2023 has been a unique year for horror, with films ranging from microbudget fare to Hollywood sequels making headlines. What better time to catch up on the best scary movies of the year than October? This list is sure to get shaken up a bit more by the year’s end, as there are a handful
Movies
New Zealand journalist and director David Farrier‘s debut feature documentary, 2016’s “Tickled,” was a look at the underground world of competitive tickling and the bizarre cast of characters behind the subsequent fetish videos. Farrier has followed “Tickled” with “Mister Organ,” a profile of a litigious man living in the shadows. In this case, it’s New
In her seven feature films as director, Rebecca Miller has presented indelible, complicated characters rarely seen on the big screen. One of those films, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” was a documentary about the heralded playwright, her father. But the remaining six narrative films were of her own creation — including the titular 10-year-old obsessed with absolving
Iranian producer Elaheh Nobakht, whose credits include “Dream’s Gate,” the doc depicting an all-female Kurdish militia that launched earlier this year from Berlin, has been banned by Iranian authorities from traveling outside the country. Nobakht – who is a board member of the Iranian Producers Association (IPA) and of the Iranian Documentary Producer Association (AOIDP)
Rather than horns, they look like tiny black catkins clinging to the grains on swaying stalks of rye. These little clusters — actually a fungus known as ergot — are a disease that affects the ovaries of their host plants, but can be made into an infusion that induces abortion in women. That kind of
Anthony Shim, the Canadian Korean director behind Toronto festival hit “Riceboy Sleeps,” is attached as writer and director of a film adaptation of “Offerings” an acclaimed Korean coming-of-age novel. Anonymous Content and Anthology Studios are to produce. “Offerings” tells the story of Dae, a young Korean American investment banker who finds himself back in his
In the horror genre, nothing really ever stays dead. Universal and Blumhouse’s sequel, “The Exorcist: Believer,” is launching at the box office this weekend, and it’s made $2.85 million in Thursday previews so far. The R-rated movie is expected to make between $30 million and $36 million in its opening, which will mark the best
The Savannah College of Art and Design’s 26th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 21-28, has announced its film lineup. “Nyad,” a film based on the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad, will open the festival on Oct. 21. Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are making their
Alexander Kiesl and Steffen Hacker have been tapped to direct a film adaptation of Home Sweet Home, a popular action-horror video game. Casting is currently underway for the movie, titled “Home Sweet Home Rebirth.” Principle photography is set to begin in Bangkok, Thailand, this fall. Described as a supernatural thriller, “Home Sweet Home Rebirth” follows
Sales agent M-Appeal has released the trailer for coming-of-age title “Vera and the Pleasure of Others,” which was written and directed by the Argentinian duo Romina Tamburello and Federico Actis. The film will have its world premiere at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, in the First Feature Competition, it was announced Friday. “Vera
The growing media and entertainment connections between Korean Americans and those Koreans living in Korea may be changing both communities, a public discussion at the Busan International Film Festival on Friday heard. “Being in a room full of fans, feels like they accepted me as a member of the family. It feels like, culturally, Korea
The first time Katia deVidas filmed Peter Doherty was in November 2006, at a Babyshambles concert in Paris. Over the next decade, deVidas would record more than 200 hours of footage of the musician — who ushered in a new era of British rock in the early 2000s as the co-frontman of the Libertines —
The Match Factory has sold Sofia Coppola‘s “Priscilla” to distributors worldwide, the sales agency revealed Friday ahead of its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, and won the Coppa Volpi award for best actress for Cailee Spaeny’s performance. Adding
The Berlin Film Festival has created a new scouting role to curate a rising generation of German filmmakers. The next edition, which is set to take place from Feb. 15-25, will see its section dedicated to newcomer German films merged into the main program. Jenni Zylka, the former director of Perspektive Deutsches Kino, has been tapped
SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains spoilers about the reason for all the killing. Years ago, Indian director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat fell asleep on a cross-country train ride, only to discover upon reaching his destination that the cars on either side of his had been robbed by armed bandits, known as “dacoits.” The heist couldn’t
This is Why Cinema and Inna Payán’s Animal de Luz Films have licensed drama “Todo el silencio” (“All the Silence”) to Prime Video. This follows that of Animal de Luz’s licensing of Katina Medina Mora’s “Latido” (“Heartbeat”) to the giant platform. “All the Silence” marks the debut feature of award-winning theater director Diego del Rio,
Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation recently scored at the local box office, is being feted with a career award by the El Gouna Film Festival. The Egyptian fest, running Oct. 13-20 in the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo, is also paying
Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is back after a one-year hiatus with a rich mix of Arabic and international titles launching into the Middle East and plenty of promising projects from Arab countries set to be unveiled to prospective partners at its CineGouna industry side. The event launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib
Leading Korean content firm Showbox Corp. has added “The Killers,” an unusual anthology film, to its Busan rights sales line up. The film takes its title and themes from Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story of the same name. Deploying satire, it described the work of a pair of hit-men, but also delved into themes of
The other demonic possession movie opening this week, “When Evil Lurks” is unlikely to steal major box-office thunder from “The Exorcist: Believer.” But Argentine genre specialist Demian Rugna’s latest is no mere opportunistic cash-in, either, with its own distinctive and non-formulaic take on the notion of an evil spirit that strikes like a malignant disease.
