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We return with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. Today’s feature includes the short film “Hold Your Fire,” release details for The Black Dahlia Haunting, trailers for Truth or Dare and The Shadows, and much more:

Full Short Film “Hold Your Fire”: “Twitch Film proudly presents the online premiere of artist-turned-filmmaker Wes Benscoter’s debut short film, Hold Your Fire, exclusively at Twitch Film.

A ghostly soldier comes face to face with this grim reality of his war-torn existence on the battlefield… and beyond! Assaulting international audiences at festivals from Montreal’s Fantasia to Sitges, Fantasporto, A Night of Horror, and Dead by Dawn, to sending domestic shivers up spines at Screamfest, Boston Underground, and the New York City Horror Film Festival, Twitch Film now takes the mantle in offering Wes Benscoter’s mini-masterpiece to its largest audience ever.

A twenty-year veteran of horrific illustration,...

After announcing the 12 projects that comprise its Frontières selection of film projects in May, the Fantasia International Film Festival's Frontières International Co-Production Market’s team has now revealed the event’s Off-Frontières line-up of 12 projects. Read on for the details of this latest dirty dozen.

The first Frontières announcement contained new projects being pitched by Joe Dante, Bobcat Goldthwait, Richard Stanley, and more. The following Off-Frontières projects come from such amazing talent as Larry Fessenden, The Rasmussen Brothers, and Josh Johnson.

Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world, introduced its Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous, including the Frontières International Co-Production Market and the Fantasia Film Market, in 2012. Frontières is the first international co-production market to connect North America with Europe, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. Now Frontières has become a circuit in-between Fantasia, in July,...

From the Fantasia Film Festival press release:

After announcing the 12 projects of its Frontières selection of film projects in May, the Frontières International Co-Production Market’s team has now announced the event’s Off-Frontières line-up of projects.

The projects, in this second group, feature additional up-and-coming talents and experienced filmmakers from the independent genre film world. The Off-Frontières 2013 selection of the 2nd edition of the Frontières International Co-Production Market will consist of the following 12 projects:

Canuxploitation (USA)

Director: Josh Johnson (Rewind This!)

Documentary

Dead Max (Québec)

Director: Patrick Boivin (Bunker)

Writer: Randall Lobb

Producer: Stéphane Tanguay (Jaloux) Productions Kinesis

Emerald Falls (Québec)

Director: Boris Rodriguez (Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal)

Writer: Phil M. Rosenberg

Jumbo (France)

Director/Writer: Zoé Wittock (First Feature)

Producer: Anaïs Bertrand (First Feature) Insolence Productions

Réclusion (France)

Director: Franck Richard (The Pack)

Writers: Franck Richard and Florent Silieri

Producer: Fares Ladjimi (The String) Mille et Une Productions...

Directed by Michael Peterson

Featuring Evan Williams, Jesse Reid, Scott Pately, Tegan Moss, Mike Smith, Brian Posehn, Harland Williams

Three college students (Lloyd, Patrick & Oswald) are flunking out of community college. In a desperate attempt to make up some extra credit they are roped into taking part in their first Live Action Role-Playing tournament (known as LARPing) by their principal (Mike Smith). Little do they realize is that their principal is actually Derek the Unholy. Derek the Unholy has been defeating the other teams so severely that tournament is in danger of being cancelled. So Lloyd and his friends are brought in to keep the tournament alive so Derek can keep his title. Once Lloyd realizes this, he and his friends bring on a former wizard champ to teach and train them (in somewhat of a Jedi fashion). Along the way Lloyd enlists a female self-defense instructor (Tegan Moss) that...

With one of the longest lists of award winners we've ever seen, the 2012 Toronto After Dark Film Festival has announced who brought home the gold, silver, bronze, and more from this year's event.

From the Press Release:

Toronto After Dark Film Festival is thrilled to announce the Award Winners of its 7th Annual Edition! As is tradition at Toronto After Dark, the Jury were the fans themselves with over 4,000 votes cast this year by festival-goers to determine the best new horror, sci-fi, action and cult movies from around the world!

