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The lineup for the 13th annual Blood In The Snow Film Festival has been announced.    Lowell Dean's Dark Match is the opening night film while Vivieno Caldinelli's Scared Shitless is all set to close out the six day event. Both are fine Canadian genre films that have been enjoying healthy runs on the festival circuit since the Summer, as has Self Driver from Michael Pierro, which was the Best First Feature Award winner at Fantasia.    As expected, the home town audience here in Toronto will get to watch some of the Canadian horror antho series, Creepy Bits, made by a slew of locals in the suburb of Hamilton. Poor Agnes' Navin Ramaswaran is returning with their new film, Invited.    BiTS has massive short film...

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In his latest video review Kev checks out Scared Shitless, which comes from director Vivieno Caldinelli and stars Steven Ogg, Daniel Doheny and Chelsea Clark.

A plumber and his germophobic son are forced to get their hands dirty to save the residents of an apartment building, when a genetically engineered, blood-thirsty creature escapes into the plumbing system.

Scared Shitless played at this year’s Frightfest London, and you can read our written review right here.

Following the death of his mother, the grief-related anxiety of Sonny Donahue (Daniel Doheny) is manifesting itself as an extreme phobia of germs. Concerned that this fear is going to ruin Sonny’s life, dad Don (Steven Ogg) decides that it’s time for Sonny to participate in the family plumbing business, hoping that Sonny will be able to overcome his fears if he faces up to literally getting his hands dirty.

Don and Sonny’s first team-up is a job at an apartment block called The Palmer Estate, where kindly Mrs. Appelbaum is having trouble with a blocked toilet. However, the drain-clearing duo will soon find themselves with far more to deal with as the building is also playing host to Professor Robert (Mark McKinney), a government scientist who has sneaked a top-secret experiment into the place after an explosion and subsequent fire has destroyed his lab. Surely the...

As the end of August approaches, horror fans are eagerly anticipating Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024, the UK’s premier horror film festival. Running from August 22 to 26, this year’s lineup is packed with a variety of fantastic premieres, promising a festival filled with unforgettable nightmares and fresh horror talent. Whether you’re into psychological terror, supernatural scares, or gory thrillers, this year’s selection has something to satisfy every horror craving.

With numerous films on the schedule, it’s hard to narrow down our most anticipated picks. However, we’ve combed through the lineup to bring you the ten films we’re most excited to see at this year’s FrightFest. From visionary directors to fresh voices in the genre, these films are poised to make waves, offering everything from supernatural chills to blood-soaked thrills.

So if you haven’t done already, grab your tickets, brace yourself for the scares, and...

Vivieno Caldinelli’s gut-busting Scared Shitless is a horror comedy with a giant monster and a lot of toilet humor. Like, actual toilet humor. There are more jokes about plumbing than pooping! And who you gonna call when an unstoppable human-eating creature comes crawling out of your toilet to eat your loved ones in a single bite? This is no job for an exorcist. The Ghostbusters can’t help you. For something this gnarly your only recourse is to call in those fearless experts that keep the world turning. Those working-class heroes that fearlessly charge into the fray: The Plumbers.

Featuring some slimy creatures designed and created by Psycho Gorman director Steven Kostanski (who has a new movie of his own at Fantasia this year) Scared Shitless is a gory playground of practical effects. The monster, a thing-from-another-world style worm creature created in a secret lab by Canadian comedy legend...

Just when you thought it was safe to use the toilet, Scared Shitless comes along to make us fear what is within the porcelain potty. Written by Brandon Cohen, who also wrote the 2021 short of the same name, and directed by Vivieno Caldinelli (Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss), Scared Shitless is about as absurd as its name suggests, following the hunt for a monster lurking in the bathroom. As a dumb, goofy horror comedy, the film knows what audiences want, doesnt overstay its welcome, and gives viewers a quick bite of entertaining ridiculousnessnothing more, nothing less.

The 2024 Fantasia Film Festival will open with a world premiere for Bookworm, the Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher starrer from New Zealand filmmaker Ant Timpson.

The indie reteams Wood with Come to Daddy director Timpson and saw the Lord of the Rings actor return to New Zealand for production. In Bookworm, Fisher plays a 12-year-old girl whose life is turned upside down when her long-absent American magician father (Wood) comes to look after her, and together they take an ill-advised camping trip into the rugged New Zealand wilderness to find a mythological beast that leads to increasingly absurd and treacherous adventures.

