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There are horror films that wear their intentions on their sleeve and then there are those that lure viewers in with a false sense of security only to repeatedly devastate the unsuspecting at every turn. The 2019 horror film The Lodge falls squarely into the latter category.

This picture melds themes of grief, religious trauma, and isolation, serving up a cinematic cocktail that is unpredictable, shocking, and often tough to watch. Similar to Hereditary before it, The Lodge just continues to deliver blows until the viewer is beaten to a bloody pulp.

If the promise of total cinematic devastation has piqued your curiosity, you may be interested to know that The Lodge is presently available to stream on Tubi.

While we are dropping knowledge, you may be equally interested to learn that the film features a descendant of none other than Elvis Presley in a lead role. That’s right, core...

I love a feel-bad thriller. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean gratuitous, exploitative, or just nasty (even if I’d defend them to my dying breath), but the kinds of thrillers and horror movies whose quiet, unassuming nature sneaks in and doesn’t just rattle your soul, but shakes it. This year’s Bring Her Back is one such example. Remove the terrifying body horror, and you’d still have one of the most spirit-draining horror releases in years. I left feeling terrible, and I loved Bring Her Back’s capacity to make me feel that way.

Every year, the horror genre has one. Speak No Evil, Red Rooms, Longlegs, Huesera: The Bone Woman, the list goes on and on. Way back in 2019, the most disturbing movie of that respective year—and honestly, probably the decade—quietly arrived in theaters. Boasting a fantastic cast and notable filmmakers, everyone expected something good,...

Shudder has picked up North America, UK and Ireland and Australia and New Zealand rights to Blue Finch Film’s supernatural horror The Surrender following its recent world premiere at SXSW.

Julia Max directs Colby Minifie and Kate Burton in the Midnighter selection about a fraught mother-daughter relationship that is put to the test when the family patriarch dies and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.

As the resurrection spirals out of control, both women must confront their differences as they fight for their lives and for each other. Shudder will...

Austrian-German production company Schubert is moving forward with a slate of films by distinctive auteur filmmakers, among them the historical drama “Rose,” by Austrian writer-director Markus Schleinzer and starring Sandra Hüller (“The Zone of Interest”).

Founded by Johannes Schubert in 2020, the Vienna and Berlin-based company partnered with Row Pictures in Leipzig and Munich’s Walker + Worm Film on “Rose,” Schleinzer’s third feature, which follows a 17th-century woman who, disguised as a man, begins a new life in a protestant village at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. Repped internationally by The Match Factory and currently in advanced post-production, the Austrian-German co-production is set for release this year.

Also in the works is the upcoming feature debut “Keep Quiet” by Franz Böhm, who just picked up a BAFTA for his short “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Marking their second collaboration after the Hot Docs breakthrough “Dear Future Children,” the English-language political thriller,...

If there is a cinematic equivalent of the theatre of cruelty, it must be the reigning spirit of Austrian cinema. Films by Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, Veronika Franz and Jessica Hausner may be very different from each other, but are similarly unflinching as they roam threatening spaces, find the sinister in the everyday and delve into the darkness of human hearts. Johanna Moder’s previous films didn’t share that sensibility, but she shows her Austrian colors in Mother’s Baby, the most viscerally ghastly evocation of new parenthood we’ve seen since Eraserhead.

Not exactly a horror film, Mother’s Baby is nevertheless shot through with horror elements: a weird baby, an isolated woman being gaslit into thinking she’s crazy, a demonic doctor and his horde of witchy nurses working in a strangely unregulated institution straight out of David Cronenberg’s playbook. Over everything hovers the gruesome mystery of birth,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

In a cinematic year as rich and ripe for discovery as any of the most illustrious years in recent memory, 2024 was graced with luminaries operating at their highest level: Denis Villeneuve with the riveting second chapter of Dune; Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala taking on a niche domestic horror epidemic; Brady Corbet tackling the midcentury American dream; Robert Eggers mustachio’ing one of film’s most frightening monsters; Sean Baker bringing the Palme d’Or back to the U.S. for the first time since 2011. Long-gestating stories from living legends: Catherine Breillat on the most devastating age gap romance you can imagine; Víctor Erice on celluloid memory; Paul Schrader on an artist’s mortality; Francis Ford Coppola on everything; Leos Carax on himself. Newcomers we couldn’t...

