Intensity: More Reasons High Tension Ripped Off Dean Koontz [The Rabid Dog’s House]

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The Rabid Dog’s House is a recurring feature at Wicked Horror where contributor Justin Steele uncovers hidden gems, lost classics, and overlooked indie offerings. Flying solo or with his co-host Zena Dixon, he will discuss an array of topics covering film, literature, and television. Check out the latest installment below. In this episode we’re looking back at 1997’s Intensity and 2003’s High Tension! Check out: Fun Loving and Fed-Up Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives [Rabid Dog’s House] In Dean Koontz’s 1995 novel Intensity, a young woman with loner-like tendencies accompanies a friend to her family home. That night a mysterious man creeps in to murder the family and brutalize the friend. The young woman remains undetected as she follows the man on a thrilling ride through a series of events duplicated in the 1997 Intensity miniseries starring John C. McGinley and Molly Parker, and is completely ripped off in 2003’s High Tension. Director Alexandre Aja and writing partner Gregory Levasseur were happy to credit nameless horror flicks and his writing skills for the success of High Tension, but reluctant to give any credit to writer Dean Koontz, of whom actually created the story. Related: The Intensity of High Tension: A Look at Plagiarism in Horror! Directed by Yves Simoneau, 1997’s Intensity (a.k.a. Dean Koontz’s Intensity) has been overlooked long enough. For those frustrated with the polarizing ending in High Tension should check out this suspenseful thriller with captivating performances, with just as exciting a story and a much more logical conclusion. Join Justin and Zena below as they review 1997’s Intensity and further discuss the crazy drama of the novel, the miniseries, and High Tension below!

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The Mortuary Collection Is A Frightfully Fun And Stylish Anthology [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of The Mortuary Collection Is A Frightfully Fun And Stylish Anthology [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Ryan Spindell’s The Mortuary Collection has had a long, strange journey to Fantasia Fest. His short The Babysitter Murders was well received on the festival circuit back in 2015, but due to sporadic funding issues and other technical challenges, the rest of the planned anthology was shot piecemeal over the next 4 years. Described in press materials as a “love letter” to various vintage genre fare, the final version of the film uses the classic portmanteau structure, each of its four tales situated between a framing narrative.In the seaside town of Raven’s End, mortician Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown) presides over a Gothic style funeral parlor, as feared by children as he is respected by adults. After the service for a boy, an inquisitive young woman named Sam (Caitlin Custer) arrives to interview for a job as an assistant. As the pair tour the building, Dark tells the stories of how various unfortunate souls have ended up on his slabs. See Also: TV Terror: Scariest Episodes of Horror Anthology Shows The chemistry crackles between the two actors in the wraparound. Clancy Brown is clearly having a blast playing Montgomery Dark as the sonorous storyteller, riffing in equal parts Phantasm‘s eerily laconic Tall Man and the arch scene stealing of Tales From The Hood‘s Mr. Simms. Caitlin Custer’s Sam is glib to the edge of brattiness, acting as an audience stand-in for the generation raised on more meta horrors, full of smart-ass questions and unafraid to take a poke at familiar tropes along the way.The tales themselves are no less confident in execution, and Ryan Spindell uses each capsule story to deliver a slate of unique textures and tones. A pickpocket at a party is too curious to leave well enough alone. A playboy frat brother plies his smarmy charm on the wrong girl, and ends up with much more than a broken heart. A once loving husband is fraying at the edges caring for his catatonic wife, and is faced with an unfathomable choice. A teenage babysitter must fight for her life when an escapee from a mental asylum breaks in on a dark and stormy night. Also See: Five Horror Actors I’ll Watch in Anything The entries run the gamut from eldritch monsters and Gothic-leaning ghost stories, to bloody body horror and slick slasher action. It’s a lot to take on, even in the context of an omnibus film. However, unlike a lot of other recent anthologies, the fact that all of the segments share the same writer/director, cinematography team and music supervisor go a long way toward selling all of the strange happenings as part of a cohesive universe.Raven’s End shares some common ancestry with other fictional small towns full of dark secrets and purposefully anachronistic aesthetics. It fits right in amongst Potter’s Bluff, Twin Peaks or Nightvale in the strange small town canon. Each of The Mortuary Collection’s tales take place in a different era, but none of the fads, fashions or furniture exactly sync up with their real world counterparts. This creates a reliably eerie disconnect that dutifully reads as retro, but is firmly set apart from naturalistic realism.That detail oriented sense of design is part of what makes The Mortuary Collection stand out. It is clear that as much of its hard earned budget as possible was put right back on screen, as it both looks and sounds better than films with much more cash to spend. Cinematographers Caleb Heymann and Elie Smolkin fill shots with dusty golden light and corners full of creeping shadows. A critical fight scene during an intermittent power outage is a highlight, as blight flashes of lightning pound between bouts of darkness, and the remnants of a pillow’s feathers drift through the air. The majority of the effects are practical, and Oscar winning ADI Studios delivers gooey monstrosities and gory set pieces with aplomb. Music supervisors The Mondo Boys do some lush traditional theatrical scoring, but also deliver several perfect period pop songs that sound like they were forgotten gems dug out of a dusty record shop bin. Also See: Seven Great Horror Comic Crossovers Worth Checking Out The Mortuary Collection isn’t perfect, but its flaws are all forgivable given its top notch visuals and a cheekily charming script that avoids devolving too far into snarkiness. The first vignette is slightly underdone, feeling more like a character sketch than a fully realized story. Considering how much is packed into the final few minutes of the film, it could have been perhaps cut to allow the grace notes room to breathe. The character of Sam is perhaps a bit too perfect of an audience substitute, and is only really allowed a less Greek chorus like dimension in the back half of the film.These are both minor quibbles, and The Mortuary Collection is still a triumph overall. The film is both dripping in fan friendly nostalgia and a remix of familiar elements that feels fresh. In an era full of gritty realism and arthouse horror hits that take themselves way too seriously, its gleefully gory commitment to spooky fun is as refreshing as a cool autumn breeze. The Mortuary Collection is an absolute treat for monster kids of any vintage, with carefully crafted tales that contain a little something for genre fans of all stripes. Wicked Rating – 8.5/10 Director: Ryan Spindell Writer: Ryan Spindell Stars: Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Mike C. Nelson, Christine Kilmer Release date: September 21, 2019 Studio/Production Company: AMP International, Trapdoor Pictures Language: English Run Time: 108 minutes

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‘Scooby Doo’ Co-Creator, Joe Ruby, Passes Away At 87

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As a youngster, one of my first introductions into the world of monsters, macabre and mayhem came in the form of the wildly successful animated series Scooby-Doo. Every episode quenched my thirst for everything spooky and horror related. But, unfortunately it was recently announced that Scooby-Doo co-creator Joe Ruby has passed away in California at the age of 87. Joseph Clemens Ruby was born on March 30, 1933 in Los Angeles. After graduating from Fairfax High School, Ruby enlisted in the United States Navy. During his naval tenure which took place during the Korean War, Ruby was a sonar operator on a Navy destroyer ship. After Korea, Ruby found work with the Walt Disney Company as a music editor. Ruby wanted to work in animation but he knew that he would need to work his way up to the highly coveted position. While working as a music editor, Ruby also worked freelance in comics as an artist and writer. Joe Ruby eventually found himself working for Hanna-Barbera Productions. While working as a writer for animated and live action shows, Ruby met and teamed up with Ken Spears. With the dynamic duo of Ruby and Spears, the pair eventually created Scooby Doo for Hanna-Barbera Productions. Scooby-Doo premiered on CBS September 13, 1969. The show was been in syndication in one form or another since that time, whether in original episodes, films or spin offs. The legacy that Scooby-Doo leaves behind does not need discussing. Voted the fifth greatest TV cartoon of all time by TV Guide, the show has been in syndication for 50 plus years. Joe Ruby unfortunately and sadly passed away at his home of natural causes on August 26, 2020 in Westlake Village, California. He is survived by his wife of 63 years Carole and their four children Cliff, Deanna, Craig and Debby. Joe Ruby truly was a gift and leaves a very long and proud legacy. He brought smiles to the faces of people everywhere with his zany creation of a dog and his friends solving mysteries. Personally, Joe Ruby and Scooby-Doo taught me a very valuable life lesson. Question Everything. Just because something seems one way, doesn’t necessarily mean it is that way. Always look deeper.  Godspeed Joe Ruby. Thanks for the laughs, scares and memories.

