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Benedict Cumberbatch continues to rock the mustache while attending the Prada Spring/Summer 2026 Menswear Fashion Show on Sunday (June 22) in Milan, Italy.

The 48-year-old actor was seen sitting next to fellow Brit Archie Madekwe at the runway presentation during Milan Menswear Fashion Week.

Also in attendance were fellow actors Benito Skinner, Nicolas Maupas, Lee Do-hyun, Harris Dickinson, Riz Ahmed, Tipnaree Weerawatnodom, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Tosin Cole, Frank Dillane, Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, Finnegan Oldfield and Fernando Lindez, plus singers Stormzy, Mahmood and Giovanni Caccamo, model Caroline Daur and stylist Marc Forne.

Following the recent release of his movie The Phoenician Scheme, Benedict has another movie coming out later this summer – The Roses – with Olivia Colman.

Just last week, Benito opened up about the potential for a second season of Overcompensating, and making a new movie with co-star Owen Thiele.

Check out more photos of the celebrities attending the Prada fashion show in Milan…...

Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a cinematic love letter to the French New Wave which bowed at Cannes, will aptly kick off the third edition of the Biarritz Film Festival, also called Nouvelles Vagues, on June 24.

On the following day, Sofia Coppola, the festival’s guest of honor, will attend a screening of “Virgin Suicides” to celebrate its 25-year anniversary and take part in a masterclass before an audience filled with film students.

Coppola’s presence at the festival reflects the involvement of Chanel, a partner of the festival whose mantra is to shine a spotlight on young talent in front and behind the camera. Chanel hosted a glamorous dinner at the Grand Café du Grand Palais in Paris in honor of the festival on June 3.

Along with Nouvelles Vagues founder and president Jérôme Pulis, general delegate Sandrine Brauer and programming director Lili Hinstin, and Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky,...

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival has wrapped following days of star-studded premieres, red carpets and dealmaking on the French Riviera.

This year’s lineup included major Hollywood premieres including Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme starring Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera, Richard Linklater’s Paris-shot Breathless homage Nouvelle Vague, Jochim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Alpha to name a few.

They were joined by new films from stalwart auteurs including horrormeister Ari Aster’s buzzy A24 feature Eddington, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind. Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson debuted in Un Certain Regard with her first directorial effort, Eleanor the Great.

Related: Standing Ovations At Cannes: How We Clock Those Claps, Which Movie Holds The Record and Why The Industry Loves To Hate The Ritual

Croisette regulars Kirill Serebrennikov, Raoul Peck and...

The movie Alpha seems like it’s going to be one of the most-talked about films to come out of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival this year!

Stars Emma Mackey and Tahar Rahim were among those who walked the red carpet at the event on Monday night (May 19) in Cannes, France.

They were joined by director Julia Ducournau, who previously won the Palme d’Or for Titane, and co-stars Melissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani, Finnegan Oldfield, and Louai El Amrousy.

Alpha is about a troubled 13-year-old girl who lives alone with her mother. Their world comes crashing down the day she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm.

Variety reports that in the middle of the premiere, there was an interruption in the balcony of the auditorium and audience members began shouting for a doctor and waving their phone flashlights. The movie was not paused and paramedics arrived to...

Four years after winning the Palme d’Or for Titane, Julia Ducournau is back on the Croisette, debuting her latest Cannes Film Festival Competition entry Alpha. Inside the Palais late Monday local time, the genre-bending movie received a 12-minute ovation.

The response came after a disruption mid-screening, when some audience members in the gallery section began shouting to stop the movie. It turned out that a person was having a medical emergency. The movie continued, however, and the shouts abated after a minute or two. The person later was carried out on a stretcher.

Ducournau thanked all who supported her film after the screening, saying the team “all put a lot into the film.”

Julia Ducournau thanks everyone who supported her Cannes Palme d’Or contender ‘Alpha’ #Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/mh9gt0sDhu

— Deadline (@Deadline) May 19, 2025

Alpha centers on 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros), a troubled girl who lives with her single mom.

“Titane” director Julia Ducournau made a triumphant return to Cannes Monday evening with her new feature “Alpha.” The mother-daughter infection thriller earned an enthusiastic 11.5-minute ovation after its premiere — one of the most glowing in-person receptions thus far at this year’s film festival. As the applause raged on, Ducournau grew visibly emotional, wiping tears away and making a heart with her hands as a sign of gratitude.

