit of this doll-horror genre that has nothing particularly new to offer but manages to deliver by sticking to the basics. Let’s take a closer look at this one.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens In The Movie?

The Communion Girl opens with this girl, Sonia, being haunted by this creepy doll wearing communion clothes. Sonia is clearly under a lot of stress, and there are some sort of strange marks on her body. She gets further agitated when her boyfriend comes to visit her.

The stifling religious and social conformity of a small Spanish town is the source of the shocks in this scare story – along with a spectral girl in white

Here is another sociologically buttressed Spanish-language gothic horror to file alongside The Devil’s Backbone and The Orphanage. With this film set near 1980s Tarragona, director Víctor García draws on a convincing period setting to nourish his scare story – even if the shocks aren’t especially chilling, and the sense of claustrophobic entrapment in the milieu is undermined by a cop-out open ending.

Teenager Sara (Carla Campra) is newly arrived in town, and struggling to adjust to this backwater with its stifling piety and social snobbery. After letting off some steam at a club with her hothead pal Rebe (Aina Quiñones) and hitching a lift back with a pair of local bad boys, they almost crash when a spectral girl in a communion...

Where has time gone? August is officially here, bringing with it a slew of new titles arriving on streaming. This month also edges us even closer to the Halloween season, which means you can expect the horror programming to start ramping up in earnest.

August offers brand new streaming exclusives and recent releases that’ll give you a chance to catch up on 2022 and 2023 horror.

Here are ten noteworthy horror titles available for streaming in August 2023 on some of the most popular streaming services, along with when/where you can watch them.

Ghastly Brothers – Screambox

It’s Ghostbusters meets Beetlejuice in this gateway horror comedy. In the Screambox exclusive, “Lilith is sent to boarding school where she meets the Ghastly brothers, a pair of strange ghost hunters. Together, they need to rid the school of the demons who have made it their home!”

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead...

“20,000 Species Of Bees”

(Estíbaliz Urresola)

A Berlin competition contender and, like “Alcarràs,” redolently grounded – unspooling in a Basque Country village – and yet a big-issue drama. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) and Basque Country’s Gariza Films (“Nora) produce.

Sales: Luxbox

“Anqa”

(Helin Celik)

Selected for Forum, a doc feature produced by Barcelona’s Kepler Mission Film and Vienna-based Kurd Celik. The harrowing story of three Jordanian women survivors of male violence.

“The Beasts”

(Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

A stylish feminist Western, set in modern deep Galicia, which, breaking out in France and Spain, rates with “Alcarràs” as the standout Spanish film of 2022.

Sales: Latido Films

“The Chauffeur’S Son”

(Isaki Lacuesta)

From “Elite’s” Zeta Studios, chosen for Co-Pro Series and bidding to become the series debut as writer-director of Lacuesta (“Between Two Waters”), a searing portrait of the perverse collusion of politics and media, exemplified by the real life...

Bloody Disgusting learned today that Víctor García, the Spanish horror filmmaker known for The Damned, Mirrors 2, Hellraiser: Revelations, and Return to House on Haunted Hill, has next directed Communion Girl (La Nina de La Comunion) for Warner Bros Entertainment Spain. We also scored a first look at the film, which tells of a creepy […]

The post Víctor García Tells the Haunting Tale of ‘Communion Girl’ [Image] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Spain has two films in this year’s main competition at the Berlinale, and a record haul of films participating across all sections. Similarly, the country boasts an impressive list of productions looking for buyers at the festival’s EFM. Below, a list of standouts from Spain looking to make moves on the global market.

“Prison 77” (Alberto Rodríguez)

A potential jewel in Spanish cinema’s 2022 crown, “Modelo 77” is produced by Spanish pay TV-vod giant Movistar Plus and Madrid-based Atípica Films, Rodríguez’s career-long producer. S.A. Film Factory

“Alcarràs” (Carla Simón)

In Berlin’s main competition, the much anticipated follow up to Simón’s “Summer 1993,” “Alcarrás” tracks the final harvest at a multi-generational family farm. Co-produced with Italy. S.A. MK2 Films

“The Beast” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

A Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”) and his regular co-scribe Esther Peña.

“Beyond the Summit” (Ibon Cormenzana)

Javier Rey and Patricia Lopez...

Post-covid, Spanish sales companies look poised for a comeback to the global scene. Although, as Berlin’s EFM has gone virtual once again, their long-awaited physical reunion with the international industry will have to wait until Cannes… hopefully.