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New on Netflix: August 28th, 2020

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It’s Friday and you know what that means: It’s time to figure out what you’ll be watching this week. Welcome back to New on Netflix! The streaming giant’s horror department has always been a mixed bag. However, I’d say they’ve really stepped up their game in the last couple of years with the release of amazing, essential watches. We’ve been treated to must see original programming like The Haunting of Hill House, Velvet Buzzsaw, Hush, and some of the classics we all know and love. This week we enter a new month and we have three classic films to accompany us! Also See: Aaron B Koontz Wants His Movies to Provide An Escape [Interview] Anaconda While traveling deep in the Amazon jungle, a film crew searches for a forgotten tribe to make the focus of their upcoming film. Along the way they stumble across a man who was left stranded on the riverbank. In exchange for rescuing him he offers to help in their search for the tribe. but his secretive behavior puts everyone on edge. They realize too late that he’s using them to find a legendary anaconda that’s worth a fortune. If they can live long enough to catch it. Anaconda arrives to Netflix September 1st! Possession Also arriving on September 1st is the 1981 “video nasty” Possession. A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce following a passionate affair. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister, inexplicable and shocking. Red Dragon In his search for a killer known as the Tooth Fairy, Ex-FBI agent Will Graham must find a way into the murderer’s mind, even if that means confronting his past and facing his former nemesis, the now-incarcerated Lecter. Arriving September 1st! Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Fried Barry Is An Alien Abduction Acid Test [Fantasia Review]

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Fried Barry is based on the 2017 short film of the same name. South African director Ryan Kruger expanded the original short into his first full-length feature film effort, currently showing at Fantasia Fest. The short was a harrowing, but fairly straightforward portrait of addiction. The feature delves into far more surreal territory as it gives the titular Barry both a backstory and a whole new set of problems with which he must contend.  Barry (Gary Green) is a heroin addicted, deadbeat dad who spends his days roughing up people who owe him money, assuming he isn’t busy chasing his own highs. When his wife curses him out for yet another late night, his first reaction is to question the paternity of his child and go have a beer at the local pub. Never one to refuse free drugs, he shoots up with one of his drinking buddies, and wanders off into the Cape Town night. Only this time, aliens abduct him and decide to take his body for a joyride while he’s still, well, fried.Fried Barry takes a swerve into the territory of both “one crazy night” and road trip films, rather than a straight up sci-fi or horror narrative. No longer in whatever nominal control over himself he may have been, Barry’s alien visitor instead takes him on a walk to the wilder side of humanity, full of sex, drugs and jumpy editing. Neon clubs, oodles of substance abuse, pimps, prostitutes, street gangs, and serial killers all factor into Barry’s strange trip. The excessively intimate probing of the aliens ends up being one of the less atrocious things he manages to run into. Also See: 10 Alien Movies You Should See (Besides Alien) An alien innocent trying to learn about humanity from one of its least sympathetic examples is a great central conceit, and Gary Green is fantastic in a nearly silent role. Barry has very few lines, mostly just repeating back snippets of whatever is said to him. Without much dialog, Gary Green’s body language has to do the heavy lifting. His performance is all twitchy facial expressions and disconnected shuffle, full of wide eyed wonder at a series of events that would be bizarre even to a being that had context for the debauchery transpiring all around them. The altered states aesthetic of Fried Barry is an interesting mix of tones and visual styles. A faux 18+ content warning opens the film, and there is a break midway for an oversaturated intermission graphic with plenty of flashing lights and vivid color. There’s a constant barrage of sex scenes and drug use, as well as a gooey bit of body horror involving an accelerated pregnancy that carries the whiff of video nasties past. Also See: Overlooked Exploitation Films You Need to Rediscover With due nods to classic exploitation cinema completed, Fried Barry also tosses in some of the visual hallmarks of the titans of 90s MTV. Stephen Du Plessis’ hyper kinetic editing recalls Chris Cunningham’s work for Aphex Twin, as does Haezer’s thumping electronic score. Jonas Åkerlund’s first person POV shots and a bit of Floria Sigismondi inspired moody black and white are also present and accounted for. Ryan Kruger and cinematographer Gareth Place deserve due credit for making such a wide mix of references work, in a way that feels both cohesive and appropriately disorienting for its substance-fueled narrative. Where Fried Barry falters is the script, or lack thereof. The film was written over three days, and the initial screenplay only contained loose scene breakdowns. The rest was improvised with the cast on set, and it shows. The cleverness of the concept and the visuals start to wear off at about the halfway mark, and Barry’s journey feels more like a series of shorts with a common narrator, rather than a fully finished film.  As Barry moves from club to bar to potential murder victim to mental patient, plot points and characters appear and disappear without much effect on what came before. All of the stand alone set pieces work when taken individually, but eventually all the location changes indicate is the passage of time, rather than a deeper exploration of the themes flirted with in the previous segments. Also See: Seven Open-Ended Horror Movies to Make You Question Reality There are also some discordant elements of bigotry in the film’s first act. Barry’s bar buddy goes on a pointless racist digression about minstrel shows and Mickey Mouse. As this bit of dialog has no bearing on the plot, the drunken rant could have easily been swapped out. While everyone he meets seems attracted to Barry post abduction, a gay man and a transgender sex worker both die for propositioning him. The only other person to die in this film is a serial killer, and there are tons of female focused sex scenes. In the context of the whole, it makes the two previous deaths read oddly homophobic. Fried Barry is a frenzied, genre hopping journey, like a mondo film offering a guided tour into the underground of Cape Town for the conspiracy theory set. That said, trippy visual style and a strong central performance aren’t quite enough to hide the fact that the flick lacks the structure to carry its extraterrestrial visitor to a satisfying final destination. Wicked Rating – 6/10 Director: Ryan Kruger Writer(s): Ryan Kruger Stars: Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Release date: March 6, 2020 Studio/Production Company: The Department of Special Projects, Enigma Ace Films Language: English, Afrikaans Run Time: 99 minutes Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Director Randy Ser Talks the Making of Cruiser and Looks Back on Darkman [Exclusive]

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What do Sam Raimi’s Darkman and Gravitas Ventures’ newly-released horror flick, Cruiser have in common? Randy Ser. Randy served as the production designer on Darkman when Raimi’s career was first starting to really take off.  The film was released August 24th, 1990. 30 years later, almost to the exact day, Randy’s horror directorial debut saw release. Cruiser is now on VOD platforms. Cruiser follows a mysterious, hulking figure as he murders a police officer and steals his patrol car, beginning a night of carnage and terror in a small Georgia town. The mayhem is recorded in a uniquely cinematic found footage style, all captured through police cruiser car cams, cell phones, and surveillance video. The footage was edited together to assist in the capture of the perpetrator of these heinous acts. In celebration of the Darkman 30th anniversary and the Cruiser release, we spoke with Randy about his long history in the horror genre and what audiences can expect from Cruiser. WICKED HORROR: You were the production designer on Sam Raimi’s Darkman 30-years ago and now you directed your own horror film, Cruiser. What is it about the horror genre that keeps drawing you back in? RANDY SER: Horror has always captivated me. Growing up I was an avid fan of the Universal horror films of the 30s. I watched them over and over. I built all the monster models and I had a subscription to Monster Magazine. I was fascinated by how one man, Lon Chaney, could, through the use of make-up, imagination, and exceptional talent become so many tortured souls. My mother was a great sport. Every year at Halloween, as she and I decorated the front of the house, I would try to have us emulate the worlds of those films. Unfortunately, we never quite paralleled the movie playing in my head. WICKED HORROR: In all the stills and trailer it looks like Cruiser is a police officer, but he actually is not, he just stole a cop’s car and uniform. Where do you think Cruiser gets all of his strength from? RANDY SER: Cruiser’s strength comes from his dogged beliefs. He has accepted why he is here, what he must do, and how all must recognize the importance of his mission. The pursuit of what might seem as a form of insanity to those who observe his actions is of no consequence. Rational thinking is in the eye of the beholder. Cruiser is calm, almost unsettlingly tranquil as he goes about “what must be done.” It is that unnatural stillness in his nature that brings forth an uncanny strength. WICKED HORROR: Why is Cruiser so deranged? What set him off? RANDY SER: Those questions are what drew me to want to tell this story. The answers, like the film, may prove to be very unsettling. Cruiser sees things form a single perspective. He understands that the time to have that perspective recognized has arrived. Is he deranged and acting randomly of his own volition or is he doing what has been preordained and therefore not within his control. That will be for the audience to determine. WICKED HORROR: The film’s star is Shuler Hensley, whom also played another monster type character in Universal’s Van Helsing. He was Frankenstein’s Monster. Did seeing him in that role inspire you to cast him in your film? RANDY SER: Cruiser was written for Shuler to portray by his brother, my producing partner and the writer of the screenplay, Sam Hensley, Jr. Shuler is a Tony Award winning Broadway musical star. It was Shuler’s incredible vocal talents that drove Sam and I to bring to horror a confounding yet melodic style to the kills. Cruiser goes to a timeless place as he soothes his victims with song as he brings witness to their being demonically dismembered during their last moments on earth. WICKED HORROR: In the trailer, Cruiser pulls a woman out of her car window and cuts her head off with an axe. Can you talk about how that was done logistically? Was this death scene the most complicated to shoot in the film? RANDY SER: All the sequences, which incorporated the mayhem conducted by Cruiser, had their unique challenges. In general, what is seen in the film was accomplished in cuts. Pardon the pun. The sequence in which Cruiser pulls a woman out of her car was the most complicated in that the journey to the finality of Cruiser’s actions, which I wanted the audience to go on, needed to be carefully orchestrated. The sequence, which takes place in a harshly lit convenience store parking lot, toys with the audience by switching from what is considered the norm to choices, which bewilders the senses by both overloading and depriving the audio and visual. As the color and sound remain as we have become accustomed to, Cruiser smashes the window of “Cyndi Welch’s” car and drags her out by her hair. She is being positioned for the kill as she fights for her life and screams maniacally. We prepare for what we are about to experience. Here the choices confound the expected as we cut between various camera angles and positions. The visuals move from color to black and white and back to color again. At the same time the audio tracks harshly shift from horrific screaming, to “deathly” silent, to pleading cries, and to the sound of country music playing through cheap speakers inside the store. All is meant to pull the audience in to experience the fragments and confusion that must surround the mind, as one knows they are about to die. The final edited scene was designed to let the viewer’s mind fill in the blank spaces. What the mind’s eye envisions is much more frightening than what we think we are being shown. WICKED HORROR: Many different things have been used as blood in horror films, such as “Kensington Gore” in Carrie and Evil Dead and straight corn syrup in others such as Scream.  What did you all use in this film for blood? RANDY SER: We principally used a product called My Blood, which was selected by Matt Silva, the film’s Special Makeup Effects Designer, as well as the Production Designer. My Blood is still available in several different varieties as follows: H.D. Red, Standard Red, Dark Red, Standard Yellow-Red, Three Kings Red, Dark Brown Red. WICKED HORROR: You have said that Universal’s horror films from the 1930’s have been a big inspiration to you. What is it about those films that draws you to them? RANDY SER: They all had a story to tell about characters, even if some of those characters were monsters.  It was the teetering on the edge balance between life and death. Ultimately, the films had an innate ability to draw me in and to allow me to experience a world that exists only in fantasy. WICKED HORROR: Can you tell us something about the production of Darkman that we might not know? RANDY SER: I can tell you a favorite memory of mine about the collaboration that I had with Sam Raimi. We often met in his office to discuss the design concepts and needs of a scene. Occasionally we ended up acting out a scene together. On more than one occasion, as our enthusiasm and energy arose, one of us would inevitably knock over a lamp or some other object in the room. That is the true definition of creative energy. WICKED HORROR: If there were to be a Cruiser 2, what would you like to see happen? RANDY SER: The story lends itself to be continued. If that were to occur, Sam and I would listen closely to and be guided by the thoughts and imaginations of the current Cruiser’s audience.