But the premiere of “Alpha” faced a brief interruption when, about an hour into the film’s runtime, attendees in the balcony began waving their phone flashlights. Some audience members shouted for a doctor in French, asking for the screening to be halted. Paramedics eventually arrived and, shortly after, one audience member was carried out on a stretcher. The screening of “Alpha” continued without pausing as the incident unfolded.

It remains unclear what the cause of the medical emergency was. The incident...

Julia Ducournau has insisted that genre “imposed a distance” on her first two features, but to watch her third — the dour and dismal “Alpha,” which eschews the more legible body horror of her earlier work in favor of a comparatively grounded AIDS allegory — is to appreciate that genre wasn’t a wedge between emotions in “Raw” and “Titane” so much as it was a conduit for them. Depriving herself of that same channel as she plunges headlong into the most loaded material of her career so far, Ducournau struggles to find another mode of expression that might be able to take its place.

Regrettably, “Alpha” is just a few minutes old before that struggle begins to seem futile, as the opening scenes are so helplessly adrift within a cold gray sea of unformed feeling that the rest of the film can only do its best to tread water. The only...

Judging by the sudden spike in high-concept AIDS allegories hitting the festival circuit, it must have been the shock of Covid-19 that sent so many artists’ minds racing back to that previous pandemic. In many ways, the mistakes in handling that crisis taught us how to approach subsequent outbreaks in a more humane way.

Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival two years after “Titane” took the Palme d’Or, Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” is one of three science fiction entries at this year’s fest in which an imaginary, allegorical illness allows a filmmaker to revisit the trauma and tragedy of the AIDS crisis. “Alpha” is by far the most exasperating of these movies, at once bluntly obvious and maddeningly unclear, taking as its protagonist a 13-year-old girl (Mélissa Boros) who comes home from a party with a crude homemade tattoo.

What was the needle like? Was it clean or dirty?...

“Alpha” is a new psychological horror feature, written and directed by Julia Ducournau, starring Mélissa Boros, Golfhisfteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, Louai El Amrousy, Jean-Charles Clichet, and Christophe Perez, opening Tba in 2025 in theaters:

“…’Alpha’, a troubled teen lives with her single mom.

“Then their world collapses the day she returns from school with a weird tattoo on her arm…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 19, 2025.

Netflix finds the way to Sesame Street

Netflix has acquired global streaming rights to Sesame Street, the genre-defining children's television series that's been entertaining and educating young viewers for over 50 years. The pickup comes six months after Warner Bros. Discovery opted to not renew its streaming deal for Sesame Street, leaving the show's future in jeopardy. But the crisis is averted, and Sesame Street Season 56 will premiere later this year on Netflix. According to Netflix, the new season will feature format changes and the return of popular segments like "Elmo’s World" and "Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck." Additionally, episodes will be built around one longer, 11-minute story. Netflix has exclusive worldwide premiere rights, but episodes will continue to be available day-and-date on PBS stations in the U.S. and across PBS Kids digital platforms. Netflix will also be able to develop video games...

Writer and director Julia Ducournau is known for her shocking examinations of family, gender, and trying to exist in the world as an outsider. Her first two features Raw and Titane stunned audiences with her unflinching and gnarly portrayals of young women rebelling against societal norms. Now, she’s getting ready to shock us again with her third feature film, Alpha, which is coming this year from Neon.

In the new film, “Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.”

Watch the new teaser trailer:

Alpha is set during the 1980s and 1990s, when a fictional epidemic not unlike AIDS is ravaging the world’s population. Ducournau, who was born at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, told Vanity Fair, “[Alpha] is a reflection about how this fear has been transmitted, and the impact...

"You don't remember me?" Neon has unveiled a first look teaser trailer for the new genre film titled Alpha, the third feature from French filmmaker maestro Julia Ducournau. This is her highly anticipated follow-up to Titane, which won the Palme d'Or in 2021 when Spike Lee was head of the jury. She's back again 4 years later with her next feature - filmed in Le Havre in the north of France. It's described as her "most personal, profound work" yet - the rest of the plot is being kept a secret. Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm. What does it all mean? We'll know soon. Starring Mélissa Boros as Alpha, with Golshifteh Farahani as Maman, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield. The film is premiering tonight at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the...

Julia Ducournau’s Alpha has been generating buzz in Cannes and now the genre-bending pic has a teaser trailer.