An argument for optimism: Spanish-language films continue gaining ground on the global market, especially as platforms boom. Standout examples include Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” and Lluís Quílez’s “Below Zero,” which both breach the top 10 most watched non-English language Netflix films of all time, per Variety’s estimations. Other Spanish films such as “The Paramedic,” “Sky High” and “Xtreme” have also performed well for the streamer.

Measuring with another analytic – Spain’s presence at landmark film events – the year kicked-off with good news from Berlin.

For the first time in the last quarter-century, two Spanish titles: “Alcarrás,” from “Summer 1993” director Carla Simon, and “One Year, One Night,” by two-time San...

Spain’s top independent sales agents are prepped and ready for this year’s online American Film Market; however, most are eagerly awaiting the return of in-person events, seen as a more productive platform for selling independent cinema abroad. The optimism is cautious, though, with theatrical prospects for international independent films in a post-covid world still hard to predict.

Traditionally, AFM has been a popular launchpad for Spanish films to find distribution in the non-Spanish-speaking world but, while most of the regular faces will be attending digitally, many are holding back their bigger titles for Berlin, where they can be pitched in-person and meetings can be held face-to-face.

“Online markets have been really important for us over the past year, but now we need in-person events. The success of Mia in Rome is proof of that,” said Latido Films general director Antonio Saura, who hosted three market premieres at the...

Twenty projects by the likes of Pilar Palomero, Gabriel Azorín and Ion de Sosa will benefit from the wisdom and experience of directors including Isabel Coixet, Juan Cavestany and Manuel Martín Cuenca. Following the success of last year’s inaugural edition (read more here), the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — led by Mariano Barroso — launched the second edition of its Residences programme on Monday, 5 October. The initiative, coordinated by Inés Enciso, is designed to offer intensive coaching to a talented cohort of creative filmmakers. Due to the current public health situation, this year’s edition will adopt a hybrid format, with some aspects moved online. The programme will continue until July 2021, during which time the selected participants will work on their projects with support and guidance from some of Spain’s most illustrious directors, including Isabel Coixet, Juan Cavestany, Belén Funes, Manuel Martín Cuenca, Víctor García...

"No one leaves this room. Not you. Not her. Your family's in danger. Enjoy my wife." Aqute Media has released an official trailer for an indie thriller titled An Affair To Die For, a fun play on the title An Affair to Remember. The psychological mind games thriller is about an affair, obviously, and a secret rendezvous. A man cheats on his wife. A woman cheats on her husband. And then everything goes bad, quickly. The indie film stars Claire Forlani, Jake Abel, and Titus Welliver, along with Nathan Cooper and Melina Matthews. This looks like a very erotic mix of Fifty Shades of Grey and any other film where an affair leads to murder. Surprise, surprise. It aims to appeal to a very specific audience, for those who might be curious. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Víctor García's An Affair To Die For, direct from YouTube...

A fable about the collision of two Spanish worlds locked in a mutual misunderstanding, Selfie is perceptive and thought-provoking fare that fails to deliver fully on its striking premise. Small in scale but big in ambition, Victor Garcia Leon's study of the wanderings of a rich kid fallen on hard times is part comedy, part X-ray of post-crisis Spain and part moral yarn about empathy. But despite a committed performance by debuting actor Santiago Alveru, the film falters over its final stretch.

That said, Selfie remains a bold, watchable and thoroughly contemporary item that deserves festival exposure as an example...

Date night!

Leonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriend, Nina Agdal, enjoyed a quiet dinner at Zuma in New York City on Wednesday. The cute couple dined alongside Sean Penn and rapper Q-Tip, sharing sushi plates of Zuma’s Robata grilled fare and rounds of cocktails.

While DiCaprio and crew grabbed a bite in the Big Apple, the happily uncoupled Jennie Garth and her ex-husband, Peter Facinelli, brought their significant others along for a family vacation at the recently opened Dreams Playa Mujeres Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico. The tropical getaway was Garth and Facinelli’s first vacay together since their 2013 divorce, alongside their daughters, Lola, 14, and Fiona, 10.

They all enjoyed the resort's Unlimited Luxury amenities, including pampering at the Dreams Spa by Pevonia, riding down the resor's awesome water slides ,parasailing, gourmet dining at on-site restaurant Gaucho and plenty of ice cream. The group had a great time lounging poolside and fitting in some long overdue quality...