Warning: Spoilers for The Lodge.

Written by Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, and Sergio Casci and directed by Franz and Fiala, The Lodge is a psychological horror film that is unsettling from the moment it begins. The film follows a soon-to-be stepmom, Grace (Riley Keough), as she, her fiancé Richard (Richard Armitage), and his two children, Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh), travel to the family’s remote Massachusetts lodge for the Christmas holiday. However, their situation is wrought with plenty of underlying issues no one is properly addressing.

Six months prior, Richard’s estranged wife, Laura (Alicia Silverstone), took her own life after he informed her that he wanted to finalize their divorce so he and Grace could marry. Clearly a case of infidelity, Richard and Grace met while he was conducting research for his book about the extremist cult Grace’s father led when she was a child.

It should be no surprise that, as another year winds to a close, horror continued to dominate in 2024. Terrifier 3, for example, became the highest-grossing Unrated movie in box office history, throwing all the indie cinema rules out the window in the process. Longlegs caught everyone off guard, becoming Neon‘s highest-grossing film upon release in July, and streaming service Mubi smartly acquired the body horror movie The Substance, where it became the platform’s highest-grossing film at the box office.

That doesn’t even touch on the huge studio earners like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, or Alien: Romulus. Yet the surprises extend well beyond how well horror performed at the box office; 2024 horror is defined by the way it refused to stay within its tidy genre bounds.

This is reflected in the way that 2024 horror found new angles to push franchises forward through prequels and sequels,...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled the shortlist of 15 films that will vie for a nomination for the best international feature film Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards.

85 countries submitted features this award season but several frontrunners quickly pulled out from the pack, and easily made it onto the longlist, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, representing France, the Danish contender The Girl With the Needle from director Magnus von Horn, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an Iran-set feature submitted by co-production country Germany.

Several festival circuit favorites made the cut. I’m Still Here, Brazil’s contender comes to the Oscars on referral from Venice, where it won the best screenplay prize. Director Walter Salles scored an Oscar nom back in Central Station in the international category (then known as best foreign-language film), with Fernanda Montenegro, who has a cameo in I’m Still Here,...

With Christmas just over a week away, it’s time to kick the holiday horror viewing into overdrive. But what if you’re not feeling the merriment or holiday spirit? You wouldn’t be alone.

That’s why this week’s streaming picks are dedicated to feel-bad, bleak holiday horror movies that don’t care at all about warm fuzzy feels or happily ever afters!

These five horror movies capture Scrooge’s “Bah Humbug” sentiments for the holidays, delivering bleak downers and grim explorations of humanity’s dark side instead.

As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

A Christmas Tale – Tubi

Before Paco Plaza helmed international horror hits, including the [Rec] franchise and Netflix’s Veronica, he directed an Amblin-like kids story that turns grim with the made-for-tv movie A Christmas Tale, as part of Six Films to Keep You Awake.

Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, the 2019 psychological thriller The Lodge leaves a lasting impression for many reasons, but none more so than its complex and chilling protagonist, Grace. Brought to life by Riley Keough’s riveting performance, Grace serves as the emotional core of this haunting narrative.

The story revolves around the Hall family, where siblings Aiden and Mia are grappling with the devastating loss of their mother. Their father, Richard, complicates matters further by announcing his engagement to Grace, thrusting her into their fractured lives. Consumed by grief and resentment, Aiden and Mia reject Grace, blaming her—and her dark history as a cult survivor—for their family’s tragedy. Can Grace bridge the chasm between her and the siblings while confronting her own haunted past? Let’s delve into the layers of this psychological puzzle to uncover the answers.