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Zombie Comedy, Yummy Is Far From Delicious [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Zombie Comedy, Yummy Is Far From Delicious [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

As many undead hordes as have shuffled across screens in the past two decades, Lars Damoiseaux’s Yummy is likely the only one created with the assistance of the VAF, a Flemish arts grant usually reserved for staid historical dramas. With a poster boasting a bloody handprint and the tagline “Facelifts, Boob Jobs, And Zombies”, Yummy makes clear from the onset the film’s mission is to bring some gory gut munching to the Fantasia Fest programming. Allison (Maaike Neuville) is roadtripping to a cut rate eastern European clinic for a breast reduction. Her boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) joins her on the journey to assist in her recovery, possibly more nervous about the surgery than she is. Allison’s mother Sylvia (Annick Christiaens) is blithely unconcerned about her. An obvious fan of surgical interventions, Sylvia is only tagging along because she has a full slate of procedures booked for herself.The clinic is clearly nothing like what was advertised on the Internet, located in a grimy, graffiti covered industrial building in the middle of nowhere. Hospital transporter Daniel (Benjamin Ramon) looks like a community theater Tyler Durden, and openly leers at Allison. Hell on high heels receptionist Janja (Clara Cleymans) hustles the group inside before any of the patients can have second thoughts. Even the head of the clinic (Eric Godon) spends more time groping Allison than not, and assumes she wants an enlargement rather than a reduction.Michael is understandably nervous about the hospital’s utter lack of anything resembling proper procedure or decorum. He used to be a med student, but had to drop out due to his fear of blood. Michael rushes into the OR, trying to convince Allison to leave. Instead, he ends up nearly passing out due to his phobia, and accidentally sedating himself. Also See: All the Rage: Why We Still See Debate Over Zombies vs. Infection Movies Desperate to keep Michael out of the way, Janja sends him to tour the building with Daniel. Daniel is looking to steal some of the drugs kept in the lower level pharmacy. Left to his own devices,  Michael’s attempts to help a distressed patient in restraints. By removing her face mask, Michael unleashes Patient Zero. She was part of a secret project at the hospital. Rather than stop aging, the stem cell experiments have created a zombie virus. With the undead now loose in the hospital, predictable carnage ensues.There are some decent splatter set pieces here, even if the plastic surgery angle is mostly underplayed. An abandoned liposuction goes wrong, causing an explosion of blood and fat. Chemical peels left to set melt a face with a slow sizzle. Infected blood drops into a specimen jar and zombifies a fetal animal. A torn in half zombie nurse munches her own intestines like an undead ouroboros.With gore flying in every direction, all that is left is the guessing game as to who will make it into our ragtag group of survivors. Yummy complicates this by tossing subplots, tonal shifts and pieces of internal logic into and out of the film at seemingly random intervals. Some characters are infected by human bites, some by zombified animal specimens, some by a mere splash of infected blood. Meandering plot threads are set up for characters to die moments later to thundering indifference. Also See: Why Fulci’s Zombie is the Distilled Essence of Zombie Cinema The first half of the film certainly aims for black comedy, even though throwaway lines about how similar “hemophobia” and “homophobia” sound is about as clever as it gets (not very). There’s also an incredibly flaccid subplot about a television star’s secret visits for penis enlargement. With only an 88 minute run time, a good ten of them are wasted to set up a comedy of errors penis explosion that fails to rise to the occasion of being remotely funny.It’s almost a relief when Yummy instead sets it sights on bleak and gritty, but that too is bogged down with characters we’ve never gotten to know or like enough to care. Michael has been painted as an inefficient fearful buffoon, fainting, puking or bumbling into things the entire film. By the time he attempts  something noble, even Allison no longer takes him remotely seriously. Also See: Most Memorable Final Girls of Horror As for Allison, while she is clearly marked as the final girl, it seems that is only the case to further fetishize her chest. This impression is certainly helped along by the bizarre addition of an attempted sexual assault in a very late stage of the film. The fact that this scene was considered a vital inclusion rather than even the thinnest characterization or consistent internal logic is likely the most truly horrific thing Yummy has to offer. A plastic surgery clinic is actually a very strong backdrop for a zombie film. It is unfortunate Yummy didn’t fully utilize the philosophical or body horror  implications of that choice. Instead the film can’t quite decide if it wants to be a vintage Troma style bit of slyly sleazy splatstick, or a grim march through torture-fueled Hostel territory.  The promotional materials call Yummy “an orgy of blood, violence and fun”. Aside from gorehounds and zombie completists, most viewers will find themselves settling for two out of three. Wicked Rating – 3.5/10 Director: Lars Damoiseaux Writer(s): Lars Damoiseaux, Eveline Hagenbeek Stars: Maaike Neuville, Bart Hollanders, Benjamin Ramon Release date: December 18, 2019 (Belgium) Studio/Production Company: 10.80 Films, A Team Productions, Everstory Productions Languages: Dutch, English Run Time: 88 minutes Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Unearth Should Have Stayed Buried [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Unearth Should Have Stayed Buried [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Unearth is a horror movie about fracking but it’s actually much drier than that description would suggest. The film, co-directed by John C. Lyons and Dorota Swies from a script credited to Lyons and Kelsey Goldberg, is far more interested in the minor, dull machinations of a couple neighboring farm families than it is in the horrors that are apparently lurking right beneath their feet, just waiting to be unleashed by the drills of an evil gas company. Its intentions are good, but, at the risk of mixing metaphors, there’s not a whole lot of meat on its bones. Taking place in smalltown Pennsylvania, the packed script throws everything at the wall in the hopes that something, anything will stick. There’s a dark family tragedy that’s only alluded to. There’s a teen pregnancy that goes unremarked upon in spite of the fact the mother in question is filmed boarding and departing the schoolbus several times, childish backpack and all. There’s a suggestion of queerness that goes absolutely nowhere, resulting in the kind of melodramatic outburst more suited to daytime soaps. And there’s even a subplot about self-harm which is something, to be fair, I haven’t seen in a movie in a while but that’s completely mishandled and feels uncomfortably tacked on here. Related: Sleep (AKA Schlaf) Will Definitely Keep You Up At Night [Fantasia Review] Much of Unearth’s run-time is taken up with dry farm talk and long, indulgent shots of the farmland itself. There’s a sense it must be building to something fairly exciting but at the same time there’s no way the payoff could possibly be good enough to justify spending so long setting everything up. Crucially, there’s not one likable or believable character in the bunch, though Marc Blucas is, at the very least, less irritating than he was in Buffy. Horror Icon Adrienne Barbeau, meanwhile, receives top billing only to be saddled with a thankless, one-note role that grates as much as she grinds her teeth, evidently uncomfortable with the lacklustre material she’s been given. Nobody else makes a dent, the characters blurring into a mess of dull clichés like wannabe photographer who’s zooming in on ears of corn the whole time or…grumpy man (that’s it). The act of fracking itself is presented as gross, and rightly so, but it’s not given nearly enough, well, depth for the audience to truly understand why it’s so destructive and wrong. Even the arrival of permits to drill for gas doesn’t cause enough of a stir among the townsfolk with the story skipping one year into the future for no apparent reason immediately after the agreement is made, as though suddenly we’re in a rush to get to the good stuff (which, again, never materializes). For a time, water is presented as a dangerous antagonist, almost in the same way it would be in a sharksploitation movie or something, but this idea is also dispensed with almost as soon as it’s introduced. There’s some surprisingly gross body horror moments, boasting good VFX, but they come so late in the game that your patience will already be wearing too thin to care. The message that fracking destroys everything is a powerful one, and the filmmakers should be commended for tackling it in this kind of context, but considering how little the idea is expanded upon, it feels like a wasted opportunity. The Beach House just dealt with environmental horror on a gruesome, horrifying level so Unearth feels even more disappointing in its wake. Even the cinematography is muddy and bland, matching the characters, and the setting actually recalls a Milo Ventimiglia vehicle from a few years back called Devil’s Gate that, again, this movie can’t hold a candle to in performances, scares, or just plain interest level. See Also: Woman of the Photographs Takes Time Developing its Dark Romance [Fantasia Review] To put it plainly, it’s a good 45 minutes before something horrific happens which, in a 94-minute horror movie, is blasphemous unless you’re an expert in building tension. At its core, this is an original idea very poorly executed. Hopefully the next fracking-themed genre movie will drill under the surface a bit further. WICKED RATING: 3/10