Nabin Subba‘s “A Road to a Village” is a stark look at the damaging effects of galloping modernization in rural Nepal. The film had its world premiere at Toronto and is playing at the Busan International Film Festival in the ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand. Subba is a renowned chronicler of societal change in
The Newport Beach Film Festival has added a screening of “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” to its Fashion Island main stage line-up. The screening on Sunday, Oct. 15 will include a Q&A with author Judy Blume, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig and producers James L. Brooks and Julie Ansell. This year’s festival will also
Korean sales agency, Finecut has picked up international sales rights to dance drama film “Victory,” which it will launch during the Asian Contents & Film Market that sits alongside the Busan Film Festival. The film, currently in post-production, is an upcoming title by Park Beom-su, a director known for a promising debut film “Red Carpet”
Elsie Choi, a film and TV development veteran who has worked for such producers as Dan Lin and Bruce Willis, has joined Los Angeles-based CJ ENM America as executive VP and head of scripted TV. CJ ENM is a South Korean entertainment company that has produced content such as Oscar-winning film “Parasite” and popular Korean fantasy drama series
Dick Butkus, one of the most celebrated linebackers in NFL history who played eight seasons for the Chicago Bears before turning to a career as an actor and sports commentator, died Thursday in Malibu. He was 80 years old. The Butkus family released a statement through the Chicago Bears organization, confirming his death. “The Butkus
Dancers and non-dancers alike can rejoice at the announcement of upcoming dance documentary “Dance As You Are,” a new project from “Embattled” producer Eryl Cochran. The film was shot almost exclusively on iPhones over 60 days and is the first release from Cochran’s new production label KEYKIX. “Dance As You Are” centers on a group of 75 strangers, ages 23-74, who must come together to form six
Ellen Burstyn reprised the role of Chris MacNeil 50 years after the original “Exorcist” film in David Gordon Green‘s “The Exorcist: Believer.” But the actor wasn’t initially sold on the reboot from Universal and Blumhouse, initially telling Green “hell no” when the director first approached her about returning to the franchise. “At first, she was
Warsaw Film Festival sets out to spotlight a slew of new local releases, from “Anxiety” by Sławomir Fabicki – Oscar-nominated for his short “A Man Thing” – to this year’s opener “Song of Goats” by Andrzej Jakimowski. The latter, featuring “EO” star Mateusz Kościukiewicz and set in Greece, will show characters living close to an
With over 40 films and television series under its belt and counting, the Marvel Cinematic Universe can often times feel like an unwieldy beast that’s impossible to conquer. The record-breaking Hollywood franchise kicked off in 2008 with the release of “Iron Man,” starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, but that’s not where an
Ahead of its 39th edition, Poland’s Warsaw Film Festival is betting on timely topics. “The role of filmmakers, and artists in general, is to react,” says festival director Stefan Laudyn. “For years, we have been showing films that criticize the situation in various countries, not just in Poland. We try to avoid puff pieces.” While