Spoilers Ahead.

The Lodge (2019) Plot Summary and...

The fall/holiday season will see the release of several awards contenders shot on Kodak film: Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist, and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”

Kodak, which had a momentous 2023 with more than 60 movies shot on film, also has Sean Baker’s “Anora” and Guadagnino’s “Challengers” as Oscar and ASC 35mm hopefuls.

Kodak had eight on-film premieres in competition at the 81st Venice Festival: “Maria,” “Queer,” “The Brutalist,” Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Pavements,” Giovanni Perrier Tortorici’s “Diciannove,” Déa Kulumbegashvili’s “April,” and Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here.”

Prior to that, Kodak had 33 on-film premieres at Cannes. These included nine winners, including “Anora,” which earned the Palme d’Or prize; Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language,” which took the first Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award; and “Grand Tour,” which grabbed Best Director for Miguel Gomes. In addition, Yorgos...

For those of you tired of the usual holiday movie diet of sleigh bells, snowflakes, and sugarplum fairies, The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has whipped up a menu of new foreign films, currently available to screen in the U.S., that offer something for a more refined cinema palate.

Whether your taste runs to Irish hip-hop or Mexican musicals, Austrian horror or Danish romance, family-friend Thai comedy, or adult-only Aussie animation, we’ve got you covered for those long winter nights.

Banel & Adama (Stream/Rent On: Apple, Amazon, Fandango) ‘Banel & Adama’

French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s bold debut illuminates the complexities of love and identity in a Romeo and Juliet-style story set in rural Senegal. Featuring captivating performances by Khady Mane and Mamadou Diallo as the titular couple, Banel & Adama combines rich, humanistic storytelling with stunning visuals to conjure a deeply imagined world. While the director...

Some movies end when the credits roll; others are never truly over and haunt the viewers back into the ordinary rhythms of everyday life. If there is one genre that is particularly adept at leaving a lasting impression, it is Horror. Whether it is the eerie atmosphere depicted, the visceral cruelty of the plot, or the disturbing themes explored, the best horror movies of all time often go beyond scaring the individual for a moment — they stay with them for a long time.

However, not every horror movie has the ability to do this. For a horror story to remain ingrained in the mind, it has to tap into something more profound, toying with the subconscious of the average viewer, unaware of the manipulative forces at play. Some unsettling psychological horror movies are a haunting example of this phenomenon. These movies do not simply scare; they evoke stronger emotions. Delving into areas of human interest,...

Polish-born cinematographer Michal Dymek has won Golden Frog — the main compeition prize — at this year’s Camerimage Film Festival.

Dymek was handed the award this evening at the festival’s closing ceremony by the Camerimage competition jury, which was headed by Cate Blanchett. She was joined by Anna Higgs, Sandy Powell, Anthony Dod Mantle, Rodrigo Prieto, Lukasz Zal, and Jolanta Dylewska.

Directed by Magnus von Horn, The Girl with the Needle debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has been selected as Denmark’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars.

The film follows Karoline (Sonne), a young factory worker, who is struggling to survive in post-World War I Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, abandoned, and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Dyrholm), a charismatic woman running an underground adoption agency, helping mothers find foster homes for their unwanted children. With nowhere else to turn,...

The acclaimed Danish period horror drama The Girl with the Needle, shot by cinematographer Michal Dymek, took home the Camerimage Film Festival’s Golden Frog Saturday night in Toruń, Poland. The winner was selected by a jury led by two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.

Camerimage famously celebrates the art of cinematography, so its honors are extended to the directors of photography behind the movies exhibited in its main competition. But this year’s jury made a point of adding a “special mention” for The Girl with the Needle‘s 40-year-old director, Magnus von Horn.