Genre comedies won audiences over at Toronto After Dark 2012 with the crowd-pleasing British gangsters meets zombies action comedy Cockneys Vs Zombies winning the festival’s Top Prize, the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film, Gold. Close behind, Dead Sushi the latest splatter comedy from Japanese cult director Noboru Iguchi, gobbled up the Silver, while A Fantastic Fear Of Everything,...

Toronto – With twenty horror, sci-fi, action, and cult movies crammed into nine nights, and an eclectic mix of short films thrown in between, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2012 gave the Toronto genre fan a multitude of reasons to be sleep-deprived. Before going into a sustained state of hibernation, audiences cast their ballot for which film they liked the best; the results are as follows:

Audience Choice Awards, Best Feature Film

1. Gold: Cockneys vs Zombies

2. Silver: Dead Sushi

3. Bronze: A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Audience Choice Awards, Best International Short Film

1. Gold: Henri

2. Silver: Vicki

3. Bronze: Numbers

Audience Choice Awards, Best Canadian Short Film

1. Gold: Bio-Cop

2. Silver: A Pretty Funny Story

3. Bronze: Frost

Audience Choice Awards, Best Independent Video Game

1. Gold: Hotline Miami

2 Silver: Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks

3. Bronze: Mcpixel

Fans Choice Awards

Best Horror Film: Citadel

Best Sci-Fi Film: Doomsday Book

Best Candian Feature Film: American Mary...

Hey New Yorkers! The Friar's Club Comedy Film Festival kicks off tomorrow and we want you to be there! Five lucky Twitch readers can win a pair of tickets each to see Lloyd The Conqueror (Friday, October 26th, 6:45pm at the HBO Theater) and Tebana Sankichi (Saturday, October 27th, 4:30 at the Friar's Club) and all you've got to do for your chance is this:Email me here and name the Lloyd The Conqueror actor who also stars in cult hit television series Trailer Park Boys. Winners will be drawn at random....

Hey , boils and ghouls… Jeff here with another Toronto After Dark 2012 update for you all! Sunday was Day 4 of Toronto After Dark 2012, and as usual, it was longest day of the festival, with four different features and four short films. Usually by Sunday night, folks are hitting what I call the Tadff Wall… You’re tired from several days of back-to-back films, late nights at the pub, and – for those of us who review films and cover the festival – trying to find time to do your writing. This year was no different, and while it wasn’t a bad day of films, I have to say that it was fairly middle-ground; especially for a day with almost 12 hours of back-to-back screenings.

Things kicked off at 1pm with a short film called Frost, which I did not get a chance to see due to some subway delays. I heard the film was pretty crazy though,...

Lloyd the Conqueror

Directed by Michael Peterson

Written by Michael Peterson and Andrew Herman

Canada, 2011

Society has an outrageous double standard. If you like to play Dungeons and Dragons and watch sc-fi fantasy movies, you’re a bit of a dork, but if you love to watch NFL football and take part in fantasy sports (read: fantasy sports), then you’re a real hard nut. If you get dressed up in cosplay or costumes of your favourite fictional character and Larp (live action role play) for a lark, you’re a delusional git who needs to snap back to reality, but if you’re a sport-jersey-wearing, pick-up-football-playing, face-painting fanatic who refers to his or her favourite team with the word ‘we’, and who throws a tantrum every time they think they’ve lost unjustifiably (or just plum lost), as if they were personally wronged, then by Jove, you’re just a healthy,...

Jeff is ready to geek out! That means it must be time for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival starting October 18th and running through October 26th. Shawn Savage, Jeff Konopka and Kirk Haviland get down and dirt with the entire festival line up. This is a content packed podcast filled with all the info a festival-goer could want. If you can’t attend the Toronto After Dark Film Festival this year this will be a great way to get ready for our future casts that will follow Jeff’s journey into madness of festival land Toronto. These are movies that are going to be talked about throughout the next year. If you’re a horror, cult, genre movie fan than these are most likely movies that you’re going to want to see. Inbred, American Mary, Rec 3… Movies… you’ll… want… to… hear about. As you’ll notice there...

