Movies
[Fantasia ’12] Festival Becomes Film Market; Announces 14 Projects Including ‘Pontypool’ Sequel!
Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world, is embarking on its 16th edition with a major new industry-driven venture: the Frontières International Co-Production Market (meaning, these projects are not yet produced, and thus will not be playing in the film festival, but instead will be sold as part of a new film market). Frontières is the first international co-production market to connect North-American with Europe and Australasia, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production.
The projects to be presented in the market have now been chosen and feature an exciting array of filmmakers, from gifted newcomers to world-renowned maestros, as well as numerous established international producers.
The selection of the first edition of Frontières will consist of the following 14 projects, which carries a few surprises like Ponypool Changes, the hotly anticpated sequel to the 2008 adaptation of Pontypool, along with Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon’s Purgatory!
BLOOD BORNE (Australia) Director / Writer: Fin Edquist / Producer: David Rapsey (Rogue Production)
DARK HOLLOW (New Zealand) Director: Paul Campion / Writers: Paul Campion & Paul Finch, based on a book by Brian Keene / Producer: Daniel Warwick (Chameleon Films)
KEEP QUIET (Mexico) Director /Writer: Jorge Michel Grau / Producer: Mayra Espinosa Castro
M (Australia) Director: Jon Hewitt / Writers: Jon Hewitt & Belinda McClory / Producer: Lizzette Atkins (Unicorn Films), Executive Producer: Richard Stewart
PANDEMONIUM (France) Director: Abel Ferry / Writer: Eric Rondeaux / Producer: Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin (Paprika Films)
PERISH (UK) Directors / Writers: Catherine Linstrum & David-John Newman / Producer: Brian Coffey (Sigma Films)
PONTYPOOL CHANGES (Canada) Director: Bruce McDonald / Writer: Tony Burgess / Producer: Ambrose Roche (Shadow Shows)
PORK CHOP (Canada) Director: Sid Zanforlin / Writers: Chris Bavota & Sid Zanforlin / Producer: Philippe Chabot
PURGATORY (USA) Director / Producer: Stuart Gordon / Writer: Richard Mancuso
RADIUS (Canada) Directors / Writers: Caroline Labrèche & Steeve Léonard
SÈVE (France) Director: Fabrice Blin / Writers: Fabrice Blin & David Uystpruyst / Producer: Fabrice Lambot (Metaluna Productions)
STRATA (USA) Directors: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead / Writer: Justin Benson / Producer: Justin Benson & David Lawson
THE WITHERING (UK) Directors / Writers: Robert Morgan & Sam Walker / Producer: Karen Smyth (La Belle Allée)
TURBO KID (Canada) Directors / Writers: François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann–Karl Whissell / Producer: Ant Timpson, Executive Producer: Jason Eisener
CANADA AND QUEBEC:
Four of the 14 projects hail from Canada and Quebec: Adored maverick trail-blazer Bruce McDonald (HARD CORE LOGO 1 & 2, THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN, HIGHWAY 61) graces us with a hotly-anticipated sequel to his cult masterpiece PONTYPOOL.
Sid Zanforlin presents his first feature PORK CHOP and the filmmaking duo of Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard second their no-budget effort SANS DESSEIN with RADIUS.
After becoming the most popular submission to Drafthouse Films’ THE ABCS OF DEATH’s short film contest with T IS FOR TURBO, the Roadkill Superstar collective (François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann–Karl Whissell) is now presenting its follow-up in feature form, TURBO KID, to be produced by New Zealand’s Ant Timpson (THE DEVIL DARED ME TO, also founder of Incredibly Strange) and executive produced by none other than Jason Eisener (HOBO WTH A SHOTGUN, TREEVENGE).
USA:
From the USA, genre film legend Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, STUCK, EDMOND) brings us PURGATORY.
Fresh from their wildly acclaimed premiere of RESOLUTION at the Tribeca film festival just the other week, where the film made many critics’ best-of-fest lists, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are presenting their new project STRATA.
EUROPE:
On the European side, the UK and France are featured. After winning the Best Animation Short Film award at last year’s Fantasia with his world premiere screening of BOBBY YEAH (which went on to standout showings at Sundance, Rotterdam and Sitges, as well as being nominated for a BAFTA, and winning a special jury prize at Clermont-Ferrand) and getting a spotlight on his work in 2006, Robert Morgan returns to Fantasia with THE WITHERING, a live-action debut project to be co-directed with Sam Walker (TEA BREAK) and to be produced by Karen Smyth, co-producer of Nicolas Winding-Refn’s VALHALLA RISING.
After the Midnight Audience Award-winning premiere of CITADEL at SXSW, producer Brian Coffey brings us PERISH by BAFTA-winner Catherine Linstrum and David-John Newman.
Fabrice Blin makes his feature debut with SÈVE, and following up the critically lauded HIGH LANE (VERTIGE), Abel Ferry comes to present PANDEMONIUM.
NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA:
After last year’s North American premiere of THE DEVIL’S ROCK, New Zealand director Paul Campion returns to Fantasia with DARK HOLLOW, based on a novel by best-selling author Brian Keene.
From Australia, producer David Rapsey (LAKE MUNGO) delivers the feature debut by Fin Edquist, BLOOD BORNE, and Jon Hewitt (X, ACOLYTES) comes to present M.
MEXICO:
Finally, Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau follows-up the celebrated WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (SOMOS LO QUE HAY – Cannes Directors Fortnight 2010 and a hit at Fantasia, where the film had its North American premiere) with KEEP QUIET.
Frontières will be part of the new Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous, which will include the Fantasia Film Market, also making its official debut in 2012 to support the sales efforts of the features that will be part of the festival’s programming. International producers and sales agents, distributors, broadcasters, talent agents and festival programmers will attend the Rendez-Vous from July 26 to the 29, 2012, within the 3-week body of the Fantasia Festival. Over the course of these four days, various meeting sessions will be held and a series of conferences will be organized to assemble the participants around current industry topics. For the inaugural edition, accreditation will be free of charge and can be applied for starting immediately, until June 15.
The Fantasia International Film Festival will be held in Montreal from July 19 to August 7, 2012. For more information about the festival and the Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous, or to request accreditation, please visit the Film Market section of www.FantasiaFestival.com.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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