The masterfully realized period thriller is loosely based on the true story of Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye, who helped impoverished women kill their unwanted children in 1910s Copenhagen.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s contributing film critic, Leslie Felperin, summed up the film as “a dark, urgently timely Danish drama” that’s “like one of those fiendish...

The seventeenth edition of Morbido has all but wrapped up for another year. Despite our absence we were still able to wrangle in some reviews for films made by our friends down south, with one more coming down the pipeline.    Gonzalo Otero's The Devil's Teardrop took home the Golden Skull this year in the LatAm while Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's The Devil's Bath took home the Golden Skull in the section. Yes, the devil was in the details this year.    Morbido alumni Nico and Lucionao Loretti, and Can Evrenol, once again took home Skull Awards for their films 1978 and Sayara respectively.    All the winners and statements from programmer José Luis Mejía Razo and mi padre de teror Pablo Guisa Koestinger lead to the...

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

New York Times bestselling horror author Paul Tremblay — whose The Cabin at the End of the World was adapted into M. Night Shyamalan‘s Knock at the Cabin — has announced his first middle grade novel.

Another will be published in hardcover, e-book, and audio book on July 22, 2025 via Quill Tree Books.

Aimed at readers ages 8-12, the 256-page tale of an unsettling, unbreakable friendship features cover art by Sam Wolfe Connelly, who also created eight interior illustrations.

The official synopsis reads, “When Casey Wilson’s parents tell him that his friend is coming for a sleepover, he has no idea who that might be. Ever since the Zoom Incident, everyone treats him like a pariah, and his tics are worse than ever.

“When Morel appears, he’s not like any friend Casey has ever met. His skin is like clay, and he doesn’t speak. But Casey’s parents are charmed by the strange kid,...

Coralie Fargeat’s body horror movie The Substance, Jacques Audiard’s Mexican crime musical Emilia Pérez and Magnus von Horn’s Danish period drama The Girl With the Needle are among the first winners of the 2024 European Film Awards, picking up Efa Excellence Awards in the technical categories.

Benjamin Kračun won best cinematography for his lensing of The Substance, a campy feminist fable starring Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging celebrity who takes a dangerous drug that promises to restore her youth. The Efa jury praised Kračun’s use of “highly stylized lens distortions and manipulations” to explore Sparkle’s physical and psychological demise. “It is loud and glossy, but also manages to eke out an unexpected intimacy and vulnerability. The audience is transported through to an unbearably painful, and hilariously raucous ending.”

The Substance also took the Efa for best visual effects for the team of Bryan Jones,...

By definition, horror movies are generally rather scary. Many feature frightening creatures, intimidating killers, and high amounts of gore. Some of the best horror movies, however, rely more on disturbing ideas than these gruesome images to unsettle their viewers. These films, often referred to as psychological horror movies, capitalize on the natural fears and paranoia of their audiences to scare them in a way that is bound to resonate far beyond the end of the credits.

Part of what makes psychological horror films so terrifying is how they force the audience to relate to their characters far more effectively than typical slasher or monster movies. As a viewer, seeing a freaky, otherworldly creature is bound to be unnerving, but it is still easy to differentiate yourselves from the characters, as you know these monsters aren't real. However, with psychological horror movies, the mental torment endured by the characters is a...

Shudder is re-releasing Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala‘s period feature The Devil’s Bath for a North American theatrical run next week. The special theatrical run comes after the film was selected as Austria’s Academy Award submission.

Watch The Devil’s Bath in select theaters on November 13, 2024.

Shot on 35mm, The Devil’s Bath is based on historical records, and the film debuted at Berlinale this year where it was awarded a Silver Bear for Martin Schlacht’s cinematography.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for the German-language horror movie: “In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like...

Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's The Devil's Bath To Re-Release In Theaters Starting November 13: "In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her inner prison. Giving a voice to the invisible and unheard women of the rural past, The Devil’S Bath is based on historical court records about a shocking, hitherto unexplored chapter of European history."