It’s about damn time that LARPers get their day in the sun. Their pasty skin could use some rays. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, LARPing stands for Live Action Role Playing. Think “Dungeons & Dragons”, but instead of gathering in a dank, dark basement, the players take to parks and other public spaces in order to whack each other about the head and torso with foam swords, and to throw tinfoil balls at each other in lieu of lightning bolts and spells. This is the world explored by “Lloyd the Conqueror”. The LARPing realm, once a bastion of fun, friendship, and teamwork, has fallen under a long dark shadow. Derek the Unholy (Mike Smith, Bubbles from “Trailer Park Boys”) has launched a dark crusade, spreading fear, treachery, and you know, general badness across the land. He’s such a dickweed that no one wants to play anymore.

While the Toronto International Film Festival holds a well-deserved spot as one of the premier movie events in the city, fans of pulpier fare and cult classics never found a place for themselves the the event. In 2006, however, these fans were given an oasis in the desert in the form of The Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Taking place very October, the seventh annual event will take place this year from October 18th to October 26th, effectively leading in to Halloween with 9 days of movies geared towards the cult audience, ranging from horror to science fiction to action to comedy, and everything in between.

The festival screens all of its movies at the historic Bloor Cinema, and this year will be no different. Having already screened four films this summer, those four being the horror comedy Juan of the Dead, the horror anthology V/H/S along with The Pact and Detention,...

The Toronto After Dark film festival has unveiled its first wave of film announcements for 2012, and included in these ten films are some of the most critically acclaimed and eagerly anticipated horror, sci-fi, action, and cult films from this year’s international film festival circuit.

These ten new movies will all have their Toronto or Canadian theatrical premieres hosted exclusively at the festival’s 7th annual edition this October 18th-26th at the city’s historic Bloor Cinema. Check out the fest's sizzle reel below, and for more info visit the official Toronto After Dark website, "like" Toronto After Dark on Facebook, and follow Toronto After Dark on Twitter (@Tad FilmFest).

Ten more exciting feature films, a collection of cutting-edge short films, and the complete festival schedule will be announced at the end of September. At that time fans will also be able to buy single tickets to all screenings.

During the FanExpo in Toronto last weekend, the 2012 Toronto After Dark Film Festival announced the first 10 titles of the festival this October and it looks like an exciting lineup.

The festival is moving back from Toronto Underground cinema into the newly restored Bloor Hot Docs for its 7th year (where it resided for its first five years) running from October 18th to 26th, 2012. As usual the first batch of films is an eclectic mix of horror, sci-fi, action and the bizarre. So if you have been a fan of the previous year's lineup then it shouldn't disappoint.

[Rec]³: Genesis

First up is the Canadian Premiere for the third film in the Spanish [Rec] series working as a parallel sequel to the first two films. Paco Plaza returns as the director but the co-director Jaume Balagueró of the first two films will be directing the 4th [Rec] installment next year instead. This time...

Llyod the Conqueror

Directed by Michael Peterson

Written by Andrew Herman and Michael Peterson

Canada, 2011

Some games, while popular within the circles of their respective fans, are the target of not so subtle jibes from most other people who either do not understand their appeal or actually have a point in venting their annoyance at these activities. Who really knows. The debate rages on. World of Warcraft (seriously, why would anyone keep themselves locked up in their room to play this thing for hours on end?), Dungeons and Dragons (really people? How old are we here?), and, the subject of Michael Peterson’s film Lloyd the Conqueror, Larping. What is it larping? It is what men in arrested develop- ha, I mean, it is ‘live-action role playing,’ wherein individuals dress up as knights and other such medieval warriors and duel with fake swords and whatnot. Might it serve a greater...