Another month, another horror film about possession.

This one takes us down to Columbia where a dysfunctional family finds themselves trapped in a secluded house that has a dark evil within. Best known for horror film sequels, Spanish director Victor Garcia was tapped to direct The Damned (formerly known as Gallows Hill) to bring a certain authenticity to the film. But not even he can breathe any life into this imitation horror film. American David Reynolds (Peter Facinelli) comes to Bogota with his British fiancé Lauren (Sophia Myles) to find his disapproving daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos) who is hiding from life with her boyfriend Ramon (Sebastian Martinez), a cameraman, and her Columbian aunt Gina (Carolina Guerra), an eager journalist. But a terrible storm leaves this group stranded in the middle of nowhere, with only an isolated house as refuge. The owner of the house, Felipe (Gustavo Angarita), is wary of...

Stepping outside your comfort zone to truly embrace both new experiences and what you love most in life is the enthralling theme that not only pushes the actions of the lead character in the new independent horror film, ‘The Damned,’ but also the actor who portrays him. Versatile actor Peter Facinelli powerfully showcased the harrowing and realistic emotions and motivations of a protective father who’s desperate to take any means necessary to save his teenage daughter in the latest movie from director Victor Garcia. While ‘The Damned’ is the first horror film Facinelli has starred in, the actor creatively embraced shooting the film independently on location in Columbia to highlight [ Read More ]

The post Interview: Peter Facinelli Talks The Damned appeared first on Shockya.com.

Exploring the motivations and secrets of the main characters of a film is often one of the most important aspects that truly allows audiences to relate to, and understand, the protagonists and antagonists of any story. While horror movies often forgo those character studies to instead frighten audiences with physical threats and stunts, the best entries in the genre are often the ones that incorporate the characters’ emotions in with the action. Actress Sophia Myles enthralling embraced the need to infuse her new horror independent film, ‘The Damned,’ which was helmed by genre veteran Victor Garcia, with both powerful emotions and physicality to showcase the true terrors of the story. [ Read More ]

The post Interview: Sophia Myles Talks The Damned appeared first on Shockya.com.

Damned If You Do: Garcia’s Creepy House Horror a Non-Entity

For some strange reason, IFC Midnight decided to release direct-to-dvd pro Victor Garcia’s latest film, The Damned (originally, and more colorfully titled Gallows Hill) in theaters, even though its questionable quality clearly doesn’t support such conviction. Tiredly cliché and doggedly dull, its existence begs one to inquire, who the hell is the audience for these lifeless films, filled with cheap flourishes and routines so commonplace that you can sleepwalk through its checklist of events?

David (Peter Facinelli), an estranged father attempts to retrieve his daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos) in Bogota, where she is vacationing with her aunt (Carolina Guerra) and a cameraman (Sebastian Martinez) turned boyfriend. About to be remarried, this time to his fiancée, Lauren (Sophia Myles), there’s vague tension between father and daughter relating to the mysterious death of Jill’s mother. A...

IFC Midnight, in association with Five 7 Media, is releasing The Damned in theaters on August 29th, but first, thanks to Lakeshore Records, the The Damned - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available today, August 19th!

From the Press Release:

Lakeshore Records will release the The Damned - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on August 19, 2014. The album features original music by Frederik Wiedmann (Beware the Batman, Green Lantern: The Animated Series), who is a frequent collaborator of director Victor Garcia.

“I hope this soundtrack will keep you on the edge of your seat!” said Wiedmann.

“I met Freddie seven years ago for what was going to be our first movie together (Return to House on Haunted Hill) and ended up being the first of several collaborations,” said Garcia. “The amazing cues he's accomplished and the organic way in which his score fits the pacing makes The Damned be, without a doubt, my...

No, this has nothing to do with crowdfunding! We're referring to the content in this new clip from IFC's latest acquisition, Victor Garcia's The Damned (review), starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli. Look for The Damned in select theaters August 29.

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos).

Synopsis

A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events.

Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Subscribe to the Dread Central YouTube Channel!

Swing...

Is it just me, or does horror material come in waves? Just as I was complaining how witches have lost their popularity status in modern day horror, during my Witching & Bitching review none the less, The Damned comes along with a sinister “bruja” cursing poor victims and raising Hell. Originally titled Gallows Hill – a more interesting headline when compared to The Damned‘s nondescript nature – director Víctor García attempts to redefine typical haunted house stories with a dash of occultism, but something feels constantly amiss. Despite a menacing child, morphing skin, and some seriously tingling chills, García’s film just isn’t as damning as we’d hope.