**The Devil's Bath Theatrical Markets

Arlington, Va (Alamo Drafthouse Crystal City) Ashburn, Va (Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun) Austin, TX (Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar) Brooklyn, NY (Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn) Charlottesville, Va (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - 5th Street Station) Chicago,...

Horror streamer Shudder is re-releasing Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s latest horror feature, “The Devil’s Bath,” for a North American theatrical run. While the film was first released theatrically in June, the re-release comes after it was selected as Austria’s Academy Award submission.

Per the official logline: “In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her inner prison.”

Fifteen screenings are planned across the U.S., with showtimes in California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia. The California and New York screenings will be hosted...

Budapest International Film Festival (Biff) is building a film funding initiative independent of the Hungarian state, as the festival’s first edition gets underway today.

The fund will launch during the festival, which runs from October 29 to November 3 at the Corvin Cinema Budapest.

The fund will be run in collaboration with the Sandor Simo Foundation, and will support at least one Hungarian feature film and a short film, from script development through to theatrical release.It will aim to raise between€500,000 to€1m in its first year, which organisers say is the current average budget of an independent Hungarian feature film.

An adaptation of Edith Wharton novel The Custom Of The Country by Mary Queen Of Scots director Josie Rourke is among 16 new projects backed by the Düsseldorf-based regional film fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw (Fms).

€600,000 in production funding was allocated by Fms to Rourke’s planned adaptation of Wharton’s 1913 novel.

The tragicomedy of manners about a Midwestern girl attempting to ascend in New York society is currently structured as a German-uk co-production between Cologne-based Mo Co-Production, a single purpose company set up by augenschein Filmproduktion, with Charles Finch’s Rabbit Foot Films.

Finch was recently a co-producer of the...

Academy members who are voting in the Best International Feature Film category have been given 85 different films to consider, according to emails sent to voters on Friday and obtained by TheWrap.

The 85 films make up the smallest field in the category in nine years. Last year saw 88 qualifying films, after the total number of eligible films had topped 90 in five of the previous six years. The record was 93, set in 2000.

In late September, all prospective voters in the category received emails inviting them to vote in the international category and telling them that those who opted in would receive emails with their assigned viewing on Friday, Nov. 1. But those emails came a week early, going to prospective voters on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25, and separating the members into seven separate groups.

Each group was given a list of 12 or 13 films to view, either in the Academy’s members-only screening platform devoted...

Welcome to Deadline’s roundup of the submissions for this year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar category. Below you will find details on each movie that has been officially put forward so far. The official deadline for submission was 5pm Pt October 2. We’ve rounded up 86 submissions so far, against 88 last year, but announcements continue to trickle in. Keeping checking in for updates.

This is a hotly contested race that often results in clear front-runners but also surprising gems. Click on titles for links to reviews, first looks, news and more.

In alphabetical order by country, these are the entries so far:

Albania

Title: Waterdrop

Director: Robert Budina

Prod: Erafilm

Notes: Waterdrop, which will have its festival premiere in Warsaw next month, is set on the shores of Lake Ohrid where City Planner Aida, a tough and successful businesswoman, manages the allocation of lucrative EU subsidies, navigating a corrupt system.

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The much-awaited sequel of the brilliant 2022 psychological mystery horror thriller film Smile is finally here and thankfully it doesn’t suck. Written and directed by Parker Finn, the 2024 film follows a young pop star who begins to experience a series of disturbing events while on tour. Overwhelmed by the horrors she must face her dark past to regain her sanity. Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott in the lead role with Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, and Rosemarie Dewitt starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the psychological horror, thrilling story, and compelling characters in Smile 2 here are some similar movies you should check out next.

It Follows Credit – Northern Lights Films

It Follows is a supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. The 2014 film follows the story of a teenager...

La inquietante cinta de Veronika Franz y Severin Fiala representará a Austria en los Oscars 2025 y se estrena en cines en noviembre.

