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The Iconic Horror Movie Franchise is back, and this time it's even more Extreme! #SRRExtremeMidnightTrailer

Experience the Extreme this November 29, 2023, exclusively in cinemas!

From master directors Jerrold Tarog, Joey De Guzman and Richard V. Somes comes this year's Epic Horror Movie event of 2023!

Starring Iza Calzado, Jane De Leon, Jane Oineza, Rk Bagatsing, Paul Salas, Paolo Gumabao, Miggs Cuaderno, AC Bonifacio, Elle Villanueva, Rob Gomez, Ninong Ry, Donna Cariaga, Angel Guardian, Phi Palmos, Esnyr Ranollo, Sarah Edwards, Bryce Eusebio, Dustin Yu, Mika Reins, Jana Taladro, Jewel Milag, Francis Mata, Girlie Ejercito, Jericho Ejercito, Ian Gimena,...

Stars: Arjo Atayde, Julia Montes, Sid Lucero, Kokoy De Santos, Vin Abrenica, Gerard Acao, Rosh Barman, Kayley Carrigan, Enchong Dee | Written by Jim Flores, Will Fredo, Richard Somes | Directed by Richard Somes

A Special Forces operative suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is discharged from the army due to his extreme medical condition. Finding employment as a security guard, his world is turned upside down when he finds himself embroiled in a different kind of urban war after a young woman seeks protection from a corrupt police death squad working for one of the most brutal drug cartels. As the pair continues to fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons and earn the redemption he desperately craves…

Set in the Philippines and opening with the kind of jungle-based action not scene since the 80s heyday of filmmakers like Teddy Page and Cirio H. Santiago – filmmakers who capitalised...

"War isn't the world's fault. War is man's making." Raven Banner has revealed an official US trailer for an indie action film titled Triggered in English, from Filipino filmmaker Richard Somes. This trailer doesn't hold back! It's insanely gory and brutally violent. The film is premiering at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival underway now in Switzerland, with an expected release later this year in the US. Here's the festival's intro: Discharged from the army due to post-traumatic stress disorder, Miguel gets embroiled in a different kind of war when a drug peddler seeks his protection against a vigilante death squad. All the while he must confront his own demons in order to earn his redemption. Arjo Atayde stars as an Ex-Special Forces security guard who attempts to save the life of a woman who is being hunted by a corrupt police death squad working for a drug cartel. The Filipino action...

Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude).The lineup for the 76th edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Eduardo Williams, Leonor Teles, Lav Diaz, Radu Jude, and others.Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAnimal (Sofia Exarchou)Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Essential Truths of the Lake (Lav Diaz)Home (Leonor Teles)The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)The Invisible Fight (Rainer Sarnet)Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude)Lousy Carter (Bob Byington)Manga D’Terra (Basil Da Cunha)Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où (Sylvain George)Patagonia (Simone Bozzelli)The Permanent Picture (Laura Ferrés)Rossosperanza (Annarita Zambrano)Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Sweet Dreams (Ena Sendijarević)The Vanishing Soldier (Dani Rosenberg)Yannick (Quentin Dupieux)Excursion (Una Gunjak).Concorso Cineasti Del PRESENTECamping du Lac (Eléonore Saintagnan)Ein Schöner Ort (Katharina Huber)Excursion (Una Gunjak)Family Portrait (Lucy Kerr)Dreaming...

Recently-established Philippines-based production and financing company, Fire and Ice, has deals to provide completion funding to two films being produced by prolific Singapore-based independent producer Potocol. Under a related agreement, Fire and Ice has also struck a multi-faceted first-look deal with Potocol.

The completion funding, which gives Fire and Ice a share of the film’s equity, will permit the completion of post-production of upcoming Potocol titles: “Pierce,” a sports drama by Nelicia Low, and “Last Shadow at First Light,” by Nicole Midori Woodford. Both films were recently showcased at Focus Asia’s Far East In Progress, part of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, and are expected to be completed before the end of the year.

The first-look agreement covers titles on Potocol’s slate including a project by Rafael Manuel, winner of a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2020 for his short film “Filipinana,” and another by cinematographer...

Deals closed for the US, Asia and Europe.

Canadian genre specialist Raven Banner Entertainment has closed deals on Filipino action thriller Trigger, Mongolian horror Aberrance and Filipino zombie feature Day Zero.