Peter Facinelli plays David Reynolds, an overprotective husband and father who only wants to retrieve his vacationing daughter (Nathalia Ramos) before his wedding day. Driving down a twisty, beaten road, David’s family – along with a journalist Aunt and her cameraman – find...

On tap right now are several new images from IFC's latest acquisition, Victor Garcia's The Damned (formerly Gallows Hill and Encerrada), starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli. Look for The Damned on VOD platforms July 25 and in select theaters August 29.

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos).

Synopsis

A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events.

Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Subscribe to the Dread Central YouTube Channel!

Swing...

Adding another spooky entry into the supernatural thriller genre comes The Damned.

The film follows American David Reynolds (Peter Facinelli), widowed from his Colombian-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Sophia Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos).

En route to the city of Medellin, a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn. When they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement, they are determined to set her free. But have they made a terrible mistake?

aka Gallows Hill, the film is written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts) and directed by Victor Garcia (Return To House On Haunted Hill). Here’s a look at the trailer.

Stars Peter Facinelli (The Twilight Saga, Nurse Jackie), Sophia Myles (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Underworld), Nathalia Ramos, Carolina Guerra (Da Vinci’s Demons), and Sebastian Martínez.

IFC Films will...

Just as the refreshing supernatural horror thriller Deliver Us from Evil hits theaters today before the big holiday weekend, a trailer for a much more generic and seemingly boring film in the same genre has arrive. If The Damned wasn't generic enough of a title for you, the trailer does a much better job of delivering the same kind of story and scares we've seen time and time again. At first it seems like this might be different with the set-up coming from a mudslide accident that leaves a family (led by Peter Facinelli) stranded in Colombia, but then it heads into familiar territory with a creepy, dirty, wet girl scaring them, things moving by themselves, and all that cliche jazz. Plus, it's just edited poorly with long-winded text bumpers. Watch? Here's the first trailer for Victor Garcia's The Damned from IFC Films: The Damned is directed by...

​Victor Garcia returns to the genre with The Damned (formerly known as Gallows Hill) and we now have a trailer and one-sheet to share today. The synopsis: After suffering the recent loss of his wife, David Reynolds (Peter Facinelli) decides to take his family on a cathartic trip to her home village in Columbia. While en route, they get into a car accident and seek refuge in a secluded inn.While there they find a mysterious young girl, Ana Maria, locked up with cryptic symbols painted on the walls of her cell.

The post Trailer & One-Sheet for Victor Garcia’s The Damned Arrive appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

IFC's latest acquisition, Victor Garcia's Gallows Hill (Encerrada), starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli, has gotten itself a brand new name and a poster to go along with it! Look for The Damned on VOD platforms July 25 and in select theaters August 29.

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos).

Synopsis

A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events.

Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Subscribe to the Dread Central YouTube Channel!

Victor Garcia's new film, Gallows Hill, is getting retitled for its release. According to Fangoria, IFC picked up the film and it will now be called The Damned. The synopsis: After suffering the recent loss of his wife, David Reynolds (Peter Facinelli) decides to take his family on a cathartic trip to her home village in Columbia. While en route, they get into a car accident and seek refuge in a secluded inn.

The post ‘Gallows Hill’ Now ‘The Damned,’ Distributor Revealed appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

On tap right now we have a look at some International promotional goodies for IFC's latest acquisition, Victor Garcia's Gallows Hill, starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli!

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos).

Synopsis

A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events.

Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Subscribe to the Dread Central YouTube Channel!

Swing from the gallows in the comments section below.

From director Victor Garcia comes the supernatural thriller Gallows Hill. Garcia's previous efforts include Hellraiser: Revelations, Return To House On Haunted Hill as well as Mirrors 2. Rich D'Ovidio, whose credits include The Call and THIR13EN Ghosts, penned the screenplay. Gallows Hill looks to bring the stranded, out of control terror to the forefront. We have the trailer for the film waiting for you below. Starring Peter Facinelli, Sophia…...

Victor Garcia's latest film, Gallows Hill, has an international trailer, which you can watch here. Sources tell us a trailer for the domestic release - handled by IFC Films - is on the way soon. Garcia previously helmed Return to House on Haunted Hill and Hellraiser: Revelations. This time he's working from a script by Richard D'Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts); check out the promo below and stay tuned for a release date!

