Binding Eva world première for the First Blood strand at FrightFest, 29th August 2026 Conscian Morgan’s debut feature Binding Eva comes with two prologues. The first comprises text that reads: “In these woods, an elder woman keeps to the old craft. She binds what will not let go. A trial for lost souls.” These are…
In the bushland of Tasmania, at the beginning of Pelverata, two engineers – Misha (Charley Hur) and Myaree (Carina Parsons) – are conducting a survey for some academic research. Myaree is the junior in this working partnership, and more playful than stern, serious Misha, but she is also smarter than he imagines, and eager to…
Azrael: Angel of Death first published by SciFiNow, for its UK première at FrightFest, 25 August, 2024 “Many years after the Rapture…” reads the text, in bright red, that opens Azrael: Angel of Death. It is a way, right from the outset of marking E.L. Katz’s feature, written by Simon Barrett, as being post-apocalyptic in…
The Arborist had its world première at FrightFest, 8.25pm Sat 23 Aug The Arborist opens with an irrational, nightmarish sequence. To the instantly recognisable sound of a crying baby, seven animal figurines are seen rotating on a mobile over an empty crib, while teen Wyatt Drummond (Hudson West) holds his baby sister Rachel in his…
Beyond the Drumlins virtual screening at Panic Fest, 29 March 2025 Lost in the woods, a panicking man (Bradford Selby) runs, as we see – but he does not – a figure standing and watching from the tree line. This opening sequence from Dan Bowhers’ Beyond the Drumlins could come from any common-or-garden backwoods slasher, except…
From Darkness (Ur Mörkret) had its UK première at FrightFest 2024, 24 Aug From Darkness (Ur Mörkret) opens with chillingly desolate, lifeless spaces: a snowy forest seen from multiple angles, an old abandoned derrick over a quarry, a derelict building exposed to the elements, and a tracking shot to a cave entrance that is pitch…
Vulcanizadora had its world première at Tribeca 2024, 8 Jun 2024 “When I was a kid, I was digging in my backyard, and He was like way down there,” Marty Jackitansky (Joshua Burge) tells his friend Derek Skiba (Joel Potrykus), of a youthful encounter with God, or perhaps with the Devil, down in the hole….
Hunting Daze (Jour de Chasse) had its World Première at the SXSW 2024 Nina (Nahéma Ricci) stands against a rockface, her eyes closed as though asleep, until she opens them to watch two noisy birds circling overhead. This imagery in the opening sequence of Hunting Daze (Jour de Chasse) will recur, with significant variations, at…
In A Violent Nature had its world première at the Sundance Film Festival 2024 “Hey check this out.” “What is that?” “A necklace or something.” “Looks like gold.” “Hey, maybe it’s here for a reason.” “Yeah, what reason, Colt?” “I dunno.” “This whole place freaks me out.” “Well we are in the middle of a…
January first published by Little White Lies, 25 Jan 2023 At the beginning of January, a Porter (Samuel Finzi) and an Old Man (Iossif Surchadziev) while away their time eating walnuts and doing a crossword as they await the return of their boss Petar Motorov. The clues of the crossword concern world literature, global geography…
Lovely, Dark, and Deep had its world première at Fantasia 2023 “Into the forest I go, to lose my mind, and find my soul” goes the text quote from John Muir with which Lovely, Dark, and Deep opens. Sure enough, this feature debut from writer/director Teresa Sutherland, who previously scripted Emma Tammi’s The Wind (2018),…