Among other new titles added to the lineup for Fantasia’s 28th edition are world bows for Alexander J. Farrell’s The Beast Within, starring Kit Harrington; Isaac Ezban’s dystopian coming-of-age tale Parvulos; and Vivieno Caldinelli’s Scared Shitless, starring Steven Ogg and Daniel Doheny.

There are also...

The second wave of titles have just been announced for this year's edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival and of course there are some doozies in the mix.    First off, Ant Timpson's Bookworm, starring Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher will have its world premiere when it opens the fesitval this year. It looks absolutely delightful and fun.    Japanese anime Mononoke The Movie: The Phantom in the Rain, werewolf movie The Beast Within, starring Kit Harington, the coming-of-age horror flick Parvulos from our friend in Mexico, Isaac Ezban, Canadian gore horror Scare Shitless! directed by Vivieno Caldinelli featuring practical effects by Steven Kostanski, Protuguese grass-roots horror flick The Old Man and the Demon Sword, and underground micro-budget story about a relationship, Me And My...

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Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival has unveiled its second wave of titles, which includes the world premiere of Ant Timpson’s “Bookworm” as the opening night film. This year’s edition, the 28th for the festival, will run from July 18 to August 4. More titles will be announced July 3.

Other world premieres included in the line-up are “The Beast Within” starring Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones”), which follows a young girl as she starts to question her atypical life in her family’s compound in England, and makes a shocking discovering about her dad; and “Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain,” with director Kenji Nakamura reviving the thrills of the original anime.

“Bookworm” stars Elijah Wood (“Yellowjackets”) and Nell Fisher (“Evil Dead Rise”). The official logline reads, “Mildred (Fisher), a precocious eleven-year-old bookworm, escapes her humdrum existence by immersing herself in novels where literary adventures abound, with a...

Stars: Taika Waititi, Sam Huntington, Rhea Seehorn, Dan Harmon, Matt Jones, Brian Posehn, Mindy Sterling, Kate Micucci, Britney Young | Written by Christopher Hewitson, Clayton Hewitson, Justin Jones | Directed by Vivieno Caldinelli

I do have to admit that the simple reason for me watching Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss is because Taiki Waititi stars in it. As is often the case, just because one actor yu like is in a movie (particularly low budget movies) it might not be the best reason to view it. But it’s Taiki Waititi right?!

As you might be expecting Waititi isn’t actually in the movie a whole lot but on to that later. Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss is a ridiculous comedy about a young couple who move in to a place that is clearly to good to be true. It’s well located, super cheap and is home to ritualistic...

Claire and Paul (Kate Micucci and Sam Huntington) move to La for her new job at an ad agency. They find a very cheap apartment, but there’s one catch: the cult members who drop by on a regular basis to commit ritual suicide in their bathtub.

Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss is an odd little film; a small scale but often self-consciously wacky comedy that also has a streak of black humour running through it. The tone is slippery from scene to scene, meaning the screenplay by Christopher and Clayton Hewitson and Justin Jones doesn’t always knit together well, but two things help the film find some consistency.

The first of these things is Kate Micucci, who came to my attention through Garfunkel and Oates; her musical comedy project with her friend Riki Lindhome. Here, her wide-eyed expressiveness works perfectly as Claire is at first baffled by...

A new trailer has been released for comedy ‘Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss ‘ featuring Taika Waititi as a suicide cult leader.

The offbeat comedy follows a couple taking a chance on a place with impossibly low rent, not knowing the former occupant was a cult leader. To make matters more bizarre, an endless string of followers routinely break into their home to ceremoniously sacrifice themselves.

Directed by Vivieno Caldinelli the film stars Kate Micucci, Sam Huntington, Taika Waititi, Dan Harmon, Rhea Seehorn, Mark McKinney, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, Josh Brener, Mindy Sterling and Dana Gould.

Also in trailers – Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis Ross bring the noise in new trailer for ‘The High Note’

The film hits Us cinemas March 6th with an On-Demand and digital release on March 17th.

The post Taika Waititi is a strange cult leader in trailer for ‘Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Vivieno Caldinelli's dark comedy Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh will have its European premiere at the Lund Fantastik Film Festival this weekend. We have been given a couple clips to share with you, which you will find below.    A small-town couple finds the perfect apartment in the big city, except there's one catch: the apartment is home to the ritualistic suicides of a deranged cult.   Seven Stages to Eternal Bliss... stars Kate Micucci and Sam Huntington as the young couple. The cult members, including their founder played by Taika Waititi, are played by comedic talents the likes of Maria Bamford, Mark McKinney, Josh Brener and Brian Posehn. Dan Harmon stars as the...