Trigger, directed by Richard Somes (We Will Not Die Tonight) and starring Arjo Atayde, has pre-sold to Lighthouse for German-speaking territories and is tipped for notable festivals later this year. The film stars Atayde as a discharged veteran with Ptsd who becomes embroiled in a different kind of war when a drug peddler seeks his protection from a vigilante death squad.

Mongolian horror Aberrance is Baatar Batsukh’s feature...

The Fantastic Pavilion, a new hub for the genre community set to make its debut at this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film, has revealed its seven Gala screenings.

Over May 16-21, industry professionals will get to “appreciate the diversity of genre offerings coming from all over the world,” tease the organizers. They will also be able to create new alliances and acquire titles from companies like Raven Banner, MPI Media, Screenbound and Mantícora.

“The reason for the Pavilion is that we needed space to do better business and help newcomers integrate more easily, and faster, into this constantly growing industry,” says Fantastic Pavilion executive director Pablo Guisa Koestinger. “Genre needs to take the place it deserves and it’s Fantastic Pavilion’s mission to help to achieve this.”

British sci-fi comedy “The Bystanders,” directed by Gabriel Foster Prior and presented by Screenbound, will kickstart the event, followed by another...

Action thriller, “Trigger” from writer-director Richard Somes has wrapped production and is beginning sales at the European Film Market.

“Trigger” (aka “Tokakk”) tells the story of a lonely security guard (portrayed by Arjo Atayde) previously discharged from the military due to his post-traumatic stress disorder. He finds himself embroiled in a different kind of war when a young woman (Julia Montes) seeks his protection against a corrupt police death squad. While the pair fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons to earn his redemption.

The film also stars Arjo Atayde (“Cattleya Killer”), Julia Montes (“Brothers”), Sid Lucero (“The End of History”) and Kokoy De Santos (“Game Boy”) and is produced by Wilfredo C. Manalang of Fusee (the company that co-produced Cannes Camera d’Or prize-winner “Plan 75”), Somes of Strawdog Studio Production, Ria Atayde and Sylvia Sanchez from Nathan Studios and Michaelangelo Masangkay, co-owner of Toronto-based...

Exclusive: Raven Banner Entertainment has boarded action thriller Trigger (Topakk), directed by the Philippines’ Richard Somes, to executive produce and handle international sales.

Currently in production, the film stars Arjo Atayde (Cattleya Killer), Julia Montes (Brothers), Sid Lucero (The End Of History) and Kokoy De Santos (Game Boy).

Wilfredo C. Manalang of Philippines production house Fusee is producing the film with Somes’ Strawdogs Studio Production, Ria Atayde and Sylvia Sanchez for Nathan Studios and Michaelangelo Masangkay and Fernando Henna for Toronto-based post sound house, Theo & Atlas Productions Inc.

Atayde plays a security guard previously discharged from the military due to post-traumatic stress disorder. He finds himself embroiled in a different kind of war when a young woman (Montes) seeks his protection against a corrupt police death squad.

Fusee previously co-produced Japanese drama Plan 75, which is Japan’s submission to the best international feature category of the Oscars. The company also...

Although continuously snubbed by critics and festivals, action movies still retain their popularity among mainstream audiences in particular, while a number of them frequently cross towards the cult category. The golden age of these movies, which parallels the pick of Hong Kong cinema and particularly of companies like Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest and Milkyway Image, is long since gone. However, excellent productions continue to be released every year, with the scepters having been passed on to the Asean countries, particularly after the immense success of “The Raid”, which essentially kick-started a whole trend. At the same time, China/Hong Kong and S. Korea continue to release blockbusters of the category, while Japan always has the anime/manga adaptations, which frequently prove quite successful.

In an effort to select some of the best action/martial arts movies of the decade (2011-2020), we came up with 40 we felt were the ones that...

The Philippines film-maker Richard Somes, popular for We Will Not Die Tonight, El Peste, and directing episodes on “Bridges of Love”, is back with a full-throttle action film ‘Kid Alpha One,’ and the teaser has just dropped.

TV show Sports Kidz host Javier “Javi” Benitez will play the lead role in the film. It is out an out action film reminiscing of “The Raid” in an abandoned godown with more firework than hand to hand combat.