The post Check Out an International Trailer for Gallows Hill appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

The Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival starts this week and here are ten reasons not to miss it. Expect more news and insight from this exciting festival as I will be attending this year.

1.The entire festival continues to be free with priority access to accredited participants.

2.Two additional Cine Colombia theaters (Centro Comercial La Castellana), 260 showings, more than 135 films, 27 countries, 48 daily screenings, 40 World Premieres and 26 Latin American premieres.

3.The directors of the Festival's Official Competitions, the latest and best film productions and a prestigious international jury all make their way to Cartagena this week for the festival.

4.The outstanding British actor Clive Owen will be the guest of honor. In addition to a Tribute of his work and the screening of his latest film Blood Ties, he will participate in a public dialogue at the Teatro Adolfo Mejía, free of charge.

5.Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, well-known for his feature films Amores Perros and Babel , will be honored with a Tribute; he will participate in a public dialogue at the Teatro Adolfo Mejía and also offer a master class, free.

6.Retrospectives will include the essential work of Iranian Master Abbas Kiarostami, the best of John Sayles, the North American independent film icon, and the complete work of brilliant Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski. The three directors will travel to Cartagena to present their films, and participate in public dialogues and master classes at Salón Ficci.

7.Salón Ficci will include 17 events including master classes, panels, public dialogues, workshops and press conferences by well-known film makers, screenwriters, producers, actors and other leading film industry professionals. Participation in Salón Ficci is free with priority access to with accredited festival-goers.

8.In a joint effort with the Ministry of Culture, Proimágenes Colombia will once again offer Encuentros Cartagena, a space for learning about and promoting cinema that will bring together both national and international professionals.

9.For the first time, the festival will have a Midnight Movies section, presenting two Colombian films: Gallows Hill (Encerrada), directed by Víctor García and written by Richard D'Ovidio (screenwriter of 13 Ghosts); and Demental, by young Colombian filmmaker David Bohorquez .

10.Actor and director John Turturro's hilarious Fading Gigolo, starring himself and Woody Allen together with Colombian actress Sofía Vergara will close the festival.

The International Film Festival of Cartagena de Indias has confirmed the rest of its programme.

Cartagena has added a Midnight Cinema section including two Colombian horror films: Gallows Hill (Encerrada), directed by Víctor García and written by Richard D´Ovidio and starring Peter Facinelli; and Demental by young Colombian David Bohórquez, which will have its world premiere at the festival.

The outdoor series Cinema Under the Stars includes:

Gloria, Sebastián Lelio (Chile)La Jaula de Oro, Diego Quemada Diez (Mexico)The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra (India)Ciudad Delirio, Chus Gutiérrez (festival opening film)Porro Hecho en Colombia, Adriana Lucía, who will give a concert at the end of the screening.

Special Presentations section include Simon Brand’s Default, Laurie Collyer’s Sunlight Jr, Spike Jonze’s Her, Go for Sisters by John Sayles (the subject of a retrospective), and Medeas by Andrea Pallaoro.

There are also two films that are also part of Tributes: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s [link...

Keeping up with the constant barrage of news today? Well, strap in because there's Tons more coming. IFC has picked up North American rights to the new film from Victor Garcia, Gallows Hill, starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli!

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos).

Synopsis

A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events.

Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Swing from the gallows in the comments section below.

Exclusive: IFC takes North American rights to Victor Garcia’s genre outing.

IFC has picked up North American rights to Victor Garcia’s genre title Gallows Hill following a strong buyer response at a recent Los Angeles screening.

Im Global’s Octane division handles international sales at Efm.

The film screens in the market tomorrow (Feb 8) and stars Peter Facinelli, the UK’s Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, part of a large Colombian contingency.

Gallows Hill was financed entirely within Colombia by television network RCN¹s affiliate Five 7 Media, who produced with A Bigger Boat and Launchpad Productions. Peter Block, David Higgins and Andrea Chung produced.

Rich D’Ovidio, whose credits include The Call and Thir13en Ghosts, wrote the screenplay about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.

En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded...

The flavor of bile is unmistakable. There just isn’t anything that tastes quite like it. And you know it when it comes on: The belly rumbles, the esophagus lurches within, and you battle back the slimy liquid that threatens to spew forth from your lips.