We are now a week into the three week long Fantasia Film Festival, and while we admittedly have been a little behind due to some technical issues with our website, we still managed to get a dozen film reviews published. Keep coming back to our site as we promise twice the amount of articles by the end of week two. In the meantime, here is a round-up of what we’ve seen and written about so far.

Black Pond

Directed by Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe

Written by Will Sharpe

U.K., 2011

Comedy, in its nature and its presentation, has morphed dramatically over the past decade or so, both in North America and in Europe, in particular the United Kingdom. From the more overt, on the nose comedy of yesteryear we have now live in an era in which the comedy is delivered with a completely different version of wit.

Llyod the Conqueror

Directed by Michael Peterson

Written by Andrew Herman and Michael Peterson

Canada, 2011

Some games, while popular within the circles of their respective fans, are the target of not so subtle jibes from most other people who either do not understand their appeal or actually have a point in venting their annoyance at these activities. Who really knows. The debate rages on. World of Warcraft (seriously, why would anyone keep themselves locked up in their room to play this thing for hours on end?), Dungeons and Dragons (really people? How old are we here?), and, the subject of Michael Peterson’s film Lloyd the Conqueror, Larping. What is it larping? It is what men in arrested develop- ha, I mean, it is ‘live-action role playing,’ wherein individuals adorn themselves as courageous knights and other such fierce fantasy warriors and duel with fake swords and whatnot. Might it serve...

Since I explained at ridiculous length how to make your Fantasia list, I thought it would only be fair to share mine.

My general goal for Fantasia 2012 is to see 40 films and write about 20. (The scary thing is that in seeing 40 feature films I will only be seeing 25% of the Fantasia selection.)

Here are my 40:

Thursday, July 19th

1. 18:30 Hall For Love’s Sake

2. 21:45 Hall Dragon

Friday, July 20th

3. 17:15 Hall Children Who Chase Lost Voice From Deep Below

Saturday, July 21st

4. 13:25 De Seve Fists of the White Lotus

5. 16:20 Hall Cold Steel

6. 19:00 Hall Sushi Girl

Sunday, July 22nd

7. 16:25 Hall Lloyd the Conqueror

8. 19:55 De Seve Funeral Kings

9. 21:40 Hall Starry Starry Night

Monday July 23rd

10. 17:00 Hall The Sword Identity

11. 19:25 Hall Smuggler

12. 22:00 De Seve The Victim

Wednesday, July 25th

13. 17:15 Hall Reign of Assassins

14. 19:45 Hall Resolution

Thursday, July 26th

15. 19:30 Hall...

The July 19th start of Montreal's 16th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is drawing closer (it runs through August 7th), and the powers-that-be have announced the second wave of films along with a few selections from the new Axis section of the event.

Fantasia Announces The Satoshi Kon Award For Achievement In Animation + A New Section Dedicated To International Animation Cinema + Second Wave Title Announcements

The art of animation in its many forms and disciplines has always had a strong place at Fantasia. This year, the festival has decided to give the form its own permanent section: Axis. From social realism to mind-bending fantasy, all styles and sensibilities will be showcased, now on a greater scale than ever. Further, the festival is proud to be rechristening its animation jury prize as The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation, named after the dear, departed visionary whose feature debut, Perfect Blue,...

Freshly premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival is Canadian LARPing comedy Lloyd The Conqueror, a film that casts a familiar face as the main villain with The Trailer Park Boys' Mike 'Bubbles' Smith playing the main baddy.Lloyd the Conqueror features Lloyd, a lazy college student with big dreams for the future and his two best friends Patrick and Oswald. Desperately needing to pass their college Medieval Literature class in order to keep their financial aid, our heroes beg their teacher for extra credit work. Their professor, Derek, concedes but only on one condition: They must join his deteriorating LARPing league and battle against him in a game of Demons & Dwarves. Unbeknowst to the students, Derek, a long reigning champion twisted to the...