The film, which is playing in Competition on the Criosette, follows Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old who lives her single mom. When she returns home from school with a tattoo on her arm, their world collapses.

North American distributor Neon has now released an intense trailer that opens with the mother (Goldhiefteh Farahani) cradling her daughter (Mélissa Boros) in her arms as she sings softly. A series of shots that show their lives going from a happy existence to a much darker place follow.

Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackay, Finnegan Oldfield and Louai El Amrousy also star.

Producers for Alpha are Jean des Forêts and Amelie Jacquis of Petit Film and Eric & Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie, with Frakas Productions co-producing.

Neon has North American rights, with Charades and FilmNation Entertainment are handling sales outside North America.

Body horror fans, get ready for a new trip into shock cinema. Julia Ducournau, who directed the visceral horror films Raw and Titane, saddles up to release her third film, Alpha. Titane was a milestone for the filmmaker as she became the second woman director to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. FilmNation and Charades presented Alpha to potential buyers at the Cannes market, and it was reported that the indie studio, Neon, would come out with the distribution rights to the film. Now, Neon has released a brand new foreboding teaser trailer for the film. You can view it above.

Alpha stars Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, Mélissa Boros, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield and Louai El Amrousy. The plot description reads, “Alpha. A troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.” Sounds like a basic plot for a family drama,...

Set for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today, Alpha provides Julia Ducournau the unenviable task of following 2021’s Palme d’Or winner Titane. Starring Mélissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield, the film now has a first teaser ahead of Neon’s October 2025 theatrical release.

Here’s the brief synopsis: “Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.” While running a scant 40 seconds, the teaser introduces a family drama with a dark twist.

“How are you born into the world when everything is dying? That’s the question of the film,” the director tells Vanity Fair. “Alpha comes from this love that I have for this very transitional, uncomfortable space. It has to do with your body changing, specific smells, your own habitat—being between an animal and a human.

Four years after Julia Ducournau won the Palme d’Or with her jaw-dropping body horror car sex drama “Titane,” the filmmaker is back on the Cannes Croisette with her “Alpha.”

Ducournau’s third feature which, like “Titane,” will be distributed by Neon, centers on a titular teen whose life is upended after a mysterious decision. The film’s official logline reads: “Alpha (Mélissa Boros) is a troubled 13 year old who lives with her single mom (Golshifteh Farahani). Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.” Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, and Louai El Amrousy star.

“Alpha” is premiering in competition at Cannes, with Ducournau being one of seven female directors with new films in the main competition. Kelly Reichardt will also launch “The Mastermind,” while Mascha Schilinski has “Sound of Falling,” Lynne Ramsay has “Die My Love,” along with Hafsia Herzi’s “La Petite Dernière,...

Love him or hate him, mystery fans can't get enough of Harlan Coben. The American novelist has attracted devoted readers from around the world who buy his books for their shocking twists, indulgent characters, and thrillingly baffling conclusions. Some have favorably compared him to Stephen King; others, such as The Independent's Nick Hilton, feel that he makes "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown look like "a paragon of literary restraint" by comparison.

Naturally, Coben has caught the attention of Hollywood producers. There had been some successful attempts at adapting his work in the 2000s and 2010s, as well as a few unsuccessful attempts. Things really took off in 2018, when Coben signed a deal with Netflix to produce several serialized adaptations of his work. The results have been very mixed, so we took a look at them all to determine which Harlan Coben Netflix series is the best.

Read...

If you're a fan of thrillers, Netflix has no shortage of options, especially with its selection of Harlan Coben adaptations. Coben, known for his suspenseful novels, has become a popular name in the streaming world with many of his books turned into Netflix shows. However, not all of them live up to the hype.

As of right now, there are 10 television series adaptations and one original series of his currently streaming on Netflix. They are Safe, Stay Close, The Innocent, The Stranger, Gone for Good, The Woods, Hold Tight, Missing You, Caught, Fool Me Once and Just One Look. While each of these series has its share of twists and surprises, not all of them succeed in maintaining your interest or keeping the momentum strong throughout. Some may leave you hooked for a few episodes, only to disappoint with predictable plotlines, pacing issues, underdeveloped characters, or unsatisfying conclusions.

We would...

As one of the most prolific and successful mystery writers of the past 30 years, it's unsurprising that many of Harlan Coben's novels have been adapted for the small screen by a streamer like Netflix. Featuring more twists and turns than a country lane, Coben's stories are perfectly suited to the miniseries format. However, some have been more successful than others. Of the eight Coben books so far adapted, most have enjoyed a generally positive critical reception.