It’s a nasty experience. We all hate that sensation so we’re taking measures at Dread Central to help prevent such a situation from occurring.

See, there are horror sequels out there that are so horrifically bad they somehow trigger something in our internal systems... and the belly begins to rumble. We wish you no stomach troubles here, and we certainly wish the taste of bile on no man or woman. So we’re going to provide you with a list of sequels to avoid at all costs because if you check these out, you’ll be searching for the toothbrush in no time!

Following up on my previous article, “Watch 15 Great Horror Short Films,” which received a very positive response, I’ve researched and collected 13 more superb horror short films. As with the first article, I limited the choices to stand-alone live-action horror short films not produced for an anthology film and the selections were narrowed down by availability.

In further keeping with the criteria of the first article, animated horror short films and horror-comedy short films were excluded from consideration as both of these categories would make good subjects for their own individual articles. Sorry, Brutal Relax and Fist of Jesus fans.

It should also be noted that a number of highly regarded horror shorts readers might clamor to see in an article like this such as Ryan Haysom’s Yellow continue their long festival runs and have not been posted for online viewing and were therefore not considered for this piece.

It's been awhile since last we heard anything regarding the new film from Victor Garcia, Gallows Hill, starring The Twilight Saga's Peter Facinelli, but that's about to change as we have the first poster for you right here!

Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos co-star. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos). After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement, and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.

No word on distribution yet, but stay tuned!

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Swing from the gallows in the comments section below.

Ready to make its Sitges Film Festival Premiere, Gallows Hill now has a one-sheet and we have it waiting for you after the jump.

Peter Facinelli, Sophia Myles and Nathalia Ramos star in the film, directed by Victor Garcia, which follows an American widowed husband who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill. A car accident leaves these group stranded at a anisolated inn.  There, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.

The film doesn't have distribution yet; we'll keep you updated as more details come in.

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Superhero and sci-fi fare weren't the only movie projects to make headlines at this year's Comic-Con. The world of horror was well represented, too. One of the notable film projects to make its presence known in San Diego is a big-screen adaptation of Crawl to Me, the terrifying graphic novel from Life of Agony bassist Alan Robert, who's been earning no small amount of praise for his work as both a writer and artist in the comics world. The story, which chronicles a couple's descent into madness after moving into a new house with a mysterious past, was first published in 2011. During Comic-Con, it was announced that Spanish director Victor Garcia (Mirrors 2) and the producer team Rodar y Rodar (The Orphanage) were now attached to the film. Movies.com is...

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Alan Robert is set to team with Spanish director Victor Garcia who directed "The Orphanage" and producer Rodar y Rodar for the big screen treatment of "Crawl to Me", which is Alan Roberts hit graphic novel. The screenplay is penned by T.J. Cimfel and David White and it is being described as a character driven psychological horror movie. Brief Synopsis: "The film takes place in an isolated country town during the frigid winter months. It cent…...

Well, not really. They're not crawling to me... that would just be awkward. What Rodar y Rodar is doing though is adapting another bone-chilling graphic novel for the screen. Read on for details.

From the Press Release

The Orphanage producer Rodar y Rodar has teamed up with Crawl to Me creator Alan Robert and his producing partners Jeff Mazzola (Descent) and Chris White (My Super Psycho Sweet 16 franchise) to adapt the critically acclaimed Idw Publishing graphic novel.

Victor Garcia, who helmed the upcoming Gallows Hill (starring Twilight’s Peter Facinelli), is in the director’s chair for the character-driven psychological horror film with a screenplay penned by Tj Cimfel and David White. Glenn Allen, Co-Founder/VFX Producer of Emmy-award winning Brainstorm Digital (Boardwalk Empire) is on board as VFX Supervisor. Producers aim to shoot interiors on a sound stage in Spain, where Rodar is based, and exteriors in Canada.

In...

Colombian broadcast giant Rcn is looking to shift its film production focus away from local product in favour of low budget English-language genre fare, top brass said on Thursday [11].

During a tour of the company’s premises in Bogota, newly promoted executive vice-president of international channels Julian Giraldo told a group of mostly Us producers and trade press that the move was a result of market forces at home and abroad.

“We are now trying to focus more on co-productions in English,” said Giraldo after screening footage from in-house Rcn Films’ first two such projects, Gallows Hill and Default. Rcn Films is currently raising funds for a couple of further projects budgeted in the $1m-$3m range.