The theme of the female vigilante with the additional value of the protagonist being a very beautiful woman not previously associated in any way with the action genre, has been working quite well recently for the Philippino film industry. In that fashion, after Richard Somes‘s “We Will Not Die Tonight” with Erich Gonzalez came Erik Matti’s “BuyBust” with Anne Curtis and now was the time for the latter’s co-protagonist in “No Other Woman”, Cristine Reyes, to play Pedring Lopez’s “Maria”.

The rather generic story involves a former BlackRose cartel assassin named Lily, who, after refusing to complete her last mission, has escaped and managed to evade the grasp of the syndicate, even forming her own family. Some years later, and as the power struggles in the organization, between Kaleb and Victor, the two number 2s in the hierarchy, rise over the assassination of an influential politician,...

After the Best Asian Asian Films of 2018, we felt that we should also compile more specific lists about the best of the year, since there were a lot of great 2018 films that were left out, inevitably. The first list in that regard includes the Best Action Films of 2018, in a collection of movies, which, in contrary to the aforementioned, where most entries were from Japan, has much more diversity, since the only country that is represented thrice is China, which probably has to do with the legacy Hk action films have left.

Some films are not genuine entries of the category, like “One Two Jaga” for example. which is a social drama at least as much as an action movie, but in every case, there was enough to justify the inclusion in the category, at least partially.

Without further ado, here are the Best Asian action films of 2018, in random order.

The film is based on a series of actual events that shocked the public in the Philippines, where prison inmates were contracted by politicians to temporarily leave jail and conduct a number of assassinations before they returned to prison.

“On the Job” is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story revolves around two axes, which collide at times, based on the aforementioned story. The first one concerns two inmates-assassins, veteran Tatang and his trainee, Daniel. The first one actually has a family, and uses the money he receives to support them and to pay for his daughter’s intuition, who is studying law. Daniel, on the other hand, is a cocky, naive, and a bit too eager young man who lies to his mother about what he is actually doing. When the two of them murder a drug lord, veteran Sergeant Acosta is tasked with the investigation,...

Richard Somes moved to Manila to study, only to work part-time as a props man on Erik Matti’s Scorpio Nights 2 (1999). He soon became the Philippines’ most in-demand art director and production designer, breathing life into Matti’s Prosti (2002) and Gagamboy (2004), Mac Alejandre’s Ang Panday (2009) and Dodo Dayao’s Violator (2014). He founded Strawdogs Studio Production in 2007 to direct his first feature, horror Affliction/Yanggaw (2008), a retelling of the aswang mythology. He has continued to make diverse genre films with female protagonists including Erich Gonzales-starrers Mariposa in the Cage of the Night (2002) and We Will Not Die Tonight (2018).

On the occasion of We Will Not Die Tonight screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival, we speak with him about his cooperation with Erich Gonzales and his crew, Phlippine cinema, his future projects and… Metallica

You also work as a production designer. How did your work in...

It is always nice to watch an action/martial arts film that does not hold its punches back, and “We Will Not Die Tonight” does just that, through a violent, dark and “dirty” approach that benefits the category to the fullest.

We Will Not Die Tonight is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

Kray is a stunt performer whose career is on a downward spiral, since her moves are considered outdated. However, she cannot abandon this line of work, since she has to take care of her ill father, who was also a stuntman. Her financial situation is dire; therefore, when her ex-boyfriend Ramil, arranges a gig for the two of them and the rest of a group of stuntmen, including Jonesky, Rene Boy and Che-che, she agrees to help him, although reluctantly. However, the whole group is shocked to learn that Ramil’s old friend Bangkil...

Fantastic Film School tutors also revealed.

The Puchon International Film Festival (PiFan)’s industry program, the Network of Fantastic Films (Naff) has announced its selection for this year’s Project Spotlight: the Philippines.

“The Philippines have had a strong presence in genre cinema for some time, but for some reason, it never had outside exposure until maybe very recently. So we thought it would be worthwhile to show not just their films, but also the potential of the projects through this year’s Spotlight so they can hopefully find co-producers and/or funding at Naff,” says Thomas Nam, Naff managing director.

The seven projects in the Spotlight will compete for a total of $50,000 in cash awards and three post-production support awards.

Mondomanila director Khavn De La Cruz [pictured] will be turning his 62nd Berlinale-selected short film, Ruined Heart? Another Love Story About A Criminal And A Whore, into a feature film while director Peter Eduria III, who has worked...