Productions of Safe, The Stranger, The Woods, The Innocent, Stay Close, and Fool Me Once have all been rated as "Fresh" on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – further highlighting just how suited Coben's writing is to television. However, the burgeoning Coben-verse hasn't been a total success. Gone for Good and Hold Tight have both failed to impress critics, while other shows have been more polarizing than their overall critical scores suggest.

Harlan Coben's...

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Missing You is a mystery thriller drama series created by Victoria Asare-Archer. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by author Harlan Coben, the Netflix series follows detective Kate Donovan, who finds her missing fiancé on a dating app ten years after he supposedly disappeared. Missing You stars Rosalind Eleazar, Jessica Plummer, Richard Armitage, Lenny Henry, Steve Pemberton, Marc Warren, Samantha Spiro, Lisa Faulkner, Mary Malone, and Ashley Walters. So, if you loved the dark secrets, thrilling story, and compelling characters in Missing You, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Fool Me Once (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

Fool Me Once is a British mystery thriller drama series created by Danny Brocklehurst, Charlotte Coben, Yemi Oyefuwa, Nina Metivier, and Tom Farrelly. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Harlan Coben, the Netflix series follows Maya Stern,...

Production is officially underway on Alice Winocour‘s fifth feature film, Coutures aka Stitches, and the casting announcements keep getting bigger. Joining yesterday’s reveal of Angelina Jolie are Louis Garrel and Ella Rumpf who reteams with her Raw co-star Garance Marillier, model Anyier Anei and Finnegan Oldfield who round out the ensemble. Variety reports that filming is currently underway in Paris. Other behind the line players involved include cinematographer Andre Chemetoff (he just completed Shaden Safieddine Tazi’s Un jour tout va disparaitre), costume designer Pascaline Chavanne, and production designer Florian Sanson. Producers include CG Cinéma’s Charles Gillibert and Closer Media’s Zhang Xin and William Horberg.…...

César Award winners Ella Rumpf and Louis Garrel will co-star alongside Angelina Jolie in director Alice Winocour’s first English-language film “Stitches.”

I can also exclusively report that Anyier Anei, Garance Marillier and Finnegan Oldfield have been cast as well.

“Stiches” follows American filmmaker Maxine (Jolie) on a “life and death journey as she arrives in Paris for Fashion Week,” reads an official logline of the movie. Filming is currently underway in Paris.

The production team includes cinematographer Andre Chemetoff, costume designer Pascaline Chavanne, and production designer Florian Sanson.

Charles Gillibert of CG Cinéma is producing alongside Zhang Xin and William Horberg of Closer Media, Bob Xu is serving as an executive producer. Pathé Films, which previously collaborated with Winocour on her Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premiere “Revoir Paris,” will handle distribution in France.

“Stiches” financing was structured by UTA Independent Film Group, who are also representing global and North American rights,...

Monsters of all kinds have fascinated humanity for millennia, oftentimes as an explanation for some of the world's most confounding ills and sources of fear. From sabertooth tigers painted on cave walls to modern horror movies, humans have memorialized the nightmarish bogeymen that have imprinted themselves on history. Contemporary pop culture is now marked by the latest interpretations of vampires, aliens, werewolves, and demons, all of which have proven impervious to the march of time.

As cinema creeps forward with a revamped interest in the horror genre in the 2020s, it's appropriate to look back on the greatest monster movies of all time. While one could consider any non-human entity a "monster", this list is an attempt at representing some of the most well-known and highly-acclaimed monster movies from several of the most popular horror sub-genres. While each horror subgenre could be broken out into its own list, a la...

Infested, directed by Sbastien Vaniek, has received high praise by Stephen King and others for being scary, gross, and well-made. The film follows Kaleb, who brings home a venomous spider that quickly escapes and turns his apartment into a deadly trap. Vaniek is set to direct the next Evil Dead spin-off, citing the creative freedom he will have on the project as a major draw for him.

Before Sbastien Vaniek releases his anticipated spin-off of the Evil Dead franchise, audiences were treated to his old-fashioned spider film that delivers on everything it promises, Infested. The French flick by the director is currently streaming on Shudder, and has been earning high praise all around, including a positive endorsement from the master of horror himself, Stephen King.