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William Sadler Talks Bill and Ted Face the Music [Exclusive]

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Wicked Horror is the author of William Sadler Talks Bill and Ted Face the Music [Exclusive]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

William Sadler is an actor I grew up watching, as so many of us did, so the chance to interview him was honestly nothing short of an honor. From Shawshank Redemption to his appearances on Tales from the Crypt and its first feature film, Demon Knight, Sadler has proven himself to be an all-time great character actor, let alone such a genre staple. He is returning to one of his most iconic roles after nearly thirty years in Bill and Ted Face the Music. With the movie finally happening after so many years, plus the way Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey has become embraced as one of the best comedy sequels, not to mention the fact that we really need some positivity right now, there is truly no better time for it. We caught up with Sadler to talk about Death, about how it feels to pick up the scythe again, the legacy of Bogus Journey, his own favorite incarnation of Death and so much more. Catch Bill & Ted Face the Music in theaters and on demand starting August 28th! Also See: Why Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is Actually a Horror Movie Wicked Horror: After so many years of rumors and maybes and false starts, how did it feel to get the word that this was actually happening? William Sadler: I didn’t believe my ears! I couldn’t believe it was actually going to happen. It’s been, wow, twenty-nine years or something. About three years before we made the movie, though, Ed Solomon called me and said, “I want to write Death into the third movie. Would you be interested in doing it?” And I said, “Yes,” and that’s when it started to get real for me. If you get the chance, talk to Alex, talk to those guys, ask the producers about the financing, getting the studio’s interest and so on, that’s a saga. That went on and on and on and on. But when they were finally, actually about to begin filming, I was thrilled. Wicked Horror: We’re in a privileged age to see so many iconic actors return to their roles, years or decades later, but you reprising to Death might be the most seamless thing I’ve ever seen. Did you have to re-familiarize yourself at all with what you had done in Bogus Journey or was it all right there? William Sadler: A little bit of both. I went back and watched Bogus Journey again to refresh my memory. I wanted to look at the gestures and [transitions into Death Voice] get the accent back the way it was back then. But I was really surprised how easily it all came back. Apparently I’d been carrying this character around inside me for years and years, so when he got the chance to come out and play, he just went nuts. Wicked Horror: And back when you did Bogus Journey, that’s such an incredible take on Death, in general. How much of that was in the script and how much did you bring to creating that character? William Sadler: I think we have to give the writers their due, they wrote Death to be scary as hell in the beginning and then fall apart during the games. I just took it as far as I could. It was a genuine collaboration, that journey that the Grim Reaper takes. Clearly, he’s intended to be scary in the beginning, when the boys have been murdered, they’re dead and then there’s this frightening figure. Wicked Horror: That’s what I love so much is that in that first shot of you, that’s Bergman’s Death and then it just isn’t. William Sadler: Yes! Yes! It’s Bergman’s Death. And then of course when he tries to play the games that they know how to play, Clue and Battleship and electronic foosball, he’s awful at it. That was actually my favorite part and that was also the first day of filming for me on Bogus Journey, the games sequence. That was the first time I set foot on the stage. So yeah, I guess I created the specific character, but the general character was the writers. Wicked Horror: Outside of Bill and Ted themselves, I’d say Death is the most beloved character in this saga. What do you think it is about him and what you brought to him that has resonated so much with people, especially more and more over time? William Sadler: You know, I’m not entirely certain. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that inside, he’s just a big softie. He’s vulnerable. He’s insecure, like we all are. We need people to tell us we’re okay. He needs a hug. When the girls tell him “We love your solo in Pale on Pale,” they’re flattering him, but it works because he’s so needy. He really needs to hear somebody say, “You’re good. We love your stuff.” Wicked Horror: It’s such a smart take to play Death as this really lonely guy, because why wouldn’t he be? He’s Death? William Sadler: He doesn’t get invited to many parties, I guess. Wicked Horror: Do you have a personal favorite movie version of the Grim Reaper? William Sadler: Oh my. Well, I’m fond of the one that I did. Other people’s Grim Reapers? There was a Twilight Zone years ago, where Robert Redford played Death and I thought that was a brilliant take on it. He’s the most attractive man you’ve ever seen. He’s sweet and not scary at all. I remember thinking that was a brilliant take on the Reaper, as opposed to the like Vincent Price horror movie version. I guess I like Max Von Sydow’s Reaper, too. But he wasn’t very funny. Wicked Horror: Bogus Journey has had this amazing renaissance over time of becoming I’d say pretty widely recognized as one of the all-time great comedy sequels. What’s it like just as an actor when a movie gets rediscovered like that? William Sadler: It’s awesome! It’s completely awesome. We shot the movie, it came out in ’91, it ran in the theaters and then it disappeared and everybody went on with their lives. Then you find out years and years later that it’s been percolating under the surface, people have been watching it and it’s been gathering steam and it’s been discovered by people who weren’t even born when we shot it. That’s like the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I was 40 when I played it the first time. It’s really, really fun to hear that people are adopting it as their own personal favorite, you know? Wicked Horror: The last time you guys did this, everyone had certainly done things, everyone had had success, but since then everyone’s gone onto these incredible careers. Keanu became Keanu. What was it like just being back on set with those guys again? William Sadler: To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to feel like to be back on the set with them. Because you’re right, we weren’t exactly novices when we did Bogus Journey, but Keanu hadn’t rocketed to superstardom and Alex hadn’t gone off and done all of his documentaries that he’s done, I hadn’t done Shawshank yet. I was really, really pleasantly surprised when the band got back together. It was like we’d never said goodbye. The characters fit like comfortable shoes and the feeling was there, the vibe was there. Wicked Horror: You can really see it on screen, too. William Sadler: Yeah, I’m glad! You could feel it in the room. People were very excited to see us all back together again. Wicked Horror: Just in general, you’ve appeared in some seminal films in just about every genre. What are some of the challenges or freedoms of doing a more off-the-wall comedy like this one? William Sadler: Well, I don’t get a chance to be funny all that often. Sometimes I’ll read a script and being funny isn’t called for, not only isn’t it necessary, it’s not called for and sometimes I do those. But I love being able to be funny, being able to take the character just as far as I could, as far as I wanted to. Maybe that’s why the Reaper is as fun to watch as he is, because you’re seeing this actor who, you know, I don’t get to fly all that often. And I truly get to fly as the Reaper. Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Sleep (AKA Schlaf) Will Definitely Keep You Up At Night [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Sleep (AKA Schlaf) Will Definitely Keep You Up At Night [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