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Excessive absurdity is to be expected from a film titled “7 Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through the Gateway Chosen by the Holy Storsh,” and Vivieno Caldinelli’s feature doesn’t disappoint in that regard. But the outlandishness proffered by this comedy is of such a strident sort that any possible laughs quickly turn to eye-rolling groans. Despite inclusion in the Midnight movies section of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, this atonal affair is unlikely to elicit much good will from audiences of any genre persuasion.

Ohio transplants Claire (Kate Micucci) and Paul (Sam Huntington) have no sooner moved into their new Los Angeles apartment than they’re discovering the reason for its unbelievably low rent: It’s the former home of the Holy Storsh (Taika Waititi), a cult leader who killed himself in the bathtub, and is now a place where his disciples come to follow his fatal lead.

Finding your dream apartment is never easy, especially in a city like Los Angeles, and while there are plenty of things worth letting slide for cheap rent, a revolving door of crazy cult members who want to commit suicide in your bathtub probably isn’t one of them. But what if those cult members were on to something?

“7 Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh” poses this absurd question with the same goofy energy as its long-winded title. It’s wild and funny ride, but comes equipped with a pinch of existential dread.

Director Vivieno Caldinelli, who got his start working on Canadian sketch shows, puts his comedy roots to good use by wrangling “Kids in the Hall” star Mark McKinney, Maria Bamford, Taika Waititi and more for inspired cameos. But the string of familiar faces all have a one-dimensional quality. In many ways,...

Company X and MarVista Entertainment have attached Kate Micucci (Ducktails, The Lego Batman Movie), Sam Huntington (Rosewood, Detroit Rock City) and Dan Harmon (Community, Harmonquest) to star in Corpse Tub, a dark comedy film helmed by Vivieno Caldinelli (My Pal Satan) and based on a script written by Christopher Hewitson, Justin Jones, and Clayton Hewitson.... Read More...

Kate Micucci (“The Big Bang Theory”), Sam Huntington (“Rosewood”), and Dan Harmon (“Rick and Morty”) will star in Corpse Tub, a dark comedy from Company X and MarVista Entertainment, Deadline reports. Vivieno Caldinelli (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) directed the film, based on a script by Christopher Hewitson, Justin Jones, and Clayton Hewitson. “It follows […]...

Exclusive: Kate Micucci (The Big Bang Theory), Sam Huntington (Rosewood), and Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty) will star in Corpse Tub, a dark comedy from Company X and MarVista Entertainment. This marks the second co-production of a four-picture deal currently in place between the two companies, following the Marianna Parka-directed pic, Bitch, which premiered at Sundance this year. Vivieno Caldinelli (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) directed the film, based on a script…...

Thanks to TorontoFilm.Net here is the Toronto Film Production Update for September 2016, including "American Gods", "Flatliners", "Taken" and a whole lot more:

Click Here To Register With A Toronto Extras Agent

Alias Grace

Mini Series

Halfire Entertainment

Prod.: Sarah Polley, DJ Carson

Dir.: Mary Harron

Aug 15 - Nov 15/16

American Gods

TV Series

Fremantle / Starz Network

Exec. Prod.: Bryan Fuller,

Michael Green, Neil Gaiman

Dir.: David Slade & Various

Anon

Feature

Anon Film Prods. Canada Inc.

Prod.: Dan Bekerman

Dir.: Andrew Niccol

Jul 11 - Aug 26/16

Baroness Von Sketch Show

Season 2

TV Series

Bvss 2 Productions Ontario Inc. / Frantic Films

Prod.: Graham Ludlow, Jeff Peeler

Exec.Prod.: Jamie Brown, Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne, Jennifer Whalen

Dir.: Yael Staav

Sep 12 - Oct 28/16

Bruno & Boots II And III

TV Movie (2)

Aircraft Pictures

Prod.: Anthony Leo, Andrew Rosen

Dir.: Vivieno Caldinelli

Jul 22 -...

Thanks to TorontoFilm.Net here is the Toronto Film Production Update for August 2016, including "Taken", "Flatliners", "People Of Earth" and a whole lot more:

Click Here To List With A Toronto Agent

Alias Grace

Mini Series

Halfire Entertainment

Prod.: Sarah Polley, DJ Carson

Dir.: Mary Harron

Aug 15 - Nov 15/16

American Gods

TV Series

Fremantle / Starz Network

Exec. Prod.: Bryan Fuller,

Michael Green, Neil Gaiman

Dir.: David Slade & Various

Mar. 14 – Sep 30/16

Anon

Feature

Anon Film Prods. Canada Inc.