Infested (2024) 5/5

Release DateApril 26, 2024DirectorSbastien VanicekCastTho Christine, Sofia Lesaffre, Jrme Niel, Lisa Nyarko, Finnegan Oldfield, Marie-Philomene, NgaRuntime106 MinutesMain GenreHorror

King took to X (formerly Twitter) recently...

Stephen King praises Infested for being "scary, gross, well made" in a glowing review on X. Infested received overwhelmingly positive reviews for delivering compelling thrills and developing human characters. The spider-centric horror film has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Stephen King offers praise for Infested, a new skin-crawling horror movie with a near-perfect 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. Directed by Sbastien Vaniek in his feature debut, with a script he co-wrote with Florent Bernard, the French-language horror film (originally titled Vermines) follows the residents of an apartment building as they battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders. The cast includes Tho Christine (Suprmes), Finnegan Oldfield (Final Cut), Jrme Niel (Smoking Causes Coughing), Sofia Lesaffre (Les Misrables), and Lisa Nyarko.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, King shared a glowing review for Infested, calling it "scary, gross" and "well made." Read his full post below:

Infested (Shudder): Spiders,...

Stars: Theo Christine, Sofia Lesaffre, Jerome Niel, Lisa Nyarko, Finnegan Oldfield, Marie-Philomene Nga, Mahamadou Sangare, Abdallah Moundy, Ike Zacsongo-Joseph, Emmanuel Bonami, Xing Xing Cheng, Samir Nait, Malik Amraoui | Written by Sébastien Vanicek, Florent Bernard | Directed by Sébastien Vanicek

Arachnophobes are in for a bit of a rough time, because streaming platforms and cinemas will be positively crawling with spider-based monster movies before you know it. Well, two, anyway. First up is French spider-thriller Infested (out now on Shudder), with Australian creature feature Sting creeping into cinemas on May 31st.

Also known as Vermines, Infested is the feature debut of French director Sebastien Vanicek. Set in present-day Paris, the film centres on hustler Kaleb (Theo Christine), who shares a flat with his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko) in a run-down apartment building that’s home to several other multicultural tenants.

When exotic animal enthusiast Kaleb brings home an illegal spider, he names...

A humanist approach to horror shines through in Infested, which delves into layers of social commentary and fear beyond spiders. Arachnophobia and claustrophobia work hand in hand, creating a thrilling ride filled with terror-inducing elements. Infested not only presents spiders as monsters but also sheds light on a more sinister evil lurking within humanity itself.

One of the most common fears people have is arguably that of spiders, and Infested the title alone is enough to make anyone's skin crawl takes full advantage of this. Indeed, Shudder's newest film deftly maintains throughout its runtime that all-too-familiar anxiety of feeling like something is crawling up your arm, thrumming with a steady paranoia as the characters duck around web-covered corners. In this way, it essentially operates as a great survival movie that skates into creature-feature territory, while also weaving in psychological and body horror elements. That said, Infested's most remarkable trait is how,...

One of my favorite horror films of the year thus far, Infested pits an eclectic group of apartment tenants against rapidly reproducing spiders. As thought-provoking as it is palpably horrifying, Infested has now skittered onto Shudder, and I had the pleasure of catching up with director/co-writer Sébastien Vaniček in a video interview to discuss his new movie, including the spider-centric research that went into the making of the film's realistic effects, the movie's exploration of socioeconomic divisions, as well as the excellent performances from the cast, and Sébastien also shared his excitement for his upcoming Evil Dead movie!

Synopsis: "Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a...

It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a tried and true, serious-in-tone creature feature, or at least one in which the creature in question is a real-world animal and not a fictitious monster. This sub-genre often finds its roots planted firmly in horror comedy or, intentionally or not, camp. So it’s refreshing that Infested (formerly titled Vermin), Sébastien Vaniček‘s feature directorial debut, takes a deathly serious approach to the material. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with these spiders, but there’s nothing funny about them.

30-year-old Kaleb (Théo Christine) is a small-time grifter with a passion for small critters. His hopes of opening a reptile zoo with his friend Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield) were squashed years ago when an argument drove the two friends apart. Kaleb makes up for his lost dream by lining the walls of his room with vivariums filled with creepy-crawlies.