​As scary as sleep paralysis, intense nightmares, etc. are there are very few horror movies that actually deal with these conditions effectively; Sleep (or Schlaf, auf Deutsch) looks set to change all that. Where previous efforts such as deathly dull documentary The Nightmare and so-so Jocelin Donahue vehicle Dead Awake faltered in depicting what actually happens while we’re unconscious onscreen, Michael Venus’s film drags everything into the daylight, blurring the lines between real and imagined to consistently disconcerting effect. Our heroine is young Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof, a prolific performer in Germany), whose mother, Marlene (Toni Erdmann‘s Sandra Hüller) suffers from a debilitating sleep disorder that renders her paralyzed and terrified on a nightly basis. Marlene is a flight attendant, which really isn’t the best job for somebody with problems sleeping. She has a pig totem that calms her down somewhat, but also has visions of a giant pig, which muddies the waters somewhat. As the film begins, Marlene is frequently seeing an ominous, glaring red hotel sign in her nightmares and decides to try to find it in real life. Her search puts Marlene into a trauma-induced stupor, leading Mona to solve the mystery in her absence. Related: The Nightmare [Frightfest 2015 Review] Sleep‘s nightmares are vividly realized, super colorful constructions, simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. There’s a performance art element to everything we see here, including how the hotel manager sleeps restrained to the bed, that suggests Mona has entered some kind of heightened reality — to quote Clueless,  she could be said to be having a Twin Peaks experience. There’s an excellent use of sound throughout, with horrible things heard before we actually see them. Sleep is very strange and evocative but never oppressively so, with compelling performances across the board, including from side characters such as the metalhead hotel maid. Hüller is reliably terrific, but this is Kohlhof’s show and the young actor, who will be unfamiliar to most audiences outside of her native country, takes to it with aplomb. She has a charmingly disapproving face, expressing a wealth of confusion as Mona tries to figure out what the hell is really going on in the creepy little town in which her mother has found herself stranded. The film was shot in Harz, northern Germany, the landscape stunningly expansive and yet off-putting in how forbidding its many steep hills and imposingly stacked houses are. It’s easy to understand how Mona feels trapped there, even if there are seemingly tons of escapes right at her fingertips. There’s, naturally, a town-wide conspiracy at the heart of Sleep, the intricacies of which are drip fed effectively throughout the film. The inner machinations of it are topical, especially at this particular moment in time, but even putting all of the more fantastical elements aside, Venus’s story, which he co-wrote with Thomas Friedrich, is one rooted in female strength and perseverance. It’s also a touching mother-daughter tale in which, happily, there’s no instance of Mona turning on Marlene due to her inability to get well. And it’s to Venus’s, who’s making his feature debut, immense credit that the freakier stuff hits just as hard as the emotional payoff when they’re finally reunited. WICKED RATING: 7/10 Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Woman of the Photographs Takes Time Developing its Dark Romance [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Woman of the Photographs Takes Time Developing its Dark Romance [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Woman Of The Photographs opens with a reflection in a shop window, a small photo studio in an unspecified Japanese city. Sai (Hideki Nagai), the owner and only photographer, steps out to clean the glass. As we watch him go through his daily routine, its clear he is a fastidious sort, and a bit solitary. He delicately wipes the fingerprints from the door handle and makes sure to finish dusting before dealing with his first customer. Also See: Nine Horror Franchises Driven by Great Female Villains Sai’s photography shop is your standard one hour photo; handling passports, identification and some basic portraiture. As an added incentive, he also offers on-site retouching. Sai is a near silent blank slate in a series of immaculate cream and white suits. Perhaps because of the lack of perceived judgement, his customers seem very comfortable requesting exactly what they see as the “necessary” adjustments to their pictures. A local businessman, Saijo (Toshiaki Inomata) has his corporate headshots regularly retouched to appear like the distinguished up-and-coming salaryman he must have been twenty years earlier. Hisako (Toki Koinuma) is a woman seeking a photograph to provide to a matchmaking service. She asks for her image to be made more conventionally attractive, her eyes and bust line artificially large. Still unsatisfied, Hisako requests such a long list of edits that she is unrecognizable in the final composite result.A model named Kyoko (professional ballerina Itsuki Otaki) literally crashes into Sai’s life. While doing some nature photography in a nearby forest, he finds her injured and bleeding after a fall from a tree. What begins as an offer of a ride back into town to get help, becomes a relationship that starts to take over Sai’s entire life.It is obvious from their first meeting that Sai and Kyoko are headed toward disaster. Sai can’t relate to the world (women in particular) without a camera in his hand to distance himself, and Kyoko’s shaky self esteem is not improved in the slightest by her waning career as an influencer on an Instagram-like platform. The ride becomes dinner. Dinner becomes Kyoko platonically spending the night, and soon she is living with Sai in his small apartment behind the studio. He acts as her personal photographer and retoucher for daily updates to her feed. Woman of the Photographs is a very slow burn, with two thirds of the runtime staying mostly in deceptive slice-of-life territory. The film only starts incrementally building up to the darker terrain of body horror and obsession in its final act. In fact, we don’t even learn the protagonist’s name until the closing credits. Thankfully, there is plenty of careful craftsmanship in the film’s aesthetic and sonic choices to help ease the long journey to the narrative’s conclusion. Also See: Four of the Strangest Non-Cronenberg Body Horror Films Yu Oishi’s cinematography cleverly keeps the characters from ever looking too closely at themselves, or each other. Sai’s laconic nature and the small cast of characters eliminate the need for much dialog or face to face interaction. Instead of traditional close ups, the characters see themselves in mirror images, reflections from windows, puddles, computer screens or a cell phone’s camera roll.In a film that is all about the lies we tell ourselves, and the carefully curated forgeries we present as our authentic lives on social media, Masahiro Yui’s sound design masterfully adds to the sense of disconnection. The film is mostly free of non-incidental music, but the sound effects are purposefully loud. Every spot missed while shaving, vigorous bout of chewing, or scrape of a stylus on a tablet becomes a tangible aural reminder of the flaws lying beneath. Where Woman of the Photographs falters is in not trusting the abundant technical skills of its crew or the nuanced, believably fragile performances of its actors. Given the glacial pacing, the overuse of some of the more heavy-handed metaphors begin to feel like deeply unnecessary handholding. Inset shots of Sai’s pet praying mantis devouring table scraps, or the thunderous golden glow of applause that accompanies Kyoko’s more popular social media posts are as subtle as a sledgehammer in making the film’s central points. Director Takeshi Kushida choosing to use both devices several more times just feels like overkill. Also See: Five Films that Serve as Allegories for Dating Anxiety and The Horrors of Modern Love Overall, Woman of the Photographs can’t quite shake its pacing issues, but there is a very elegant bone structure beneath the occasional excesses. Takeshi Kushida has released a very solid first feature film, and I’ll certainly be on the lookout for a sophomore effort. An interesting slide into psychosexual darkness awaits viewers with the patience to admire the journey on the way down. Wicked Rating – 6.5/10 Director: Takeshi KushidaWriter(s): Takeshi KushidaStars: Hideki Nagai, Itsuki Otaki, Toshiaki Inomata, Toki KoinumaStudio/Production Company: Pyramid Film Inc.Language: JapaneseRun Time: 89 minutes Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Aaron B Koontz Wants His Movies to Provide An Escape [Interview]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Aaron B Koontz Wants His Movies to Provide An Escape [Interview]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Aaron B Koontz is the kind of filmmaker whose next move is entirely unpredictable. From his well-regarded horror shorts and breakout debut feature, Camera Obscura, right up to Shudder’s fan favorite comedy-horror anthology Scare Package, which he co-created and to which he contributed two terrific shorts, it’s impossible to know what his next move is going to be, or where those creative juices will lead him. Koontz has his fingers in plenty of different pies too, from directing, writing, producing, casting, and doing everything in between. His latest offering, the horror-western hybrid The Pale Door, brings together one of the finest casts in genre history for a tale of witchcraft and brotherhood that’s loaded with just as much heart as it is blood. Wicked Horror chatted to Koontz about assembling the Avengers of horror, working through personal issues via fantastical material, and plenty more besides. WICKED HORROR: We’re here to talk about your new movie, The Pale Door, which is an interesting prospect in and o itself because it’s this sort of weird mix of horror and classic western movie. So, first off, I want to know, what was the genesis of this movie? Where did this idea come from? AARON B KOONTZ: I had wanted to make a western for a while, and I’d written a core story that I wasn’t too happy with, about this group of cowboys who rob a stagecoach and then have to hold up in this ghost town overnight. I couldn’t really figure out the right way to take that idea and then make the last two thirds of the movie work in a way that I was happy with, but I had some characters in there that I liked. So then I was asked to write a witch movie, or rather to pitch a witch movie to Universal a few years back, and I decided, you know, this could be fun so I figured I’d just write this witchy western instead. But then they just wanted normal witches and they didn’t understand why there were cowboys involved [laughs]. But I kept it on the back-burner for a long time. And then, I was part of a screenwriting panel with [co-writers of The Pale Door] Joe and Keith Lansdale and I told that story about Universal rejecting my movie. Joe literally turned to me on the panel and just looks at me in the way that only Joe can and says, in his big, thick Texas accent, “That’s a good idea. You should do that. You should make that!” He went into the crowd and started asking everybody “Would y’all watch that?” and everybody was like “Yeah, I’d watch that!” It was pretty crazy. I still have audio from that night actually; it’s fun to go back and look at that, and know that people really liked the idea. I was originally going to make a sci-fi film so I put it on the back-burner and decided to do this movie instead. Joe and Keith came on to write it with me, Joe was helping us with some character stuff but he couldn’t be a full on writer so we made him an EP and then Keith joined me and Cameron [Burns, the other co-writer on the project] and we were off and running. Related: Scare Package is a Near Perfect Horror Anthology [Review] WICKED HORROR: The core of the story is the relationship between these two brothers [played by Devin Druid and Zachary Knighton]. We see them at the start and they’re very young, then they go through this trauma together, and then we skip to the future and see where they’ve both turned up. Was that element always a part of it or did that come during the development of the story with the other guys? AARON B KOONTZ: That was always a part of it. It’s a very personal story with my brother, actually, who is a recovering addict and has had a lot of stuff going on in his life and I’ve had to take care of him and we’ve had some very difficult situations with our father that were…tough. I’ve had to explain some home truths about our father that were tough for him to realize, and so I really wanted to talk about some personal issues in the script. This movie is my way of dealing with myself, my brother, and my father, and a lot that we were all trying to wrestle with. I knew that was going to be the central story, about a younger brother who wants to be more but he’s struggling with some things and then the older brother who just wants to protect him and keep him away from the world in every way. There was something there that manifested out