© Caramel Films

El sábado se dio a conocer el palmarés del Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico de Sitges 2024 y la gran triunfadora ha sido El baño del diablo (The Devil’s Bath), que se ha llevado el premio a la Mejor Película, además del Premio de la Crítica y el Premio del Jurado Joven.

La decisión del máximo galardón fue tomada por el jurado, compuesto por la programadora Lisa Dreyer, el escritor y músico Stephen Thrower, y los cineastas Christophe Gans, Fred Dekker y Carlota Pereda. Christophe Gans elogió la película afirmando: «Es una gran película a todos los niveles», y destacó la «fotografía tan pictórica» y la sobresaliente interpretación de su protagonista, Anja Plaschg. En particular, destacó la «escena de la confesión» como uno de los momentos más memorables del festival.

John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush and Kristine Froseth won top acting awards at Spain’s prominent Sitges Fantasy Film Festival, which wrapped its 57th edition on Oct. 13.

Making a sweep of the fest with three awards was Austrian Best International Feature Oscar entry “The Devil’s Bath” by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Drawn from historical facts, the Austrian-German co-production is described by Variety critic Jessica Kiang as a “story so pitilessly bleak you may want to look away; the filmmaking craft is so compelling that you can’t.” The historical horror drama, which vied for the Berlinale Golden Bear in February, follows Agnes, a depressed newlywed, who instead of committing suicide, considered taboo by her Christian community, commits a crime that would lead to her execution. The “suicide by proxy” practice was said to be common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in German-speaking Central Europe and Scandinavia.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong...

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2024 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best International Feature.)

In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 17, 2024.

These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final...

Festival hits Anora, Emilia Perez and Maria, a new Stockholm Series strand for TV works, and a theme of ‘Men in Crisis’ are among the highlights of this year’s Stockholm International Film Festival (November 6-17), the programme of which has been announced today (October 9).

The international feature competition includes Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Berlin title La Cocina; RaMell Ross’ Telluride premiere Nickel Boys; and Gustav Moller’s Denmark-Sweden-France co-production Sons. It has an even split of 10 titles directed by women, and 10 by men.

Scroll down for the full list of Stockholm Competition titles

The 16-title documentary competition includes the world premiere of Garbo: Leave Me Alone,...

This article discusses suicide and murder.

Shudder's horror movie The Devil's Bath is based on shockingly sad and scary true events. In 2024, the horror streaming service Shudder released several new films, including a German and Austrian movie titled The Devil's Bath, the creative project of filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Set in Austria, the movie is a haunting look at isolation and mental health issues, with some grotesque and disturbing scenes sprinkled throughout.

Reviews of The Devil's Bath consider it an excellent portrayal of despair and misguided faith. Though the story has fictionalized elements, similar to A24's The Witch and Midsommar, it is based on a real period of grief and religious and cultural misery. While the film explores a multi-century religious phenomenon, the main character is inspired by a real woman who underwent similar experiences. Though the movie's portrayal of the events is shockingly sad, the...

Shudder has acquired North America and UK & Ireland rights from Mister Smith Entertainment to Sasha Rainbow’s feature debut Grafted ahead of its Spanish premiere at Sitges Film Festival this weekend.

The body horror screens in the Midnight X-Treme strand on Saturday and Sunday (October 5 and 6) and follows Wei, a shy Chinese scholarship student hiding a genetic facial birthmark, who travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university.

When Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends, she immerses herself in her late father’s research into a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could help her.

V/H/S/Beyond Poster

Its that spooky time of year and Shudder is here with the return of the VHS franchise, V/H/S/Beyond, the seventh installment featuring six new bloodcurdling tapes, placing horror at the forefront of a sci-fi-inspired hellscape.

Directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Christian Long & Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, the film airs Friday, October 4.

The movie is sitting at 90% over on Rotten Tomatoes and had its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest. In their coverage, Fangoria said the segments, “knocked it out of the park on this one.”