Stars: Théo Christine, Lisa Nykaro, Finnegan Oldfield, Sofia Lesaffre | Written by Sébastien Vanicek, Florent Bernard | Directed by Sébastien Vanicek

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Sting was pitting an oversized spider against the inhabitants of an NYC apartment building. Now we have Infested, which pits the inhabitants of a French housing project against a horde of arachnids. Arachnids that the prologue implies are both deadly and in demand.

One of the people that demand comes from is Kaleb. He’s a young man trying to make a living hustling sneakers and whatever else he can make a quick profit from. It’s not exactly a thriving business, and he’s stuck living with his sister Manon in the rundown apartment they inherited from their mother. Adding to his unhappiness is a falling out with his long time friend Jordy.

To cheer himself up, he decides to make...

In an odd quirk of distribution timing, this month has seen the arrival of no less than two imported, semi-comedic thrillers featuring decrepit apartment building invaded by giant spiders. Already playing U.S. theaters is the Australian “Sting,” which is fun, if formulaic. In a whole other class, however, is French “Infested,” a first feature by director Sebastien Vanicek following several impressive shorts. An instant minor genre classic, it is fun and then some — a conceptually unremarkable but resourceful, energetic, stylish and good-humored creature feature with above-average human character interest.

That achievement has been duly noted: Intended as a streaming premiere, “Vermines” (the original title) pleased its producer such that he apparently insisted on a home-turf theatrical release, despite the long delay that imposes on its launch in other formats under French law. It’s seen big-screen release in numerous nations since late last year, though in the U.S.

April showers scare up new horror films and series on Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, for its annual Halfway to Halloween horror-thon. Too much fun to celebrate just once a year, the streamer celebrates the halfway point to Halloween every April with a killer lineup of Shudder Original Film premieres, Live viewing parties for Shudder’s Original series The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, and more. The horror celebration is timed to Shudder TV’s launch on AMC+ with new events including marathons of signature series and Live watch parties for new film premieres.

Fans are invited to follow along on @shudder social for #HalfwaytoHalloween recommended films to watch all month long.

Shudder’s Halfway to Halloween highlights include:

Baghead (Shudder Exclusive Film)

New Film Premieres Friday, April 5

Following the death of her estranged father (Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down,...

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. An exclusive new clip gives a discomfiting closer look at the spider terror, and it’ll make you intensely afraid of all bathroom drains and fixtures.

Infested will induce a new wave of arachnophobia this week; the spider horror film arrives on Shudder on April 26, 2024.

If you’re brave enough to face your fears, watch the new clip below to get a feel for the unrelenting wave of spiders that the characters (and the audience) will face in the film.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

“The story revolves around Kaleb,...

What’s that? Another Eight new horror movies are releasing this week?! The fresh horrors on tap include a prequel to a box office hit, a violent thriller produced by Sam Raimi, the feature debut of a horror master’s daughter, and a skin-crawling nightmare filled with spiders.

Here’s all the new horror releasing April 22, 2024 – April 28, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

First up we have a TV series rather than a movie, but we wanted to remind you that Prime Video’s “Them: The Scare,” the second season of the anthology series, premieres on April 25.

The first season of “Them” (now retroactively dubbed “Covenant”) debuted back in 2021, and this second installment of the anthology series will consist of eight episodes.

“Them: The Scare” will once again be set in Los Angeles…

The story centers on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve, who is...

Infested continues the recent resurgence of spider-focused horror movies with a terrifying atmosphere, effective visuals and engaging characters. Co-writer/director Sébastien Vaniek held nothing back in making his feature directorial debut, wanting to ensure he made the "best first feature" possible with crazy effects and a layered story. Vaniek also praises Sam Raimi for the creative freedom he's being given on the next Evil Dead movie, which he teases will break a lot of the franchise's rules.

The spider-based horror genre continues to enjoy a creepy resurgence with Infested. Hailing from French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček in his feature directorial debut, the movie comes at a time in which arachnids are finding a new life on screen, releasing near the somewhat comedically-driven Australian-American production Sting, which centered on a troubled young girl befriending an alien spider, only for it to go on a brutal murder spree in her rundown apartment building.

For movies about killer spiders, the things that are generally of primary concern are the size and the volume of the spiders. With that in mind, connoisseurs of this horror subgenre should be pleased to find that Sébastien Vaniček’s feature-length debut, Infested, delivers on both of those fronts. While the spiders here, a highly poisonous and aggressive desert species, may initially emerge at a deceptively normal size, they gradually balloon to larger proportions as they overwhelm an apartment block in a French banlieue. They’re also a rapidly reproducing breed, to the point where their offspring and their offspring’s offspring are eventually scampering all over the building’s walls, ceilings, air ducts, and residents.