of my own personal life. So, yes, the brothers were always the central piece. We wanted it to be a brothers story first and then it became about the western and the witches and how their backstory started too. WICKED HORROR: It does actually feel very personal when you’re watching it. The brothers are really the heart of the story, even with all of the other fantastical stuff that’s going on. AARON B KOONTZ: Thank you. It was, and it’s a very vulnerable thing for me so I’m glad to hear you say that. WICKED HORROR: Have you watched the movie with your brother and your Dad? AARON B KOONTZ: My brother has watched it. He cried, pretty hard, and that was a wonderful moment. It was very emotional but it meant a lot. I haven’t talked to my father in a while, we’re estranged, so he doesn’t know about it. And my mother…can’t watch my movies [laughs] because she’s a Christian. Not that Christians can’t watch horror movies but for my Mom in particular it’d be kind of difficult. I recommended that she doesn’t watch it but I’ve told her, you know, it’s very personal and she knows the story. It’s me working my life out through a movie so it’s very special to me and she gets that. WICKED HORROR: There’s a pretty pivotal scene in a church. She could just watch that part. AARON B KOONTZ: I probably will send her that scene, because it’s probably my favorite scene in the whole movie. Of all the crazy stuff that happens, and it was so much fun to do overall, but that scene has to work for the movie to work. It’s the cold open, that scene, and then the ending. Those three core pieces really drive the story. I think people will be surprised when they see the movie. We didn’t get to do a festival run even though we got into a bunch of festivals. We didn’t get to do this with a group of people. So, I’ll be curious to see how the sentimentality, and how the movie really slows down at certain moments, plays at home. It brings up certain issues too, with the witches and the cowboys and the parallels between hate and violence breeding more hate and violence and how the choices you make in life affect you later on, and how you can decide to be a better person and make the most of your situation in life, all these things are big talking points. For a lot of people, it’s just like “oh, cowboys and witches, that’s cool!” and I want it to be that too, that’s a big part of it, but it there are deeper things going on at the same time. WICKED HORROR: These are certainly strange times. But, as hard as I’m sure it is not to get to do the festivals and watch the movie with an audience, at least when people watch it at home there’s more of an opportunity to pay attention and really appreciate it than there is when you’re with a big, loud festival crowd. AARON B KOONTZ: That would be great, I would hope so. There’s a lot of opportunities in VOD now and a lot of people are looking for stuff to escape with, so hopefully that can be the case too. WICKED HORROR: It’s weird because so many of these huge, blockbuster movies are being pushed back but horror movies are being released the same way they always have been and, in many ways, horror is flourishing because more people are stuck at home desperately searching for new stuff to watch. AARON B KOONTZ: It really is. Drive-ins, too, we’re going to play a bunch of drive-ins with this movie and that’s such a cool thing. We are playing some theaters and, although I wouldn’t encourage anyone to go to movie theaters right now, if you’re going to go anyway, then please see The Pale Door! [laughs] But this drive-in resurgence is so wonderful. I mean, any movies that I make are going to be made for the drive-in anyway. It’s exciting to see where that resurgence is going to lead, too. WICKED HORROR: Where did you guys shoot? ‘Cause it looks like one of those old-timey re-enactment towns. Is that what it is or did you guys build all those sets from scratch? AARON B KOONTZ: It was in Oklahoma. We built a number of sets for it, including the church because, shockingly, they don’t like the idea of doing the things we did in that church to a real church so we had to build that, plus there were things done within that environment that required some trickery, so to speak. It was about twenty minutes north of Oklahoma City, it’s an old west town where people do destination weddings. They shoot old west style weddings. It was kind of fun, being in this place where people go to show off their affection and love and doing all of these horrible things there, my cynicism made it fun and entertaining. But also, because it’s where people go for destination weddings, it’s also where they stay during those weddings. So we lived in this town for the entire shoot, with the whole crew. The cast got slightly nicer hotels but the rest of us lived there, even in the brothel where it all takes place, those were rooms that people were staying in. While we shot, they moved out, but after we were done, they moved back in, which kind of added to the experience of making this movie. It’s a western, it’s a period piece, and we immersed ourselves in it by staying there. WICKED HORROR: The cast, particularly from a horror fan’s perspective, is just a who’s who of favorites. How did you go about finding such an impressive cast of brilliant character actors? AARON B KOONTZ: Thank you so much. I joked with my casting director, I was like, I want kind of the Avengers of indie horror/genre people. Look, at first, we thought we had to go with all these huge names, and a lot of big names circled the film, but I always had these other guys in mind. Zachary Knighton was originally going to play the Dodd character, because of his comedic timing in Happy Endings, one of my favorite shows. WICKED HORROR: Ugh, the best. Love that show so much. AARON B KOONTZ: Right? He’s so funny in that, but I knew he could do serious stuff, too, because I’d seen him in The Hitcher remake and I was just like “this guy’s got something.” When we cast Devin Druid, we searched everywhere to find our Jake and then Devin just blew us away, he just became the guy as soon as I saw him I knew. Him and Zach actually look alike, too, they have these similarly beautiful blue eyes and similar ears and noses so they could totally be brothers. I talked to Zach, I told him I was going to switch him to Duncan if he was okay with it, and then I got Bill Sage for Dodd, so that worked out perfectly. But yeah, Stan Shaw is so great in everything, I’ve wanted to work with him forever. It was just a really wonderful group of people. And then on the witches side, Natasha Bassett, as Pearl. She’s incredible, I fell in love with her because of her eyes. I wanted someone who could do this sort of deer in headlights look and that could play the innocent but also do this subtle, insipid, and a little unhinged, too and Natasha just did that so well. Melora Walters is my muse. Paul Thomas Anderson is my film-making muse, I decided to go to film school after watching Magnolia. Her look in the last frame in that movie, I was crying, and even though it’s three hours and seven minutes long, when I walked out of the theater my friends were like “are you okay?” and I was like “I have to watch this movie again. I have to do it.” And I did, and I decided to go to film school right after that. So I wrote the part for Melora, I never thought I could actually get her, I wrote her a personal letter to get her to do it and she’s now, I’m so proud to say it, a good friend. For that all to come full circle is so special for me, it means the world. This cast is so special. I feel so lucky that I can hire the core, indie people and not have to check this box and hire these things. Even Tina Parker, I love her in Better Call Saul, and in these other small roles, she’s just got so much character. There were just so many wonderful opportunities and I’m obsessed with our cast, so thank you for noticing and for bringing it up. WICKED HORROR: As a horror fan, it’s just great to see so many of these guys getting work. It’s so gratifying seeing what they can do once they’re actually given the space to do it. I mean, Pat Healy, for instance. I’ll watch anything that Pat Healy is in. Once I see his name on the cast-list, I’m down. AARON B KOONTZ: Pat is so talented. I don’t think people realize just how talented he is. For the character of Wylie, we wanted to build this guy from the ground up. We built this accent, this dialect, so we knew the way that he talked, the way that he walked. The gang is loosely based on the real-life Dalton gang, and within that gang there was one brother – they were actually all brothers, but we just made it two brothers for the purposes of our story – who never actually got involved in the fighting. He was the strategic guy, a former banker, who we just found incredibly interesting. We just knew Pat could do this pensive, thoughtful, meticulous person. And we reflected that in the way he talked, the way he walked, the pocket-watch he carries, the little notebook, his hat, every little detail of him was very precise. It was really fun to create all this stuff too, and the Lansdales really helped fleshing out these characters to make them more unique, because in a lot of these old western movies, the gangs are just a bunch of white dudes. The reality wasn’t like that, gangs were actually very diverse. Even James Whitecloud, he’s an homage to Will Sampson, an amazing actor who was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one of my favorite movies. He plays Chief Bromden, this silent Native American character who I wanted to pay homage to in this movie, with the character of Chief. Funnily enough, Will Sampson is actually James Whitecloud’s great uncle, which is a total coincidence, he actually found that out during the audition process, so it was great for him to get to pay homage to his ancestor like that. The way Chief looks is very similar to the way Bromden looks, too. But it was just great to put all these people together. It’s challenging to do an ensemble like that but it was amazing. When you get people like that, on that level, working at that creative peak that they do, you’re just so lucky as a director to just get out of the way and just let them do their thing. See Also: Shudder’s Host is Truly Terrifying [Review] WICKED HORROR: I can’t let you go without mentioning Scare Package, not just one of my favorite horror releases of the year, but also one of the biggest success stories. How did that come about? And are you just thrilled with the response, because horror fans have just loved it? AARON B KOONTZ: Thank you so much! We made the film because I was frustrated after my first feature, it was a very difficult experience and the movie didn’t turn out to be what I wanted it to be, for a variety of reasons, so I just wanted to get back together with my friends and the people we all loved from film festivals, and just make some fun shorts and get back to why we wanted to make movies in the first place. We made Scare Package 100 percent independently, I hired my friends, hired the people that I love, so we could do something diverse again with a community group of people because the reason I make movies is I want people to have an escape. That’s it. The Pale Door and Scare Package allow people, whatever they’re dealing with and whatever they’re going through, to put on a movie and for this 90 minutes I’m no longer dealing with whatever I’m dealing with in my daily life. I think Scare Package hit at the right time, too. We just wanted to do this completely silly, goofy, over the top movie and it warms my heart with so much joy to see everybody responding so positively to it. I can’t believe we made this super-small movie with our friends and now we have…I can’t even say all the things that are coming our way because of Scare Package but, let’s just say, there’s a lot more coming because the response has been great. It’s just been wonderful and thank you so much, too, because I remember seeing your review at the time too, and all of that stuff matters. It’s really ignited why we make movies. And then The Pale Door is the complete opposite! WICKED HORROR: Well, that’s what’s so great about The Pale Door, because it’s not what I was expecting to see from you after watching Scare Package. AARON B KOONTZ: We never intended for these movies to be released at the same time, it just kind of happened that way. The Pale Door came out faster without all the festivals, and then Scare Package was delayed, so they just ended up colliding. It’s a weird summer for the world but it’s a very special summer for us. With everything going on, with Black Lives Matter and with trying to support these causes in any way we can, it’s a tough time to be promoting a movie. But, if it can provide an escape, then that’s all I could ever ask for. WICKED HORROR: And that’s hugely important too, particularly right now. AARON B KOONTZ: That’s great, because really that’s all I want. Catch The Pale Door in theaters, On Demand and on Digital from August 21, 2020 Scare Package is streaming on Shudder now ** This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity purposes. Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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New on Netflix: August 21st, 2020