V/H/S/Beyond – Stork Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

Some of Shudder’s notable 2024 releases include Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’S Bath, Chris Nash’s In A Violent Nature, Sébastien Vaniček’s Infested, Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ Late Night With The Devil, Damian McCarthy’s Oddity, and Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion.

This Movie...

Selection committees from countries around the world had until 5pm on October 2, 2024 to submit their entry for Best International Feature at the 2025 Oscars. Films submitted must meet the eligibility criteria and qualify between November 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024. From this group, a shortlist of 15 contenders will be revealed on December 17, 2024 and the five Oscar nominees will be announced on January 17, 2025.

Below are details on the 85 films selected.

Albania

Title: “Waterdrop”

Director: Robert Budina

Language: Albanian, Italian

Synopsis: Aida, 45, a city hall manager in a small Albanian town by Lake Ohrid, is forced to face her own complicity when her son Mark, 15, is involved in a rape scandal that could send him to jail.

Algeria

Title: “Algiers”

Director: Chakib Taleb-Bendiab

Language: Arabic, French

Synopsis: The kidnapping of a little girl creates tension and suspicion in Algiers. Only Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a police inspector, can unearth the demons of the past.

To the outside observer it may seem like every single year is called “one of the best years for horror ever,” but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: It’s never a bad year for horror. The entertainment industry damn near runs on scary movies, which are cheap to produce and able to take artistic risks that bigger budget genre films — the ones that have to sell tickets to everybody just to break in — are too timid to even consider. You can always find great horror movies. The trick is knowing where to look.

And that right there is the trick, because smaller movies don’t have huge advertising budgets, and they don’t drive traffic so publications can’t always allocate the resources to cover them. Great horror movies fall through the cracks all the time. Heck, even major theatrical releases don’t get...

Mubi has unveiled next month’s streaming lineup, including an exciting lineup of notable new releases: Bertrand Bonello’s Coma (along with Nocturama), Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet (as her newest film premieres at the New York Film Festival), Martin Rejtman’s The Practice alongside his previous features, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, and more.

As David Katz said in his review from 2022’s Berlinale, “Coma is anything but a navel-gazing work, and more one of imaginative empathy. It is not Being Bertrand Bonello, but addressed to and concerning a person of a far-removed generation and gender: his teenage daughter Anna. Some amusing early interactions with pop culture, especially music, come from this cross-generational conversation: ‘turn that garbage off’ et al. But Bonello looks at the Zoomer state of mind, as he does for much else of importance, and has cutting, perceptive and troubling things to say.”

Check out the lineup below,...

Anja Plaschg is Agnes and the composer of the score for Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s deep-rooted and incisive The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad), shot by Martin Gschlacht

Based on historical records from mid-18th century Upper Austria, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’s Bath drops us into a rural society with strict codes governing the here and the hereafter. A baby cries, as its older brother conducts a shadow play on the laundry hung out to dry in the sun. He is called back into the house by an adult male voice, while the mother picks up the infant and walks with it through the forest up to a waterfall.

Veronika Franz on Anja Plaschg doing the score for The Devil’s Bath: “We approached her in the beginning only for the music because we wanted her to compose the score and asked her if she would read the script.

France has selected Jacques Audiard’s bold musical “Emilia Perez” to represent the country in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film race, giving that category an instant frontrunner at the 97th Academy Awards.

The Netflix film, which caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival with its story of a Mexican drug lord undergoing sex reassignment surgery, is considered one of the year’s likeliest Best Picture nominees, making it a clear favorite in the international category as well.

It was chosen on Wednesday by a selection committee that had narrowed its choices to four: “Emilia Perez,” Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” Matthieu Delaporte’s “The Count of Monte Cristo” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

Last year, that committee chose “The Taste of Things” over “Anatomy of a Fall,” going with a ravishing romance over an edgier drama that had won the top prize in Cannes. “The Taste of Things...