Although Rcn Films has backed more than 45 local titles, Giraldo said it was difficult to raise more than $3m from local investors in Colombia and intimated that indigenous product lacked global appeal.

“That’s why we are moving towards English-language...

The anthology horror film is back in the wake of the success of chapter-style horror films like The Theatre Bizarre (2011) and its announced follow-up, V/H/S (2012), the soon-to-be-released sequel V/H/S 2 (2013) and The ABC’s of Death (2012).

While this movement generates a good deal of conversation about the fondly remembered Amicus productions of the 1960’s and 1970’s like Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (Freddie Francis, 1965), Torture Garden (Freddie Francis, 1967), The House That Dripped Blood (Peter Duffell, 1971) and Asylum (Roy Ward Baker, 1972) among others, the comparison is not exactly accurate across the board.

While the segments of V/H/S are unified by shared visual style and a wraparound story, The Theatre Bizarre and The ABC’s of Death come off as collections of essentially unrelated horror short films loosely bound by a flimsy wraparound segment in the case of The Theatre Bizarre or a basic concept as...

In August of 2012 we hit the set of the then-shooting Sony TriStar flick The Hive, now titled The Call, in Westlake, CA, to chat with the film’s writer, Richard D’Ovidio. Read on for the skinny on the suspense flick, which releases theatrically March 15.

Arriving to the set of the Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) directed feature, which stars Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin (Carrie), we found the production in full swing, shooting on location in an office building in the upscale California enclave. Set against the backdrop of a 911 call center, the flick finds Berry playing ‘Jordan’, a 911 emergency operator who must face her own fears in order to save ‘Casey’ (Breslin), a teenage girl abducted by disturbed killer ‘Michael Foster’ (actor Michael Eklund).

Erected within the extensive central lobby in the center of the two-story structure was a rather believable recreation of the City of Los...

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with the writer behind the upcoming supernatural thriller Gallows Hill, Richard D'Ovidio, who has made a name for himself as a successful screenwriter on several projects over the last few years including Thir13en Ghosts, Exit Wounds and Brad Anderson's next project, The Hive.

During our interview with D'Ovidio, we heard more about how his love for 70's horror films inspired his latest supernaturally-infused thriller, his experiences collaborating with director Victor Garcia and the cast of Gallows Hill, and more.

Read on for our exclusive Q&A with D'Ovidio, and look for more on Gallows Hill in the near future! In the meantime be sure to "like" Gallows Hill on Facebook.

Dread Central: Can you start off by discussing what inspired the story behind Gallows Hill?

Richard D'Ovidio: I have always been a big fan of contained thrillers, and I’ve always wanted to write one.

Gallows Hill, the upcoming supernatural thriller from director Victor Garcia, is a film that only recently popped up on our radar, but once it did, we knew we wanted to hear more from the up-and-coming filmmaker, who is now currently in post-production with the project.

Peter Facinelli (The Twilight Saga flicks), Sophia Myles (Underworld) and Nathalia Ramos star in the film, which follows an American widower who flies to Colombia with his new fiancée to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill. But when a car accident leaves the group stranded at an isolated inn, it's there that they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement, and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.

Written by Richard D'Ovidio, Gallows Hill was shot on location in Bogota, Colombia, and was produced by Launchpad Productions, A Bigger Boat and Bowery Hills Entertainment.

Check out our interview with Garcia below,...

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us this week, the world of horror tends to slow to a crawl and here at ShockTillYouDrop.com we thought we would take this opportunity to preview what is in store for genre fans in 2013.  Over the next five days we'll be previewing select titles arriving next year.

We begin with Gallows Hill, a new supernatural thriller from director Victor Garcia (pictured, left).  The film, now in post-production, follows an American widowed husband who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill. A car accident leaves these group stranded at a anisolated inn.  There, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.

Peter Facinelli (Twilight), Sophia Myles (Underworld) and Nathalia Ramos star in the film which was scripted by Richard D'Ovidio.

D'Ovidio  landed on...

Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) Director: Victor Garcia Stars:Steven Brand, Nick Eversman, Tracey Fairaway A couple of horny young dudes go to Mexico and find a gateway to Hell. Makes sesnse. Hellraiser: Revelations is one of the worst things ever. Not just in execution or concept, but in purpose. In 2010, the Weinsteins realized they were weeks away from losing the rights to the Hellraiser franchise, which they'd already run in to the ground with Four previous...