News

The latest horror flick filled with immense badassery to be added to Shudder's library is the fifth sequel in the Phantasm franchise, Phantasm: Ravager. Also in today's Highlights: details on the Clive Barker Reel Fear Contest, Portland International Film Festival's After Dark program, release details for Slasher.com and The Eyes, a new poster for Atomica, and production news and photos for A Haunting at Silver Falls II.

Phantasm: Ravager Comes to Shudder: "Joining Shudder is Phantasm: Ravager- the final installment of the long-running Phantasm series.

In addition to Phantasm: Ravager, streaming exclusively on Shudder is the remaster of Don Coscarelli’s 1979 classic Phantasm, as well as its sequels Phantasm III and Phantasm IV.

Phantasm was recently restored by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Coscarelli, and given both a new 4K remaster and a 5.1 surround sound mix, which will be the version presented exclusively on Shudder."

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Clive Barker Reel...

Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Crimson Peak) has contributed two signed items, a copy of Pacific Rim and The Book of Life, to A Cause for Entertainment's auction to fight breast cancer. Also in today's Horror Highlights: Friday the 13th franchise enamel pins from Fright Rags, the list of short films at Fantastic Fest 2016, Dr. West: A Reanimated Parody sneak peek details, and info on the new poetry collection, As the Blade Cuts.

Guillermo del Toro-Signed Memorabilia at A Cause for Entertainment's Auction to Fight Breast Cancer: "Starting bid: $50.00

Oscar nominated Writer/Director Guillermo Del Toro, known for his work on Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth and Crimson Peak, has generously donated a signed copy of his film Pacific Rim and his book “The Book of Life” to support the fight against breast cancer.

Auction starts: October 17th, 2016 12:00 am

Auction ends: November 6th, 2016 7:30 pm...

We have long been fans of filmmaker Eric Lim in these parts, with a quick search of the TwitchFilm archives pulling up stories about his work going back around a decade now. He's a bit of a hard guy to pin down, really, most often serving officially as a producer on projects but typically far more involved than that tag implies with Lim generally fostering communities of like minded talents with whom he creates a pretty much glorious assortment of oddities. There have been giant monster films, science fiction, action, and a dark fantasy fueled by personal tragedy. And now he's going somewhere he's never gone before: The western. Lim's latest work sees him re-team with director Stephen Reedy - with whom he collaborated on...

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

We have long been fans of filmmaker Eric Lim in these parts, with a quick search of the TwitchFilm archives pulling up stories about his work going back around a decade now. He's a bit of a hard guy to pin down, really, most often serving officially as a producer on projects but typically far more involved than that tag implies with Lim generally fostering communities of like minded talents with whom he creates a pretty much glorious assortment of oddities. There have been giant monster films, science fiction, action, and a dark fantasy fueled by personal tragedy. And now he's going somewhere he's never gone before: The western. Lim's latest work sees him re-team with director Stephen Reedy - with whom he collaborated on...

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

Why Watch? In 2011, Tanya Lim committed suicide. Her brother Eric wanted to use the wedding funds she left behind to create a film — one that would ultimately be born from and fight against self-destruction. The result from writer/director Stephen Reedy is a blend of documentary style storytelling, personal poetry and (of course) flame-bathed Scott Pilgrim-like action sequences where struggle is personified as a savage demon. It’s an innovative angle, but far beyond the digital artistry, it’s a profoundly personal story worth hearing and sharing. What Will It Cost? Between 4 and 5 minutes. Watch More Short Films...

Here's a beautifully shot short film called The Forge that was made to send out a positive anti-suicide message. It's done in a visually explosive way. The movie was written and directed by Stephen Reedy, and it was inspired by the death of the sister of the film's star Eric Lim. She took her own life. This may be influenced by a tragic event, but this delivers an inspiring message of hope for anyone that is hurting, and it's told in a very stunning way. Here's a message from the director,

The Forge, an emotional, anti-suicide message in which a man battles his inner demon in a fight for his life.

You see... our friend’s sister, Tanya Lim, killed herself, leaving behind her savings to her brother and aspiring movie producer Eric. Eric felt the only appropriate use of this tragic gift was to make something both in her...

In the latest installment of our Indie Spotlight, we have the third episode of Ghost Trek, news of indie horror acquisitions, a free online horror movie festival, and more:

Ghost Trek Episode 3: Ghost Trek follows the Paranormal Underworld Detective Society (Puds) as they investigate haunts across the U.S. and abroad between tanning beds, babes, body-building, and bong hits — all the while risking life and limb capturing the undead and unexplained on video.

The team is lead by Dr. Zeke Wallace (Michael Melendez), a good-looking ex-chiropractor turned paranormal investigator, his ex-girlfriend and show’s producer, Shawna Leibowitz (Gia Allemand), Scary Carrie Carmichael (Christy Johnson), the “Living-Dead Roller-Girl” case manager, Barry ‘The Bomb’ Burkowski and Joey ‘Mayhem’ Moscone affectionately called The Goon Squad (Colt Cabana and Disco Inferno), The fashion-conscious psychic Guy Swisher (Brett Gentile), the team’s tech specialists and devoted stoners are Robbie (Michael Bortone) and Ray-Ray (Jonny...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? The Boy Mir: Ten Years In Afghanistan Trailer Put this on my list of documentaries about the wars in the Middle East that I want to check out.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Balls + Heart: Director Stephen Reedy In One Minute Or Your Money Back Trailer If nothing else, it's worth it to see Shia Labeouf drop a little profanity.

Zack Snyder’s forthcoming genrebender shoot-em-up Sucker Punch is a visual feast and we were fortunate enough to get some time with renowned artist Alex Pardee whose illustrations inspired and feature in Snyder’s film.

When we reviewed The Art of Sucker Punch we included some of the concept art and lavish designs for the film and Pardee’s hand can be seen in much of the final film. Here he talks about his collaboration with Snyder and Production Designer Rick Carter and his own personal and professional inspirations behind his work on Sucker Punch.

1. What was the collaboration with Zack Snyder like? Did he have rough ideas, sketches of his own, or other artworks that inspired him?

Working with Zack is incredible because he’s an ace at setting an example and trusting his team. It was inspiring not only working with him one on one, but getting allowed...

Info Meme

Bryan Singer, who directed the two good X-Men films, is coming back to direct X-Men: First Class, which is evidently an origin story about Professor Xavier’s first students. Obviously, all the original actors except Patrick Stewart are going to be way too old to play themselves in this, so I suppose we’re looking at an all-new cast of hot actors. Singer’s always had excellent taste in hot men. Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Angel are who need cast, according to Wikipedia. Ideas?

The cast of the U.S. version of Shameless is starting to take shape. We already knew William H. Macy was Frank, but now we find out Emily Rossum will pick up the Fiona role, Allison Janney (goddess) will play a role that sounds like Sheila, maybe, and Justin Chatwin will be Steve, originated by hunky James McAvoy. The cast is stellar, other than Chatwin,...