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Wicked Horror is the author of New on Netflix: August 21st, 2020. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

It’s Friday and you know what that means: It’s time to figure out what you’ll be watching this week. Welcome back to New on Netflix! The streaming giant’s horror department has always been a mixed bag. However, I’d say they’ve really stepped up their game in the last couple of years with the release of amazing, essential watches. We’ve been treated to must see original programming like The Haunting of Hill House, Velvet Buzzsaw, Hush, and some of the classics we all know and love. This week we have two new movies, a Nicolas Cage crime drama and a new true crime series! 1BR Coming to Netflix on August 23rd is indie psychodrama 1BR. When Sarah decides to move to Los Angeles for a fresh start, she moves into a seemingly perfect apartment complex and finds her new neighbors are not what they seem. When she gets on the wrong side of said neighbors she soon finds out that there are serious consequences for breaking the rules. The Bridge Curse Coming August 27th is The Bridge Curse. Inspired by the urban legend about a haunted bridge at Taichung`s Tunghai University, the film follows a group of undergraduate students who decide to put the legend to the test. While filming a video at the cursed bridge, they discover the ghost of a woman waiting for them. The Frozen Ground Inspired by real life serial killer Robert Hansen, The Frozen Ground follows an Alaskan State Trooper who teams up with a troubled young woman that provides a critical break in the case against a man who has been hunting women for at least 13 years. Coming to Netflix August 27th! I AM A KILLER: Released (Season 1) And coming to Netflix August 28th is the follow-up docuseries to the I Am a Killer series that sees a a convict is paroled 30 years after being sentenced to death for murder. Then he makes a stunning confession. Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Zombie Comedy, Yummy Is Far From Delicious [Fantasia Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Zombie Comedy, Yummy Is Far From Delicious [Fantasia Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

As many undead hordes as have shuffled across screens in the past two decades, Lars Damoiseaux’s Yummy is likely the only one created with the assistance of the VAF, a Flemish arts grant usually reserved for staid historical dramas. With a poster boasting a bloody handprint and the tagline “Facelifts, Boob Jobs, And Zombies”, Yummy makes clear from the onset the film’s mission is to bring some gory gut munching to the Fantasia Fest programming. Allison (Maaike Neuville) is roadtripping to a cut rate eastern European clinic for a breast reduction. Her boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) joins her on the journey to assist in her recovery, possibly more nervous about the surgery than she is. Allison’s mother Sylvia (Annick Christiaens) is blithely unconcerned about her. An obvious fan of surgical interventions, Sylvia is only tagging along because she has a full slate of procedures booked for herself.The clinic is clearly nothing like what was advertised on the Internet, located in a grimy, graffiti covered industrial building in the middle of nowhere. Hospital transporter Daniel (Benjamin Ramon) looks like a community theater Tyler Durden, and openly leers at Allison. Hell on high heels receptionist Janja (Clara Cleymans) hustles the group inside before any of the patients can have second thoughts. Even the head of the clinic (Eric Godon) spends more time groping Allison than not, and assumes she wants an enlargement rather than a reduction.Michael is understandably nervous about the hospital’s utter lack of anything resembling proper procedure or decorum. He used to be a med student, but had to drop out due to his fear of blood. Michael rushes into the OR, trying to convince Allison to leave. Instead, he ends up nearly passing out due to his phobia, and accidentally sedating himself. Also See: All the Rage: Why We Still See Debate Over Zombies vs. Infection Movies Desperate to keep Michael out of the way, Janja sends him to tour the building with Daniel. Daniel is looking to steal some of the drugs kept in the lower level pharmacy. Left to his own devices,  Michael’s attempts to help a distressed patient in restraints. By removing her face mask, Michael unleashes Patient Zero. She was part of a secret project at the hospital. Rather than stop aging, the stem cell experiments have created a zombie virus. With the undead now loose in the hospital, predictable carnage ensues.There are some decent splatter set pieces here, even if the plastic surgery angle is mostly underplayed. An abandoned liposuction goes wrong, causing an explosion of blood and fat. Chemical peels left to set melt a face with a slow sizzle. Infected blood drops into a specimen jar and zombifies a fetal animal. A torn in half zombie nurse munches her own intestines like an undead ouroboros.With gore flying in every direction, all that is left is the guessing game as to who will make it into our ragtag group of survivors. Yummy complicates this by tossing subplots, tonal shifts and pieces of internal logic into and out of the film at seemingly random intervals. Some characters are infected by human bites, some by zombified animal specimens, some by a mere splash of infected blood. Meandering plot threads are set up for characters to die moments later to thundering indifference. Also See: Why Fulci’s Zombie is the Distilled Essence of Zombie Cinema The first half of the film certainly aims for black comedy, even though throwaway lines about how similar “hemophobia” and “homophobia” sound is about as clever as it gets (not very). There’s also an incredibly flaccid subplot about a television star’s secret visits for penis enlargement. With only an 88 minute run time, a good ten of them are wasted to set up a comedy of errors penis explosion that fails to rise to the occasion of being remotely funny.It’s almost a relief when Yummy instead sets it sights on bleak and gritty, but that too is bogged down with characters we’ve never gotten to know or like enough to care. Michael has been painted as an inefficient fearful buffoon, fainting, puking or bumbling into things the entire film. By the time he attempts  something noble, even Allison no longer takes him remotely seriously. Also See: Most Memorable Final Girls of Horror As for Allison, while she is clearly marked as the final girl, it seems that is only the case to further fetishize her chest. This impression is certainly helped along by the bizarre addition of an attempted sexual assault in a very late stage of the film. The fact that this scene was considered a vital inclusion rather than even the thinnest characterization or consistent internal logic is likely the most truly horrific thing Yummy has to offer. A plastic surgery clinic is actually a very strong backdrop for a zombie film. It is unfortunate Yummy didn’t fully utilize the philosophical or body horror  implications of that choice. Instead the film can’t quite decide if it wants to be a vintage Troma style bit of slyly sleazy splatstick, or a grim march through torture-fueled Hostel territory.  The promotional materials call Yummy “an orgy of blood, violence and fun”. Aside from gorehounds and zombie completists, most viewers will find themselves settling for two out of three. Wicked Rating – 3.5/10 Director: Lars Damoiseaux Writer(s): Lars Damoiseaux, Eveline Hagenbeek Stars: Maaike Neuville, Bart Hollanders, Benjamin Ramon Release date: December 18, 2019 (Belgium) Studio/Production Company: 10.80 Films, A Team Productions, Everstory Productions Languages: Dutch, English Run Time: 88 minutes Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Pat Healy is Relishing Relinquishing Control [Interview]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Pat Healy is Relishing Relinquishing Control [Interview]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Pat Healy is a bonafide Horror Icon. But he’s also one of our greatest living actors, giving it nothing less than his best in everything from The Innkeepers to Cheap Thrills, American Woman to The Post. Healy showed he’s just as talented behind the camera with Netflix movie Take Me, too, in which he also starred opposite Taylor Schilling. Simultaneously intense and disarmingly sweet-natured, Healy can play a raft of different characters from psychos to nerds, imbuing each and every one with his own indefinable charm. With The Pale Door, Healy is gifted his most OCD character yet, in the form of Wylie, the stringent ideas man for a ragtag bunch of lowlifes running rampant in the Old West. The remarkably candid actor sees many correlations between his role in the movie, and the way his character’s psyche falls apart as things escalate into darkness around him, and the current state of our world. Wicked Horror chatted with him about life, loss, and what he sees his role as in this horrifying new reality. WICKED HORROR: You play Wylie in The Pale Door who, let’s be honest, looks a bit out of place with the rest of the gang. I thought maybe he was their accountant when he first showed up. How do you think he fits in to their group? PAT HEALY: He kind of is [their accountant]! Wylie is the brains of the operation. He’s the logical guy, the guy who writes out all the plans, deals with facts and figures, measures the distance between here and there…basically going by what he’s come up with in a very methodical way in order to execute their plans. He’s more nattily dressed and speaks in a more refined manner. That’s kind of his role in the gang. Then, when this situation occurs, as it does in a lot of heist movies, there are these unforeseen complications, but in this particular case the something unforeseen, no one even knows it exists or believes in it. In particular, a person who is logic-based like that…when someone like Wylie experiences something he doesn’t believe in, the way that he approaches the world doesn’t factor that in, he kind of goes into a weird kind of shock. That’s kind of his arc in the movie. I think that’s an interesting thing for him. And, in these uncertain times, speaking of quarantine, and what’s going on with COVID, I learned a long time ago, because I’ve been in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for a long time, the idea of control is an illusion. We really don’t have control, we certainly don’t have control over nature. See Also: Review: Carnage Park Splatters and Sweats WICKED HORROR: There’s a parallel here. Wylie wouldn’t do well in quarantine. PAT HEALY: Right, it’s starting to get a little old now, but this experience overall, quarantine, has not been not too bad for me because I relinquish control. But I’m watching a lot of people experience that for the first time and they’re reacting quite badly and acting irrationally in many ways, because they can’t imagine a world where they don’t have control. So that’s an interesting allegory to what happens in the movie, which is also often what happens in life, you know he’s got it all figured out and because the numbers add up and the facts and figures. But what happens when something otherworldly and supernatural comes into the picture? That all goes out the window and you have to adjust the best way you can. I’m adjusting well and reacting well to the current situation in the world but Wylie doesn’t, because it’s hard to know what to do when you’re suddenly surrounded and you can’t deny something that you’re seeing with your own eyes exists. That’s an interesting thing for me to play because it is something I’m very familiar with, the basic idea of it. WICKED HORROR: When I talked to Aaron [B. Koontz, director and co-writer of The Pale Door] he told me about Wylie’s wardrobe, his accessories, like the little notebook he carries everywhere and the pocket-watch, and how everything was planned down to the last detail for him. Do those kinds of details give you an in, as an actor, to the character? PAT HEALY: Oh, absolutely. I think 99 percent of the time, when you get the wardrobe, and especially with shoes and boots and all this period stuff, I mean, Jillian [Bundrick, costume designer] did an amazing job, especially given the budget constraints, when you put that stuff on it makes you stand a different way and makes you speak a different way, hold your head a different way. It makes you internalize the external circumstances in a psychological way when you look in the mirror and you look different and you’re in this old western town, in Oklahoma on location and it’s impressively humid…so all that stuff does a lot of my work for me. I do a lot of preparation beforehand, off set, because I want to give myself completely to the experience of it once I’m there. That’s something else that, allegorically, plays into what the story and the movie is, just tons of preparation and then everything just goes to hell and goes out the window. So I love all of that stuff, horror makeup, whatever you can do to…I think people in real life don’t emote as much as actors and characters in movies often do, and I think some of that has to do with the fact most of us haven’t been in situations like this – well, none of us have probably been in a situation like this – so we react how we think we might react. When you have all these other elements to help you along, wardrobe in particular, you don’t have to push or work so hard to react to that stuff, it’s really just you seeing weird shit [laughs] in western period clothing. In a lot of these cases, you’re very nattily dressed, in a suit and hat and tie and as the movie goes on, these things get stripped away along with Wylie’s own psyche and grip on reality, so that’s cool too. Related: Noah Segan Really Wants to Talk About His Dad Bod [Interview] WICKED HORROR: As controlled as Wylie is, you do get to do some gnarly stuff, particularly towards the end, like when you’re chewing broken glass in the church. What was the most challenging part for you, emotionally or psychically? PAT HEALY: That was the biggest challenge, actually, because by the end of it, with all the appliances and all the blood and everything, I really couldn’t see where I was, where the camera was, where I was standing, so that’s where the relationship with Aaron and the rest of the crew becomes really important, that trust that’s been established, because you really have to take their word for it and just go, just physically be in a certain place and trust that they’re getting what they need. Then you ask them, you know, “Did you get that?” because you really have no idea what you’re doing. But that kind of works too, because my character is completely out of his mind at that point so, in a way, I shouldn’t have too tight a grasp on what I’m doing or what’s going on. So that kind of works for the character at that point in time, too, weirdly. Catch The Pale Door in theaters, On Demand and on Digital from August 21, 2020 ** This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity purposes.