In expected creature-feature form, Infested is quick to explain how these deadly arachnids made their journey to an unfamiliar urban environment. Following a frenzied opening in a patch of Middle Eastern desert where three...

Exclusive: Shudder has unveiled the programming you can expect from its monthlong Halfway to Halloween horror-thon, kicking off today.

In addition to the premieres of the service’s record-breaking theatrical hit Late Night with the Devil, the creature feature Infested and supernatural horror Baghead, viewers will be treated to live watch parties of B-movie celebration The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, and more.

A trailer teasing Shudder’s Halfway to Halloween can be found above. For more of what you can expect from the horror celebration, timed to Shudder TV’s launch on AMC+, as well as information on all the new films coming to the streamer this month, read on.

Halfway to Halloween programming includes:

Baghead (Shudder Exclusive Film)

New Film Premieres Friday, April 5

Following the death of her estranged father (Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down, centuries-old pub. She travels to Berlin...

Before he directs the new Evil Dead spinoff (as previously reported by Deadline), filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček is delivering spider-centric scares to the screen with his new movie Infested, and we have a look at the trailer ahead of its April 26th streaming release on Shudder.

Director: Sébastien Vaniček

Screenwriters: Florent Bernard, Sébastien Vaniček

Cast: Théo Christine, Finnegan Oldfield, Jérôme Niel, Sofia Lesaffre and Lisa Nyarko

Producer: Harry Tordjman

Cinematographer: Alexandre Jamin

Editor: Thomas Fernandez, Nassim Gordji Tehrani

Composer: Xavier Caux, Douglas Cavanna

Languages: French

Country of Origin: France, United States

Running Time: 106 minutes

Synopsis: "Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce,...

Director Sébastien Vanicek’s debut feature Infested, a spider-filled French thriller that was formerly known as Vermin, won’t be released through the Shudder streaming service until April 26th, but it has already proved to be impressive enough to those who have already seen it (like Sam Raimi) that it landed Vanicek the job of directing the next Evil Dead movie. In anticipation of the Shudder release, a trailer for Infested has made its way online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Shudder will be streaming the film in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Scripted by Vanicek and Florent Bernard, Infested has the following synopsis: Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a...

"If it wasn't a needle, what caused it?" Oh hell no!! Shudder has revealed the official US trailer for another extremely scary spider horror movie titled Infested - this one is from France. It's also arriving this spring, around same time as the other spider horror movie called Sting. Infested, originally known as Vermines in French, first premiered a the 2023 Venice Film Festival, with stops at Sitges, Fantasy Filmfest, L'Étrange, Splat!, Slash, and other genre film festivals around the world. Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders. This is the film that supposedly used actual, real spiders to film with - though clearly there's a point where they become CGI and this gets even crazier. Infested weaves its eerie tale on Shudder starting April 26th. Starring Théo Christine, Finnegan Oldfield, Jérôme Niel, Sofia Lesaffre, and Lisa Nyarko. Yeah I'm way, way...

Sébastien Vaniček has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, but first we need to experience the film that landed him the hot directing gig in the first place. It’s a spider horror movie titled Infested (Vermines), and the nightmarish trailer is here.

Look for Infested to hit Shudder on April 26, 2024.

Watch the creepy, crawly trailer for Infested below, which looks a bit like Evil Dead Rise… with spiders. It’s already easy to see why Vaniček was chosen to direct an Evil Dead movie!

In the horror film, “Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce,...

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. New images give a closer look at the arachnophobia-inducing terror ahead.

Look for Infested to arrive on Shudder on April 26, 2024.

Check out the new images below, giving a closer look at the characters and the spiders that have laid siege to their building.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

“The story revolves around Kaleb, who’s about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend.

“Passionate about exotic animals, he comes home...

In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, Bloody Disgusting’s Trace Thurman raved that Infested (aka Vermines) is “one of the best spider attack movies in years,” noting in his 4-star review that the creature feature uses practical spiders – Real Spiders – as much as possible. The film has been acquired for U.S. release by Shudder, but we don’t yet have a date.

In the meantime, a brand new French teaser trailer for Infested has arrived this week, and trust us when we say it’s as creepy crawly as you’re probably afraid this one is going to be.