Prod.: Dan Bekerman

Dir.: Andrew Niccol

Backstage

Season 2

TV Series

Fresh TV

Prod.: Brian Campbell

Exec. Prod.: Brian Irving,

Lara Azzopardi

Dir.: Mario Azzopardi,

Wendy Morgan, Director X, Rt!,

Warren P. Sonoda, Lara Azzopardi

Jul 5 - Aug 19/16

Bruno & Boots II And III

TV Movie (2)

Aircraft Pictures

Prod.: Anthony Leo, Andrew Rosen

Dir.: Vivieno Caldinelli

Jul 22 - Sep 2

Buckout Road

Feature

Buckout Productions Ltd

Prod.

Getting a film into the Toronto International Film Festival is an achievement most filmmakers can only dream of. Getting a film into Tiff called Portal To Hell!!! which stars the late Roddy Piper battling Cthluhu himself, reads like a total pipe dream. It ain’t so though. Writer/co-star Matt Watts and director Vivieno Caldinelli are the boy wonders behind this off-the-wall […]...

Recently we got a chance to review the insanely entertaining short Portal To Hell!! from the comedy directing/writing duo of Vivieno Caldinelli and Matt Watts, and starring the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper. What’s even more of a bonus was… Continue Reading →

The post Vivieno Caldinelli and Matt Watts Bring Us to the Portal To Hell! appeared first on Dread Central.

Potential awards season contenders Truth from James Vanderbilt and Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams land world premiere slots, while Paco Cabezas’s Mr. Right will close the festival.

London is the subject of the seventh annual City To City programme that features world premieres of Tom Geens’ Couple In A Hole starring Paul Higgins and Kate Dickie and Michael Caton-Jones’ Urban Hymn with Letitia Wright and Shirley Henderson. Elaine Constantine’s Northern Soul gets a North American premiere.

The world premiere of Catherine Hardwicke’s Miss You Already is among five additions to the galas alongside Mr. Right, an action comedy starring Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick.

Matthew Cullen’s Martin Amis adaptation London Fields and David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis get first public screenings in the Special Presentations roster with I Saw The Light.

Tiff top brass also unveiled the Contemporary World Cinema section, featuring...

Whoa, hold up! They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown may not be the defining moments in 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper's film career. Like many actors and performers who leave us too soon, the WWE legend still has a few more unreleased projects under his belt. And today, we have the first trailer for his final screen performance!

Vivieno Caldinelli's 11-minute short Portal to Hell!!! is heading to the Toronto International Film Festival. And while it is a horror short, it's getting a lot of attention for bringing a very interesting career to a close for Roddy Piper. The wrestling Superstar passed away last July, but he left this one gift behind, making it one of the most in demand shorts at Tiff this year.

Portal to Hell!!! follows the apartment-superintendent hero in what is loving referred to as a 'primo slice of Canuxploitation'. He has enough on his plate,...

Last month, the world sadly lost "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, a legendary figure on film and in the ring, and a true gentleman. One of the last projects Piper appeared in was Portal to Hell!!!, a short film in which a doorway to Lovecraftian creatures is opened. Portal to Hell!!! will premiere next month at Tiff, and now the short film's official trailer has been revealed.

In addition to his prolific career within the wrestling ring, many remember Piper from his terrific turns in a lengthy list of films, including John Carpenter's They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown. Featuring Piper going up against Cthulhu-like monsters as a building super with a sense of humor, Portal to Hell!!! looks to remind viewers why they cherished Piper and will continue to admire his powerful onscreen presence.

Directed by Vivieno Caldinelli from a screenplay by Matt Watts, Portal to Hell!!! stars the late Roddy Piper,...

The Great Old One is being summoned into the basement of a disused apartment building and the only man who can stop Cthulhu's arrival is wrestling great Rowdy Roddy Piper. That's the basic hook on Portal To Hell!!! (yes, the punctuation is part of the title) - the Toronto International Film Festival selected short film that sadly goes down as the final on screen work for the WWE star, working here with acclaimed Canadian comedy director Vivieno Caldinelli (Picnicface, This Hour Has 22 Minutes) and SFX whiz Steve Kostanski (Manborg, The Void).  The apartment-superintendent hero of this primo slice of Canuxploitation has enough on his plate, what with all the plumbing and electrical problems and high-maintenance tenants. But then some jerks open up a multidimensional...