As the Oct. 2 deadline for submitting films to the Oscars Best International Feature Film category nears, more than 50 countries have announced their entries.

Any country with a selection committee that has been approved by the Academy is allowed to submit a single film for consideration in the category. Volunteers from all branches of the Academy will cast ballots in an initial round of voting that narrows the field to a 15-film shortlist, which will be announced on Dec. 17. A second round of voting, which is restricted to members who watch all of the shortlisted films, will select the final five nominees.

Here is the complete list of submissions that have been announced so far. Inclusion on this list does not guarantee that a film will qualify, because the Academy still needs to vet each film to make sure it meets eligibility requirements ranging from the amount of non-English dialogue to...

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Speak No Evil is a psychological horror thriller film written and directed by James Watkins. Based on the 2022 Danish film of the same name written by Mads and Christian Tafdrup, the James McAvoy film follows the story of an American family as their dream holiday at a British family’s idyllic country estate turns into a nightmare because of a psychotic man. Speak No Evil also stars Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy, Dan Hough, Alix West Lefler, and Motaz Malhees. So, if you loved the thrilling story, immense tension, and compelling characters in Speak No Evil here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Speak No Evil (AMC+ & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Shudder

Speak No Evil is a Danish psychological horror thriller film directed by Christian Tafdrup from a screenplay co-written by Mads and Christian Tafdrup.

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Source: Bit Production

‘Old Fox’

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist...

This article contains discussions of suicide and child abuse.

2024 is shaping up to be a hot year for horror, but its most stunning release is already streaming on Shudder. The Devil's Bath may shock even the most seasoned genre fans not only with its grim imagery and powerful performances, but with its basis in fact. Filmmaking duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala are known for their violent psychological thrillers. Their latest film is a folk horror masterpiece that deals with one of the most troubling true stories to grace the screen.

Folk horror is an umbrella term for films that utilize folklore to create a sense of fear and dread. These films may or may not include supernatural elements, but they typically involve arcane or esoteric beliefs such as the superstitions that fueled the Salem witch trials. The rigorously-researched The Devil's Bath uses a rural, religious setting to explore the...

Black Bear’s management arm has signed Austrian filmmaking duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the directing team behind the folk horror film, “The Devil’s Bath.” Their latest production competed at this year’s Berlinale and was nominated for a Golden Bear. The film, which Variety called “beautiful” and “gripping in its austerity,” swept the Austrian Film Awards and was recently selected as Austria’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Oscars.

Franz and Fiala first attracted attention by writing and directing the horror hit “Goodnight Mommy,” which was selected as Austria’s official submission to the 2014 Academy Awards, inspiring an English-language remake starring Naomi Watts in 2022. The pair went on to write and direct “The Lodge” starring Riley Keough, which premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Neon in 2019.

Next up, the dynamic duo is set to write and direct the film adaptation of...

Source: Bit Production

‘Old Fox’

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist...

Otros de los títulos seleccionados incluyen ‘Bird’, ‘Emilia Perez’, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ y ‘The Substance’.

La Academia de Cine Europeo ha anunciado la primera selección de títulos que optan a las nominaciones de los Premios del Cine Europeo. Se han seleccionado 29 producciones y en septiembre se ampliará la lista con una nueva tanda de títulos.

En esta primera lista se encuentran tres películas españolas: Un amor, de Isabel Coixet, con siete nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024, O Corno, de Jaione Camborda, ganadora de la Concha de Oro en el Festival de San Sebastián 2023, y Volveréis, de Jonás Trueba, premio a la Mejor Película europea en la Quincena de Realizadores de Cannes.

La ceremonia de los Premios del Cine Europeo tendrá lugar el 7 de diciembre en Lucerna (Suiza). Pueden optar a los Premios del Cine Europeo los largometrajes europeos que, entre otros criterios, hayan tenido su primera proyección oficial entre el...