Sébastien Vaniček directed the upcoming Infested, which is set in the French projects.

In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.

Paris-based Urban Sales has acquired Jean-Claude Monod’s queer period drama Girl For A Day and Jul and Jean-Paul Guigue’s hybrid animation Silex And The City and is launching sales for both films at Unifrance’s Paris Rendez-Vous next week,

Set in the 18th century, Girl For A Day is Monod’s debut feature and is based on the true story of a person called Anne Grandjean who was urged to dress as a man and change her name due to her attraction to women, and was then brought to trial. Marie Toscan stars alongside Call My Agent’s Thibault de Montalembert,...

Vermin treads a familiar path at first. It begins with a monster hunt, in an unspecified desert, led by unnamed hunters. The sequence references the likes of Braindead (a high-octane piece of carnage that precedes the appearance of the film's title board) and The Exorcist (a mood-setting prologue). One may find Vermin, set in a Parisian banlieue, also reminiscent of this year’s Evil Dead Rise. Direct and indirect references aside, as time goes on, Sébastien Vaniček crafts an impressively self-sufficient horror film with a dash of socio-political commentary.

Meet Kaleb (Théo Christine). He’s an unhappy 20-something. His source of income is his under-the-counter sneakers enterprise. His apartment, inherited from his deceased mother, requires constant repairs. His sister, who lives with Kaleb, is almost as distant to him as his long-estranged childhood friend, Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield), whom Kaleb can’t forgive for breaking an old promise.

Kaleb’s lonely.

Director Sébastien Vanicek’s debut feature Infested, a spider-filled French thriller that was formerly known as Vermin (which I feel is a better title than the overused Infested), is set to have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, then it will be heading over to Fantastic Fest. But before it starts making the festival rounds, it has already secured distribution through the Shudder streaming service! Shudder is planning to release the film in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand sometime in 2024.

Scripted by Vanicek and Florent Bernard, Infested has the following synopsis: Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a bazaar and brings it back to his flat. It only takes a...

Arachnophobes beware, you’re in for a scare with new Shudder acquisition Infested, previously titled Vermin.

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, announced today it has acquired North American, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand rights to Charades and Wtf Films’ thriller Infested ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

In the film, “Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a bazaar and brings it back to his flat. It only takes a moment for it to escape and reproduce, turning the whole place into a dreadful web trap. At the same time, the police lock down the building where the residents are ambushed. Only option for Kaleb...

In theaters today from Kino Lorber is Final Cut, from writer / director Michel Hazanavicius and starring Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Matilda Lutz, Finnegan Oldfield. A remake of Shin’ichirô Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead, the film is a blood-soaked love letter to the filmmaking process that is sure to bring a smile to your face. In our latest Q&a, Michel Hazanavicius talks about the origins of Final Cut, pulling inspiration from past filmmaking experiences, and the challenges of making a bloody zombie film that also has a 35-minute single shot:

How did you first become aware of Shin’ichirō Ueda's One Cut of the Dead and how did Final Cut come about as your latest film?

Michel Hazanavicius: I was working on an animated movie when the pandemic stopped the financing of it. So during the lockdown, I started to write a script for a comedy based on a set,...

If one must ascribe a theme to the Michel Hazanavicius project, it might be documenting the progression of film history: The Artist the silent era, Redoubtable the new wave, and now Final Cut the dreaded hyper-capitalist streaming era. Considering his 2014 Cannes completion entry and Fred Zinnemann remake The Search, likely one of the most-forgotten works of recent times, seemingly killed all his Hollywood crossover potential in one fell swoop, there’s likely some bitterness about being the rare French Academy Award winner still at the mercy of ever-changing markets.

Having (admittedly) never seen Shin’ichirō Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead I’m unsure to what degree his remake, Final Cut, is riffing or reinventing the basic premise, but it’s not hard to detect some personal angle when a seeming Hazanivicius stand-in, fading French director Remi (Romain Duris), serves as the lead. An opportunity for the helmer comes when...

Pop quiz: You’re a filmmaker. You’re making a zombie movie. The crew is … let’s be charitable and say “adequate.” The budget is somewhere in the high three-figure range at best. Your main actor is a pompous diva. Even worse, your lead actress isn’t giving you the amount of bone-chilling terror that you require. The climax involves her character killing the hungry corpse — also the man she loved — who’s now trying to eat her flesh. If she can’t sell the sense of sorrow and the scares,...