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Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula is Fun as Hell [Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula is Fun as Hell [Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

What if John Wick fought zombies? That’s the question Yeon Sang-ho seems to be answering in Peninsula, the follow-up to his instant classic zombie flick Train to Busan. That film succeeded for much the same reason this one does: it knows what it is and it commits to being the best version of that it can be.  RELATED: Blu-Ray Review – Train to Busan Keeps the Zombie Genre Alive (Undead?) Peninsula opens with Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won) driving his family toward a ferry out of zombie-infested Korea. Min-jung (Lee Jung-hyun) is stranded with her family on the side of the road. He slows down, but leaves her because he’s worried that her husband may be infected. She is stranded in Korea, while he and his family escape to the boat. Soon after, tragedy strikes.  From here, the movie skips four years. A newscaster informs audiences that Korea has been completely overrun at this point, and “neighboring countries refused to accept any refugees.” Jung-seok and his brother-in-law Cheol-min (Kim Do-yoon, who you may recognize from The Wailing) go out for drinks, where another bar patron screams that they’re “Where the virus came from,” as though that is somehow their fault. It’s a prescient moment, considering the film was written before anyone had called COVID-19 “the Chinese virus.” Jung-seok and Cheol-min are asked to leave. Their prospects outside of Korea aren’t good.   They’re offered a job though: go back into Korea with two mercenaries and retrieve a truck full of money. The last team who attempted it died under mysterious circumstances, but if they make, they’ll get $2.5 million each. It doesn’t take them long to choose between being scapegoated for a disease and being rich. Their boss neglects to tell them that they aren’t the only ones looking for it.  The premise is part of what makes this such a good sequel. In Train to Busan, the zombies are the most dangerous villain, though certainly not the most hateable (looking at you, Yon-suk). Everyone’s trying to get away from them, but the train traps the humans, preventing any real escape. Peninsula is in many ways the opposite. Rather than an enclosed space, the characters are running around an entire city. The villains are a paramilitary organization. The zombies are still there, sure, but they’re an impediment to retrieving the money, not the main threat. In other words, this step in the trilogy (rounded about the dark anime Seoul Station) is making the leap from Alien to Aliens, replacing close-quarters cat and mouse games with military gunplay.  Related: How Aliens Perfected Action/Horror (And Why it’s So Hard to Get Right) While Yeon doesn’t make any more allusions to that James Cameron helmed sequels, he does drop references to Cameron’s Terminator. As Joon (Lee Re) and Yu-jin (Lee Ye-won) powerslide their SUV through a horde of zombies to rescue Jung-seok, she says, “Hop in if you want to live,” an homage to Cameron’s famous “Come with me if you want to live.”   The film wears its other references on its sleeve as well. Gang Dong-won is channeling Keanu Reeves as John Wick in many of the action sequences, half-engaging in hand to hand combat, and half shooting anything that moves. The connection is most apparent when Jung-seok crushes an enemy’s toes with the butt of his rifle to put the enemy’s head in line with the barrel of the gun. Dong-won is excellent, bringing a similar intensity to what Reeves brings to his fights. Peninsula pays homage to another classic 2010s action film, Mad Max: Fury Road, with an epic, 20-minute long car chase.  While that car chase is fun as hell—and it’s more than a little satisfying to watch an SUV and a truck plow through hordes of zombies—much of it is CGI. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but the real cars and computer animated ones don’t feel right next to each other, leaving viewers paying attention to which stunts are CGI and which are real instead of enjoying the action.  While that action may be Peninsula’s main focus, like its predecessor it also has some moments that will jerk at your heartstrings. Sure, it’s melodramatic in Train to Busan (spoilers for that film ahead) when Sang-hwa dies and yells the name he wants his wife to name their daughter before the horde crushes him. The other deaths in that film and this one are melodramatic too, but the over-the-top feels are one of the series’ pleasures. No one watches professional wrestling for nuance. People watch because it’s awesome, and Peninsula, with all of its melodrama and trope characters, is awesome.  Peninsula’s greatest strength is Yeon and his cowriter Park Joo-suk’s ability to build scenes. They slip in little details that seem meaningless in the moment, but later reveal that the plot hinges on them. They set specific time limits on things, and then milk tension from those limits. For example, in Peninsula the characters need to move at night because zombies can’t see as well without light. Then, the writers set many scenes just before sunrise, adding that much more to the tension.  As good as they are at building tension, Yeon and Park show tremendous creativity as well. Rather than focusing on which weapon can most effectively cut off zombie heads, they go in a different direction. Yeon and Park don’t focus on weapons, but on creative ways to trick rather than kill zombies.  More than anything else, Peninsula is fun as hell. It’s a worthy successor to one of the best zombie movies in recent memory. Don’t miss out!*  Wicked Rating – 9/10 Director: Yeon Sang-ho Writers: Park Joo-suk, Yeon Sang-ho Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Kwon Hae-hyo, Kim Min-je, Koo Gyo-hwan, Kim Do-yoon, Lee Re, Lee Ye-won Release Date: August 21, 2020 (Theaters, but seriously, don’t go during a pandemic) Language: Korean, English Runtime: 116 minutes *When it comes out somewhere you can watch it safely. Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

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