The 6th Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) has announced the seven projects that will comprise its spotlight focus on The Philippines this year. Featuring experienced talent such as Richard Somes and Tikoy Aguiluz alongside younger directors who have begun to make their mark, the spotlight promises to showcase the growing strength of Filipino Genre Cinema.Amable 'Tikoy' Aguiluz, who has been active in Filipino Cinema for almost 30 years and founded the Cinemanila Intl. Film Festival, will be presenting Dance of Death, a revenge film set at the gates of hell. The young Ato Bautista, who has quickly established himself with films like Blackout (2007) and his contribution to the horror omnibus Cinco (2010), will participate with the bloody action thriller Bad Blood. Multi-hyphenate Khavn de...

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

Filipino director Richard Somes established himself as one of the brightest lights on the local independent circuit with his 2008 offering Yanggaw (Affliction). A super realistic spin on the aswang mythology, Yanggaw demonstrated that Somes was a director with a very distinct voice, one well worth keeping a close eye on.Somes latest effort is Mariposa (Sa Hawla Ng Gabi), a crime drama that is once again backed by the Cinema One Originals series, which has funded a number of his feature films. The synopsis is quite simple - it's the story of a young woman caught up in a bad situation while searching for her missing sister in the big city - but coming from Somes it's safe to expect something a bit unusual from...

In Ang Lihim ng San Joaquin (The Secret of San Joaquin), Richard Somes' episode in Shake, Rattle and Roll 2k5 (Uro dela Cruz, Rico Maria Ilarde, Somes, 2005), he makes use of popular aswang lore in telling the story of a man and his pregnant wife who find themselves trapped in a town of aswang craving for fresh meat. Although narratively straightforward and seemingly devoid of any sudden twists and turns that usually mark the horror films that fare well in the box office, Somes' short succeeds in infusing certain techniques and styles borrowed from silent films, resulting in an experience that is not only comfortingly familiar, especially for those who grew up horrified by the many cinematic reincarnations of the local monsters, but...

They say love is the universal language, but after watching the trailer for Filipino horror film Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang, I kinda think the universal language is getting the shit scared out of you. There wasn't a word of English in this preview, but I knew exactly what they were talking about.

Corazon may be the scariest thing to come out of the Philippines since Manny Pacquiao's fists. What starts out as a couple beginning a new family descends into a fight for survival against some seriously scary looking baddies. The film stars Derek Ramsay and the beautiful Erich Gonzales and was directed by Richard Somes. Check out the trailer below, and if you like what you see, give them a like on the Corzaon: Ang Unang Aswang Facebook page . The film premiers on March 14. We'll keep an eye out for information on upcoming Us distro.

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I very much doubt that there is a nation in the world with a sharper divide between its commercial and independent film than what exists in The Philippines. On the commercial side, Pinoy cinema is heavily regimented and controlled by an old school studio style system with the major television networks locking stars and directors into long term contracts to turn out formula based product on incredibly tight schedules and even tighter budgets. On the indie side, there is a growing wave of Diy filmmakers challenging the status quo, accepting even smaller budgets as the cost of creative freedom and turning out challenging, interesting projects in increasing numbers.Director Richard Somes is one of those rare talents who bridges that divide.After contributing to the long...

Because I enjoy the regional texture of multiple voices speaking on one film, my thanks go out to Philippine critic Richard Bolisay for allowing me to adapt key sections of his Lilok Pelikula review of Yanggaw (Affliction, 2008), which has been programmed into Sfiaaff's retrospective "After Death: Horror Cinema From South East Asia." Richard is especially keen to director Richard Somes' nuanced characterization of the folkloric aswang, in contrast to its more clichéd depiction in low-budget Philippine horror films....

There is no denying that Joaquin Valdes' Dagim (Raincloud) is a visually exceptional film. Despite the film's preoccupation with grime and gore, the film manages to sustain an aesthetic style that is hardly obnoxious but is more often than not quite alluring. The film's visualizations of desolation that we can only surmise from what Valdes hints at as a product of the heavy military presence in the area attempt to complement the angst-ridden mood of the story of two brothers (Martin del Rosario and Samuel Quintana) who discover a suspicious band of individuals whose anarchist ideology is more than telling of their peculiar lifestyle. Stylized almost to the point of confusion, the film can be best described as a collage of striking images stitched together to service a story that could have worked better with more restraint, more meaningful simplicity.

 

Dagim feels superficial. It's unfortunate, really. What the film is...