Movies
Well Go USA Acquires Takashi Shimizu’s Shock Labyrinth’ and ‘Tormented’
Well Go USA has preemptively acquired all North American distribution rights including theatrical, DVD, Digital, VOD and Television to the upcoming 3D horror thriller Tormented from Hong Kong/Netherlands-based Fortissimo Films. They have simultaneously also acquired all rights to the 2010 horror The Shock Labyrinth. Both films were directed by edgy auteur Takashi Shimizu, best known for the original 2002 Japanese hit Ju-on: The Grudge) and the 2003 sequel Ju-on: The Grudge 2 as well as the US remakes of both films. The original film and the English language remakes grossed over $270 million worldwide.Tormented will premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival in Official Selection Midnight. It has just been announced that it also has been selected for Official Competition at the Sitges Film Festival, the world’s foremost fantasy and horror film festival to be held in October this year.
“We are looking to push the envelope and bring unique filmed entertainment from all corners of the world to the North American market,” said Doris Pfardrescher. “We are excited to have secured rights to these films directed by the very talented, visionary director Takashi Shimizu that will no doubt resonate with the huge and passionate genre fan base.”
Fortissimo’s Lau added, “In the last few years Well Go has established a very strong reputation in North America for its exciting selection of films combining great marketing with great distribution. We are thrilled that Fortissimo’s first two 3D titles will be in their excellent hands and we are looking forward to strong results across all media.”
TORMENTED 3D centers on a young boy whose family seems to be unraveling around him. His sister is grappling with the reality of life or death, while his storybook illustrating father walks a line with insanity. The situation intensifies when the boy manifests a dangerous friendship with a stuffed toy rabbit that comes to life. Is he crazy or are they all delusional? Shimizu ventures once more into the terrifying corners of the mind where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred. This film marks his first collaboration with award winning director of photography Christopher Doyle who has previously worked with many other noted Asian directors including Wong Kar Wai.
THE SHOCK LABYRINTH 3D marked Japan’s first foray into the world of live-action 3-D feature films. The story follows a group of teenagers dealing with the disappearance of one of them, Yuki, at an amusement park’s ghost house. On a rainy day 10 years later, Yuki inexplicably returns. However, no sooner is she united with her former friends than she collapses, and the group rushes Yuki to a nearby hospital. But after checking in, they discover that things are not quite as they seem at the medical center. As the night wears on, the group sinks deeper and deeper into the events from a decade ago that led to Yuki’s disappearance.
Netflix is reuniting with Emilia Perez director Jacques Audiard on an adaptation of French horror novel La Nuit ravagée, Variety reports today.
The project is described as an elevated horror film based on the critically acclaimed horror novel by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo.
It’s set in “Saint-Auch, a fictional suburb on the outskirts of Toulouse in Southern France, in the early 1990s. It follows a group of teenagers drawn to an abandoned house that exerts a strange power on them. After one of their friends dies under disturbing circumstances, they decide to enter the house, not suspecting it’s alive with something supernatural. Once they enter it, it begins to feed on their private fears, desires, and traumas, turning their psychological vulnerabilities into something monstrous and inescapable.“
The French-language Netflix original marks Audiard’s first foray into horror.
The divisive Emilia Perez, Audiard’s Spanish-language musical crime drama, amassed 13 nominations at the 97th Academy Awards but also met with controversy when offensive tweets by star Karla Sofía Gascón during the film’s award campaign.
Del Amo’s source novel was published last year and has been described as an homage to ’80s and ’90s horror in the vein of Stephen King, though its social realism is what lends itself to the elevated horror concept and Audiard’s attachment to the project.
Stay tuned for more as it arrives.
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