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The entertainment world has lost a true icon - and a genuinely quality person - with word that wrestling superstar and lead actor in John Carpenter's They Live, Rowdy Roddy Piper, passed away in his sleep last night from cardiac arrest.This sort of news is never fun to write but this one comes with a more personal sting than most. It must have been nearly two years ago now that Toronto based director Vivieno Caldinelli reached out to me saying that he and a friend (Matt Watts) had been sitting around talking about how much they loved They Live and, hey, why didn't anybody make movies like that any more. So they'd written one, a short film titled Portal To Hell. And having written it...

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Roddy Piper vs. Cthulhu. That premise alone has us all sweaty with fanboy anticipation, and this first still did nothing but make that anticipation grow like a mythical tentacled beast! Dig it! Vivieno Caldinelli directs this Indiegogo success story. Synopsis:… Continue Reading →

The post First Look at WWE Legend Roddy Piper in Portal to Hell appeared first on Dread Central.

Distributor acquires international sales rights to Vivieno Caldinelli’s horror comedy, which stars Roddy Piper.

Raven Banner has acquired international sales rights to Portal to Hell.

The distributor, who will also release the feature in Canada, joins Xyz Films who are handling Us rights to Vivieno Caldinelli’s horror comedy, which stars Roddy Piper as a semi-retired building manager who discovers a supernatural portal in the basement and has to stop old god Cthulhu becoming overlord of the Earth.

Portal to Hell is part of the Harold Greenberg Fund’s Shorts to Features programme which nurtures short films with a goal towards realising their feature versions. The short film will shoot in March 2015 with an aim to package the feature film in Fall 2015.

Executive producer Andrew Rosen commented: “It’s crazy and amazing. We’re still in the middle of our Indiegogo campaign to raise money for the short film, and now we...

Director Vivieno Caldinelli ("Picnicface") and writer Matt Watts ("The Newsroom") are preparing to shoot their short film Portal to Hell. The film is a Lovecraftian homage and a battle against Cthulhu. To star Roddy Piper (They Live), financing for this title has already begun. As well, the short film will be developed into a feature film, in late 2015. Raven Banner will distribute the feature in Canada. More details on Portal to Hell are previewed here. In the story, Jack (Piper) discovers several cultists in his basement. He also discovers that they are trying to bring the god Cthulhu into his world, through sorcery. Jack must enlist the help of others to stop this madness, or else everyone is doomed. This film is still in the early phases of production. And, the filmmakers could use the support of horror fans to bring the short film to life. Details on the film's Indiegogo campaign are listed below.

Anything involving H.P. Lovecraft is worth a look, but when it’s a short film that stars They Live’s Roddy Piper, then you have movie magic. Director Vivieno Caldinelli and writer Matt Watts have taken to Indiegogo to ask for help getting funding for their short film, Portal to Hell.

Here’s a little bit of info on the film itself:

Jack is a simple man with simple needs. Mostly he just needs to be left alone to read his book. It’s a good book and he likes it, or at least he would if the tenants of the building he manages weren’t so damn needy themselves. And it’s not just blown fuses and clogged toilets here … no, when the building power goes out the culprit is a pair of tenants opening a portal to hell in the basement. Does this count as building maintenance? Is...

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.” John Carpenter fans remember this “Rowdy” Roddy Piper line from 1988’s They Live, but imagine if Piper said something similar to Cthulhu upon entering the demon city of R’lyeh. If this sounds epic, then you may be interested in funding Portal to Hell, a short film co-starring Piper and Cthulhu that just launched an Indiegogo campaign.

Portal to Hell is guaranteed to be made next March and contributions to the Indiegogo campaign will help fund the special effects creation. The better the film looks, the better its chances are of being turned into a feature film, as Portal to Hell’s creative team is planning on using the short film to pitch a full film version beginning next fall. To learn more about this project, visit:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/portal-to-hell...

Director Vivieno Caldinelli, writer Matt Watts and star Roddy Piper have teamed up with executive producer Todd Brown, executive producer Andrew Rosen, and FX guru Steve Kostanski to bring horror fans Portal to Hell a crowdfunded horror-comedy effort that will begin as a short film before heading into feature territory.

The post Roddy Piper Meets Lovecraft in Portal to Hell appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.